On leaving school, Jean-Paul Squifflet succeeded the entrance exam to the Mons Mining School but, rather than becoming an engineer, like his father, he finally chose medicine. After studying at Namur and then Louvain, he graduated in 1970. An FNRS research mandate led him to become interested in the pathology of a transplant receiver. He began, at Louvain, a specialisation in surgery which led him to the Geneva canton hospital in Switzerland for a year.

When the first Belgian transplantation operations began, at the Saint-Luc University clinics, he joined the team of Professor Alexandre, of which he became first assistant in January 1978. He then devoted himself in particular to endocrinal surgery and renal transplantation. In 1981 he left to train at the Minneapolis hospital, in Minnesota (USA), before beginning the programme of pancreatic transplantation which would be launched at Saint-Luc: the first Belgian pancreas graft (75th in the world) took place on his return to this hospital.

In 1992, on the departure of Professor Alexandre, he became the head of the transplantation department. In 2005 he joined the Liège University Clinics, where he is joint head of department in the abdominal, endocrinal and transplant surgery department. There he is developing, along with Doctors Michel Meurisse and Olivier Detry, non beating heart organ removals. In 2007 he also got involved in the ‘Gift’ project, aimed at stimulating organ removals in intensive care centres. Professor Squifflet has been head of the Council of the Order of Brabant. He is the author or co-author of over 500 articles, and has over 730 conference presentations to his name.

Selection of publications

Moers C., Smits J., Maathuis M.-H., Treckmann J., Van Gelder F., Napieralski B., Van Kasterop-Kutz M., Homan van der Heide J., Squifflet J-P., Van Heurn E., Kirste G., Rahmel A., Leuvenick H., Paul A., Pirenne J., Ploeg R., Machine Perfusion or Cold Storage in Deceased-Donor Kidney Transplantation., N Engl J Med 2009; 360:7-19; 78-80.

Squifflet J-P., Gruessner R., Sutherland D., The History of Pancreas Transplantation : Past, Present and Futur, Acta chir. Belg. 2008.108 :367-378.

Detry O., Laureys S., Faymonville M-E., De Roover A., Squifflet J-P., Lamy M. and Meurisse M., Organ donation after physician assisted death, Transplant. International 2008, 21 :915. IF(2007) : 2,3.

Squifflet J-P., Presumed Consent : its application in Belgium, Transplantation annd immunology Letter, 2005 XXI (3) 6.7

Van Deynse D., Dumont V., Lecomte C., Squifflet J-P., Mourad M., Vershueren F., Dufrane D., Hantson P., Malaise, Non heart-Beating donor, Renewel of an Old procedure : a Belgian Experience, Transplant Proc. 37 2831-2822 (2005)

Pirson y., Squifflet J-P., Le Don de rein par un donneur vivant. Information destinée aux patients insuffisants rénaux et à leur entourage. , Ed J-P. Squifflet (2003).