Dr. Thomas E. Starzl was a transplant pioneer. A release at the request of the Starzl family by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center says Dr. Starzl died at the age of 90, Saturday at his home in Pittsburgh.

PITTSBURGH — Dr. Thomas Starzl, who pioneered liver transplant surgery in the 1960s and was a leading researcher into anti-rejection drugs, has died. He was 90.

The University of Pittsburgh, speaking on behalf of Starzl’s family, said the renowned doctor died Saturday at his home in Pittsburgh.

Starzl performed the world’s first liver transplant in 1963 and the world’s first successful liver transplant in 1967, and pioneered kidney transplantation from cadavers. He later perfected the process by using identical twins and, eventually, other blood relatives as donors.

Since Starzl’s first successful liver transplant, thousands of lives have been saved by similar operations.

“We regard him as the father of transplantation,” said Dr. Abhinav Humar, clinical director of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute. “His legacy in transplantation is hard to put into words — it’s really immense.”

Starzl joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1981 as professor of surgery, where his studies on the anti-rejection drug cyclosporin transformed transplantation from an experimental procedure into one that gave patients a hope they could survive an otherwise fatal organ failure.

It was Starzl’s development of cyclosporin in combination with steroids that offered a solution to organ rejection.

Until 1991, Starzl served as chief of transplant services at UPMC, then was named director of the University of Pittsburgh Transplantation Institute, where he continued research on a process he called chimerism, based on a 1992 paper he wrote on the theory that new organs and old bodies “learn” to coexist without immunosuppression drugs.

The institute was renamed in Starzl’s honor in 1996, and he continued as its director.

In his 1992 autobiography, “The Puzzle People: Memoirs of a Transplant Surgeon,” Starzl said he actually hated performing surgery and was sickened with fear each time he prepared for an operation.

Starzl’s other accomplishments included inventing a way to route blood around the liver during surgery to make possible the marathon hours required to complete operations involving that complex organ.

He also showed that “soldier cells” from the transplanted organ become “missionary cells” that travel throughout the new body, apparently helping the body accept the foreign organ.

Starzl helped develop with Dr. John Fung, his protégé at UPMC and successor as director of transplant surgery, the use of the experimental anti-rejection drug FK506, which paved the way to more complicated transplants of multiple organs. FK506 was discovered in a soil sample by Japanese researchers.

In September 1990, at age 65, Starzl put away his scalpel for good.

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald called Starzl “a true Pittsburgh icon and hero,” whose research had worldwide impact.

“The number of lives which were, and continue to be transformed, by Dr. Starzl’s groundbreaking work are immeasurable,” he said.

Starzl was born March 11, 1926, in LeMars, Iowa. His mother was a nurse and his father was the publisher of the local newspaper. Starzl’s uncle, the late Frank Starzel, was general manager of The Associated Press from 1948 to 1962.

Starzl is survived by his wife of 36 years, Joy Starzl, his son, Timothy, and a grandchild.