Facts & Milestones
Here are just a few of the statistics and milestones telling the story of pioneering biomedical research at the University of Michigan and its Medical School.
University of Michigan
- $7+ billion endowment
- $1.27+ billion total research
- #1 public university in research spending (source: National Science Foundation)
- 451 endowed chairs
- 97 National Academy Members
- 350+ new invention disclosures per year
U-M Medical School
- $467 million medical research awards
- #10 Medical Research School in the United States, U.S. News & World Report
- Thousands of patients in active clinical studies
- 1.6+ million square feet laboratory space
- 23 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellows
- 50 Institute of Medicine Members
Milestones at the University of Michigan Medical School
| 1848 | The University of Michigan Medical School is founded. |
| 1869 | The world's first university medical school hospital is opened. |
| 1870 | U-M is the first state school to accept women on an equal basis with men. |
| 1941 | Department of Human Heredity is one of the first genetic programs in the U.S. |
| 1949 | James V. Neel proposes that individuals with sickle cell anemia are homozygous for an abnormal gene and that carriers have one normal and one abnormal gene. |
| 1951 | The first radioactive antibody to fight cancer administered anywhere in the world causes complete regression of a patient's melanoblastoma. |
| 1955 | Clinical studies of the Salk polio vaccine. |
| 1968 | Marshall Nirenberg shares the Nobel Prize for discoveries in the interpretation of the genetic code. |
| 1978 | Hamilton O. Smith receives the Nobel Prize for his work on DNA restriction enzymes. |
| 1980 | U-M is one of the first medical centers to introduce the insulin pump. |
| 1986 | David Kuhl and his team develop single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET). |
| 1989 | Francis S. Collins and colleagues clone the genes responsible for cystic fibrosis. |
| 1993 | Jeffrey Chamberlain and collaborators transfer a normal copy of the dsystrophin gene into transgenic mice with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and obtain a fully corrected phenotype. |
| 1995 | Gary Nabel and colleagues conduct the world's first human gene therapy protocol for AIDS. |
| 1996 | Jeffrey Punch and John Bromberg perform the first successful liver transplant from a living donor. |
| 2002 | Arul M. Chinnaiyan and colleagues identify gene that marks deadliest form of prostate cancer. |
| 2004 | Eva L. Feldman develops a clinical screening instrument used worldwide for the rapid diagnosis of diabetic neuropathy. |
| Today | U-M launches the North Campus Research Complex encompassing 28 buildings and over 170 acres. |
