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A Century of Progress at Harvard Medical School
1906
The newly built Harvard Medical School quadrangle
is dedicated; the cost of its buildings, land and furnishings totaled just
under $3 million.
1907
The first quantitative blood chemistry, which is still
used during every routine blood examination, is developed.
1909
The first inbred mouse strain is developed, thereby introducing the use of
animal models of disease.
1912
A new method of measuring the clotting time of blood is devised; this technology
remains critical to the success of lengthy surgeries.
The
Peter B. Brigham Hospital opens just across the street from the new Quadrangle.
1914
The Robert B. Brigham Hospital is completed on nearby
Mission Hill.
The electrocardiograph is introduced to the United States.
The Children's Hospital comes to Longwood.
The bacterium that causes scarlet fever is discovered.
1919
A method to measure glucose is developed.
1924
The first partial valvulectomy for relief of mitral stenosis is performed.
1926
It is discovered that a liver diet cures pernicious anemia, one of the first
true cures.
The respirator, popularly known as the Iron Lung, is invented.
Vanderbilt Hall, the first medical school dormitory in the country, is constructed.
Beth Israel Hospital moves from Roxbury, where it was founded in 1917, to
Longwood.
1932 Rh blood factor incompatibility is described in newborns,
resulting in the
first exchange transfusion performed the following year.
1933 The discovery that
fluids and electrolytes must
be replaced in the body, which
happens daily in modern
Intensive Care Units, is made.
1934 The electroencephalograph
is developed.
1938 A prototype heart–lung machine is built.
1944 A human egg is
fertilized in a test tube for
the first time.
The Children’s Cancer Research Foundation is established
by Sydney Farber.
Chemotherapy
successfully puts a leukemia
patient into remission for the first time.
The Kolf–Brigham
artificial kidney machine is
developed.
1949
The first clinical use
of cortisone is demonstrated in
Addison’s disease.
The poliovirus is grown in
culture, making a vaccine
possible.
1950
The discovery that
vitamin A is essential for vision
is made.
1952
The cardiac
pacemaker is developed.
The first successful kidney transplant takes place.
1957
A test for the detection of syphilis is developed.
1960
The cardiac
defibrillator is invented.
1961
It is discovered
that implantable silicone
polymers can be used for
sustained release of drugs,
which becomes the basis for
the contraceptive Norplant.
1962
Electrical current is
first used to restore normal
rhythm to the heart.
The Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine opens.
1970
Immunologists
begin to discover a series of
genetic systems responsible
for allergies, transplant
rejection, and disease fighting.
The role of blood-vessel growth in tumor formation is
discovered.
1972
The Laboratory for
Human Reproduction and
Reproductive Biology is built.
1974
Phototherapy for
skin diseases, particularly
psoriasis, is developed.
1977
The Seeley
G. Mudd building is
constructed.
The hypothesis on how
information processing
occurs in the visual system
is proven.
Artificial skin is created.
1983
A genetic marker for
Huntington’s disease is discovered.
The “oncomouse,” which better mimics human
cancers, is created for testing
new therapies.
1988
A gene that causes
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is
discovered.
1990
Radio waves are used
for the first nonsurgical repair of a
heart arrhythmia.
1992
The Warren Alpert
Building opens.
1992
The discovery of the diphtheria
toxin’s structure is made, which
affords the discovery of a safer,
more economical vaccine.
The discovery of the diphtheria
toxin’s structure is made, which
affords the discovery of a safer,
more economical vaccine.
1993
The genetic mutation
responsible for 60 percent of
hereditary non-polyposis colon
cancer is discovered.
1994
The Goldenson
building is dedicated.
The MRI is first used to provide
rapid diagnosis of strokes.
Harvard Medical International
is created.
1995
The first cholera
vaccine is developed.
1996 The Giovanni
Armenise–Harvard Foundation
is launched.
1997
The Medical Education
Center is named for Daniel C.
Tosteson to honor his 20 years of
service as the Dean of Harvard
Medical School.
The discovery that the antiangiogenesis
agent endostatin
can shrink tumors in mice
without resulting in resistance to
the drug, is made.
The Institute for Chemistry and Cell Biology
is created.
1999
The Dana–Farber/Harvard Cancer
Center is
established with the largest
NCI comprehensive cancer
grant in history.
2000
The Armenise
building is dedicated.
The discovery that immune
system proteins have a role
in brain remodeling is made.
2001
The Harvard Center
for Neurodegeneration and
Repair is established.
The discovery of small
molecules that prevent anthrax toxins
from entering cells is made; this
discovery catalyzes efforts toward the
commercial development of potential therapies.
The New Research Building opens, the largest
research facility Harvard has
ever built.
The cellular pathway
that extends life through calorie
restriction is discovered.
The Broad Institute of Harvard and
MIT is established.
The New England Center of Excellence
for Biodefense and Emerging
Infectious Diseases is launched.
2004
The Harvard Stem Cell
Institute is founded.
2005
The optic nerve is
successfully re-grown in a mouse.
The haplotype map, which illustrates
the relationship between genetic
components and common diseases,
is completed.
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