81. The San Francisco Model of AIDS Care

Paul Volberding, a 1975 graduate of the UMN Twin Cities Medical School, rose to prominence during the AIDS crisis. On his first day at San Francisco General Hospital, Volberding encountered one of the city’s earliest AIDS patients. In 1983, Volberding and colleagues opened Ward 86, the nation’s first dedicated HIV clinic, helping create the “San Francisco model” of AIDS care.

82, 83. An Implantable Drug-Infusion Pump

In the early 1970s, diabetics needed constant intravenous injections of life-saving insulin. A UMN Twin Cities team dreamed up a better way to deliver the medicine: a permanent, implanted pump that could be replenished through a portal. University surgeons Henry Buchwald and Richard Varco led the team of doctors and mechanical engineers.

84. The First Dedicated Cardiac Hospital in North America

After World War II, heart disease emerged as a leading cause of death in America. In Minneapolis, a group of movie-theater owners banded together to help build a facility to treat children with heart conditions. This institution evolved into the Variety Club Heart Hospital, which opened in 1951 on the UMN Twin Cities campus: the first dedicated cardiac hospital in North America. The hospital became a center for clinical breakthroughs in treating heart conditions. In 1952, University surgeons led by F. John Lewis performed one of the world’s first successful open-heart operations.

85. Cross-Circulation

In 1954, C. Walton Lillehei pioneered “cross-circulation,” a technique to temporarily route a child patient’s blood through a parent, whose heart and lungs did the work for both while surgeons repaired the child’s heart. The technique helped keep children alive before heart-lung machines became reliable.

86. Mortuary Science

UMN Twin Cities is the only Big Ten school to offer mortuary science as a program of study. In 1908, the program consisted of one course lasting just six weeks. It has since expanded and become part of the Medical School.

87. K-rations and the Mediterranean Diet

UMN Twin Cities professor and physiologist Ancel Keys studied nutrition and founded the university’s Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene. During World War II, Keys developed the K-ration—a high-calorie balanced meal for soldiers that fit in a small waterproof carton. Keys was an early proponent of reducing saturated fat, a hypothesis that led him to popularize the resurgent Mediterranean Diet.

88. The Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research

In 1979, Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. launched a project designed to test the influence of genetics in identical twins raised apart. His research showed that identical twins raised in different homes showed remarkable similarities in personality, interests, attitudes, and measured intelligence. A decade later, researchers launched the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research, which expands on Bouchard’s work to conduct longitudinal studies of twins. Bouchard himself is not a twin; the photo above is a double exposure.

89. Magnetic Resonance Research

In the 1990s, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was an emerging diagnostic tool used in a clinical setting. MRI uses a powerful magnet to line up hydrogen protons in the body, then uses radio waves to briefly knock them out of alignment. As the protons relax back into place, they give off signals that a computer converts into detailed images of tissue. Stronger magnets can produce sharper images and reveal subtler details, including changes in brain activity. Early hospital versions of MRI provided low-resolution imagery, but researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Magnetic Resonance Research found a way to radically increase the detail captured in an MRI—by more than 4.5 times. And in developing the “functional MRI” or fMRI, they devised a method for capturing brain activity in real time, rather than a static image.

90. Stem-Cell-Based Treatments for Inherited Disorders

The Stem Cell Institute at the UMN Twin Cities was established in 2000 as the world’s first interdisciplinary institute dedicated to stem cell research, bringing researchers together across departments to study how the body’s “master cells” become blood, skin, muscle, nerves, and other tissues. The institute builds on Minnesota’s legacy in cell therapy, including Robert Good’s pioneering 1968 bone-marrow transplant and newer work using stem-cell-based treatments for inherited disorders.

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