91. The Replacements

The University of Minnesota Solid Organ Transplant program, established at UMN Twin Cities in the 1960s, boasts a list of firsts: kidney transplant (1963), pancreas transplant (1966), combined liver-kidney transplant (1981), combined liver-intestine transplant (1996), and breathing lung transplant (2013).

92. Matching Bone Marrow

Minnesota native and immunology pioneer Robert Good earned an M.D. and Ph.D. at UMN Twin Cities before joining the medical school faculty. In 1968, he performed the first successful bone marrow transplant using sophisticated matching techniques; previous attempts had been limited to identical twins. The infant subject, David Camp, was born with a rare and deadly immunodeficiency and received healthy bone marrow from a sister. Camp survived into adulthood.

93. A New Heart

Dr. Christiaan Barnard, a controversial South African doctor, trained in the 1950s in the UMN Twin Cities’ famed cardiac surgery program. In 1967, Barnard performed the first successful heart transplant in South Africa. The patient lived 18 days, but the pioneering surgery proved the path for future heart transplants. Below, Barnard is pictured (right) with chief of surgery Owen Wangensteen.

94. Inventing the Microtube X-ray

Thomas Rusch earned four degrees from UMN Twin Cities before pioneering a new form of breast-cancer treatment. His invention, the microtube X-ray, allows physicians to target tiny segments of cancerous cells with extreme precision, instead of blanketing a broad area with treatment.

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