Making History
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UCSF's Road to Discovery
UCSF began to develop its stellar research reputation in the 1920s when Karl F. Meyer established the only laboratory in the Western Hemisphere to study plague and encephalitis.
UCSF scientists also are credited with discovering vitamin E, developing new dysentery treatments, introducing new anesthetics, mass-producing a plague vaccine for World War II soldiers and establishing the nation's first cancer research center.
Now, 80 years later, the road of discovery has become long and distinguished - a fact underlined by the three Nobel prizes awarded UCSF scientists, including Chancellor Mike Bishop, in the last decade for seminal work in cancer and brain disease.
The new campus at Mission Bay, and the innovative research programs to take place there and at UCSF's other locations, represent the University's continuing commitment to advance the cause of human health well into the next century.
UCSF is the only University of California campus devoted solely to health and biomedical sciences. Today, with it fourfold mission of teaching, research, patient care and community service, UCSF is considered one of the world's premier health science institutions. Its schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy and its graduate division in the biological sciences all rank among the nation's top professional programs.
UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Children's Hospital are recognized throughout the world as leaders in health care, known for innovative medicine, advanced technology and compassionate care. For almost a century, the medical center has offered unparalleled medical treatment. Today, the medical center team consists of experts in virtually all conditions, including cancer, heart disease, infertility, neurological disorders, organ transplantation and orthopedics as well as special services for women and children.
What follows are some highlights:
1925
Karl F. Meyer originates protective measures that save the canning industry from botulism.
1928
Chauncey Leake establishes department of pharmacology and over next 15 years, helps to develop new treatments for dysentery, discovers amphetamines and introduces new type of anesthetics.
1959
John Clements and colleagues discover that the absence of a natural lung lubricant is cause of infant respiratory distress syndrome in premature infants.
1967
Hormone Research Laboratory moves from UC Berkeley to Parnassus campus under C.H. Li. Four years later, Li synthesizes human growth hormone.
1973
Herbert Boyer and Stanford colleague Stanley Cohen develop recombinant DNA technique (gene splicing) that revolutionizes biology and spawns the biotechnology industry.
1976
- J. Michael "Mike" Bishop and Harold Varmus discover oncogenes, cancer-causing genes whose normal functions have gone awry. The finding changes the way scientists look at cancer and leads to new strategies for cancer detection and treatment. Bishop and Varmus win the Nobel Prize in 1989.
- Researchers develop prenatal tests for sickle-cell anemia and thalassemia.
- Scientists develop an improved magnetic resonance imaging device for detecting and monitoring disease.
1977
Researchers develop liposomes, microscopic sacs that can safely transport drugs within the body.
1979
- The biotechnology company, Genentech, founded by Boyer, in collaboration with UCSF, develops synthetic human growth hormone.
- Using gene-mapping techniques, UCSF's Y.W. Kan and Judy Chang discover the single genetic mutation responsible for beta thalessemia, the most common form of a life-shortening blood disease.
- Researchers develop a cochlear implant device that brings hearing to the deaf.
1980
Building upon the findings of Clements, researchers create a synthetic lung surfactant that continues to save the lives of thousands of infants each year.
1981
- Physicians perform the fist successful fetal surgery.
- Researchers develop catheter ablation, a non-surgical technique that uses catheters and high-frequency radio waves to correct abnormally fast heart rhythms.
1982
- Stanley Prusiner proposes the existence of infectious proteins he labels prions and names them as culprits in certain human brain diseases. Prusiner wins the Nobel Prize in 1997.
- After William Rutter's seminal work with rat insulin, genetically engineered insulin goes on the market.
1986
FDA approves genetically engineered hepatitis B vaccine created by Rutter and colleagues.
1990
After discovering telemeres and telomerase, Elizabeth Blackburn comes to UCSF to pursue her work into the molecular events that control the mechanisms of cell health and longevity and that shed light on the processes of aging and cancer.
1994
Researchers develop a computer program that helps treat children with dyslexia and other learning disorders.
1995
Rod Phibbs and Kevin Shannon determine that the anemia drug erythropoetin, a mainstay in the treatment of kidney disease, can be used to avoid blood transfusions in premature, anemic newborns.
2002
An eight-year research effort by UCSF and military scientists produces the first drug that can be mass-produced to prevent or treat botulism, the paralyzing disease caused by a nerve toxin.
Last updated January 28, 2005
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