March 1, 1945: Governor Monard C. Wallgren signs Medical-Dental Bill to authorize the formation of UW schools of Medicine and Dentistry.
Oct. 2, 1946: First entering class of UW medical students start classes. The school is under the leadership of founding dean Edward Turner. Classrooms and offices are located at King County Hospital and huts on campus.
March 5, 1947: Ground broken for Health Sciences Building on former golf course situated on north bank of Montlake Cut.
Aug. 16, 1947: Children’s Orthopedic Board of Trustees approves development of a teaching affiliation with UW School of Medicine.
Sept. 20, 1951: UW medical students train in surgery at Seattle Veterans Administration Hospital, shortly after the hospital affiliated with UW medical school.
Nov. 10, 1955: Dr. Edmond Fischer and Dr. Edwin Krebs submit for publication a description of reversible protein phosphorylation, work that garners 1992 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
June 12, 1956: Ground broken for University Hospital.
July 1, 1956: Division of Medical Genetics opens in Department of Medicine as one of first units of its kind in America.
May 4, 1959: University Hospital (now University of Washington Medical Center) opens.
July 15, 1959: Comprehensive rehabilitation inpatient program established at University Hospital.
March 9, 1960: At University Hospital, world’s first long-term dialysis patient treated on artificial kidney.
July 1, 1960: First patient admitted to Clinical Research Center at University Hospital.
Aug. 12, 1960: As visiting professor, Dr. E. Donnall Thomas performs bone marrow transplant at University Hospital. He later receives 1990 Nobel Prize for cell transplantation work.
Jan. 3, 1961: Multidisciplinary Pain Clinic opens at University Hospital and soon is world model for diagnosis, study and treatment of chronic and acute pain.
April 25, 1961: Biochemist Dr. Hans Neurath becomes first UW School of Medicine faculty member elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Oct. 23, 1963: Committee appointed to envisage qualities medical school expects in its graduates. Their deliberations result in major curriculum revisions, which include organ systems approach to teaching.
Dec. 30, 1963: UW reports chemical structure of trypsin to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is the first description of the structure of an enzyme that breaks apart proteins.
May 27, 1967: Primary Care Physician Curricular Change Subcommittee files its report, thereby initiating medical school’s national leadership in educating generalists.
March 7, 1970: Medic One goes into operation as an on-the-scene, emergency response system for heart attacks and other medical crises. It is a model for emergency response systems around the world.
April 12, 1970: World’s first artificial gut patient begins life-saving treatment with total parenteral nutrition at University Hospital.
Sept. 1, 1970: Division of Family Medicine founded, the beginning of family practice as a discipline at the UW.
Nov. 13, 1970: Commonwealth Fund of New York City grant of nearly $1 million for proposal, “Regionalization of Medical Education in the Pacific Northwest,” secures start of WAMI Program. WAMI becomes a national model for decentralized medical education and cooperation among states to conserve scarce resources.
Dec. 17, 1970: Institute of Medicine forms with Dr. Paul Beeson as a charter member.
March 29, 1971: After precepting UW medical students in rural family medicine for some years, Family Medical Center in Omak, Wash., and Yakima Valley Clinic in Grandview, Wash., officially become first community clinical training sites in the WAMI Program.
Sept. 8, 1971: As University of Alaska-Fairbanks starts its academic year, it welcomes its first WAMI students who are taking first-year medical school classes. Alaska is first home-state university site for WAMI Program.
May 5, 1972: UW and Washington State University formalize a cooperative medical student teaching program between the two institutions.
June 7, 1972: University of Idaho signs a subcontract with the UW to teach WAMI first-year medical students.
July 3, 1972: NIH grant awarded for medical school to plan satellite communications for long-distance, interactive learning and patient consultations.
July 11, 1972: Regents of Montana University system vote to participate in WAMI Program and make Montana State University site of first-year medical classes.
Sept. 1, 1972: Treasure Valley community clinical training site for obstetrics and gynecology officially opens as part of Idaho WAMI Program.
June 9, 1973: In The Lancet, UW birth defects researchers call worldwide attention to the serious and lasting harm drinking during pregnancy can have on the unborn child.
June 29, 1973: UW researchers publish response to injury hypothesis on origin of atherosclerosis in Science. Theory sparks blood vessel research around the world.
March 1, 1974: In Transactions in Biomedical Engineering, UW researchers publish first reports of ultrasonic duplex scanning for arterial and venous disorders, an advance that furthers UW’s leadership in diagnostic ultrasound.
April 15, 1974: UW researchers publish findings of a factor that stimulates abnormal proliferation of smooth muscle cells of the artery. Named platelet-dependent growth factor at its discovery, it is later found in cancer cells and cells that repair wounds.
July 2, 1974: Burn Center at Harborview Medical Center receives first patients. It is now a leading center for surgical management of burn wounds.
Oct. 1, 1974: Regionalized pediatric care system created with burn and trauma treatment at Harborview, perinatology at University Hospital, developmental disability care at the Child Development and Mental Retardation Center, and inpatient, emergency, and specialty clinics at Children’s Orthopedic Hospital.
Feb. 17, 1975: State of Washington passes Family Practice Education Act and funds a statewide family practice residency network.
June 25, 1977: First group of first-year residents enter two new primary-care training tracks in internal medicine.
June 30, 1978: WAMI Program becomes self-sustaining. Each state supports first-year medical courses, instruction for its students at UW, and clinical teaching sites.
Aug. 1, 1978: Geriatric and Family Services Clinic opens for elderly people with Alzheimer’s and other conditions associated with aging, and to help relatives and caregivers.
March 14, 1980: First endowed chair at UW medical school created in memory of Dr. Robert H. Williams, founding chair of Department of Medicine.
June 5, 1981: Report of Curriculum Review Committee accepted. Major overhaul of M.D. degree curriculum gives all students the same core education and training.
Feb. 3, 1984: Reports of first isolation of a calcium channel submitted for publication. The molecule couples electrical signals to other regulators of cell activities.
Sept. 6, 1984: Paper appears in Nature describing expression of human growth hormone in transgenic mice, first report of a foreign gene incorporated into fertilized eggs, functional in resulting offspring, and inherited by next generation.
Oct. 1, 1985: WAMI Area Health Education Centers program funded to train, recruit and retain health personnel for medically underserved areas.
Dec. 2, 1985: First clinical tests of erythropoietin (EPO), first blood growth factor manufactured through recombinant DNA, to correct anemia of kidney failure.
Oct. 1, 1986: Positron emission tomograph (PET) installed. UW is among first medical centers nationwide with a cyclotron, magnetic resonance imager, and PET at one site.
June 24, 1988: In Science, UW hearing researchers publish first report of inner ear cell regeneration in birds. Before, hearing nerve damage was considered permanent in all adult, land animals with spines.
Sept. 16, 1988: The Turner Society, the School of Medicine’s dean’s club, forms in memory of founding dean Edward L. Turner.
Dec. 16, 1988: Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center established through $7 million gift from Prentice Bloedel in honor of his wife.
May 8, 1989: Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program sends its first medical students to small towns to acquaint them with practice in physician shortage areas.
Sept. 30, 1990: At end of National Institutes of Health 1990 fiscal year, UW medical school for first time exceeds $100 million in NIH grants. The school consistently ranks in top five in federal funding for research.
Oct. 8, 1990: Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, professor of medicine at the UW and a scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, receives Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for pioneering bone marrow transplants.
Nov. 10, 1990: Class of 1965 announces creation of 25th Reunion Endowment to assist medical education programs. Subsequent 25th reunion classes contribute.
July 1, 1992: UW health sciences administration reorganized. Medical school and its owned and managed hospitals are consolidated under one administrative structure, with dean of medicine serving as vice president for medical affairs.
Oct. 12, 1992: Dr. Edmond Fischer and Dr. Edwin Krebs awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for work on protein phosphorylation, a biochemical on/off switch in living cells.
March 17, 1993: For first time, percentage of UW graduating medical school students matching to primary-care residencies exceeds 50 per cent.
April 14, 1993: Novo Nordisk/ZymoGenetics, Inc., establishes Earl W. Davie/ZymoGenetics Endowed Chair in Biochemistry with a $2 million gift. The first chair created by a biotechnology company recognizes Davie’s breakthroughs in discovering and genetically engineering blood clotting factors.
June 16, 1994: UW and ZymoGenetics scientists report in Nature the discovery, isolation, and cloning of thrombopoietin, elusive factor that stimulates production of platelets, blood cells crucial to clotting.
June 22, 1994: UW Medical Center becomes nation’s first to be certified as Magnet Hospital for nursing excellence by American Nurses Credentialing Center.
Sept. 30, 1994: Federal funds granted for Medical Education Research Center at UW, one of first two in the nation. Center studies physician training issues as the basis for policy decisions.
June 5, 1995: K Wing (now called Fialkow Pavilion) of Health Sciences Center opens. It is only significant increment in medical school research space in more than 20 years
October 5, 1995: Montana establishes state’s first graduate medical education program, Montana Family Practice Residency.
November 21, 1995: Researchers submit initial results on work on breast cancer immunology that later leads to formation of Tumor Vaccine Group.
March 20, 1996: Wyoming becomes fifth state in UW medical school’s regional medical education program by joining with long-time partner states Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho.
September 22, 1997: Life-like Patient Simulation Center, modeled after flight simulators, readies medical students for real-life anesthesia emergencies.
January 7, 1998: First medical students participate in WWAMI Rural Integrated Training Experience to obtain several months of clinical education in a small town. Libby, Mont.; Othello, Wash; Hailey, Idaho, and Sandpoint, Idaho become first WRITE towns.
July 1, 1998: Alaska Family Practice Residency starts its first day training new physicians in first and still only residency program in Alaska.
June 12, 2000: Research suggests HER-2/neu vaccine targeting breast and ovarian tumors might stimulate immune response in some cancer patients
March 13, 2000: Division of Neurogenetics opens in Department of Neurology to study and treat inherited diseases of brain and nervous system
Sept. 6, 2000: Gene and Cell Therapy Core Laboratory opens at UW General Clinical Research Center.
October 16, 2000: $10 million grant awarded from Programs for Genomic Applications to study genetic variation, and genetic variants in disease resistance and susceptibility.
November 19, 2000: Researchers report statin and niacin treatment reduces risk of heart attacks and may reverse plaque build-up in blood vessels.
October 30, 2000: Hepatitis C Cooperative Research Center established.
December 11, 2000: UW becomes federally funded Center of Excellence in Gene Therapy Research.
February 12, 2001: Computational method called Rosetta proven successful in predicting 3-D structure of protein from its linear amino acid sequence.
February 22, 2001: UW joins national consortium of institutions in studying health in space travelers.
September 25, 2001: UW Genome Center established.
October 8, 2001: Leland Hartwell shares Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discoveries of key regulators of cell cycle.
October 31, 2001: Department of Genetics and Department of Molecular Biotechnology consolidate into Department of Genome Sciences.
June 27, 2002: Gene necessary for development of type 1 diabetes in rats is also found in humans.
July 1, 2002: College System established to give more personalized medical education in basic clinical skills and professionalism
July 17, 2002: Seattle researchers begin study of mechanisms and markers of spread of prostate cancer.
September 12, 2002: Gene therapy shown to reverse muscular dystrophy in mice.
March 26, 2002: Study links genes to success of high blood pressure treatment with diuretics.
September 3, 2003: UW Medicine launches South Lake Union research hub
September 4, 2003: WWAMI Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases established.
March 12, 2004: Efforts begin to establish Seattle Vaccine and Immunization Research Center multi-institution partnership to develop vaccines for infectious diseases of world significance, such as AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, and cancers related to infection.
August 31, 2004: UW begins study of implications of genomics in medically underserved populations.
July 24, 2004: Delivery method found for dystrophin gene therapy that reaches all voluntary muscles in mice and reverses muscle wasting of muscular dystrophy.
October 4, 2004: Linda Buck becomes seventh woman in history to receive Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine; she shares prize for discoveries of odorant receptors and organization of the olfactory system.
May 27, 2005: Genetic factor responsible for patient variability in warfarin response identified.
January 16, 2006: Department of Global Health, jointly operated by UW School of Medicine and UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine, created.
February 16, 2006: Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine established.
2006: HPV vaccine, shown effective in preventing certain types of cervical cancers, is approved for administration to young women.
2006: A gene linked to type of pancreatic cancer that runs in families is discovered.