Basic Research

The Academic Health Center is made up of seven professional schools and colleges (two medical schools; schools of dentistry, nursing, and public health; colleges of pharmacy and veterinary medicine), and more than 1400 investigators.  Annual research expenditures exceed $160 million.

Expertise

Widely recognized for leadership in cardiovascular medicine and organ and bone marrow transplantation among other fields, the Medical School has earned its share of "firsts" in the history of medicine. Some recent additions to that list include identification of the pathogen that causes Lyme disease, identification of the gene causing spinocerebellar ataxia, one of the world's first living-related donor bowel transplants, invention of a device that repairs the heart without surgery, transplantation of islet cells in the pancreas to treat diabetes, and the first gene therapy trial for Hunter's syndrome, a metabolic disorder.

The School of Public Health, long a leader in exploring dietary links to disease, is breaking ground with community programs to prevent substance abuse and violence, and also shaping public policy on health care issues.

The College of Pharmacy, ranked third in the nation, is leading its field with pharmaceutical care, a new career direction that brings pharmacists into the clinic with patients and physicians to prevent adverse drug effects.

At the School of Dentistry, faculty are working in partnership with industry to develop new technology and materials.

The College of Veterinary Medicine is conducting basic research in genetics and immunology that will have applications for both human and animal health. Outstanding programs among the Allied Health Professions include Medical Technology, which has more graduates than any other program in the U.S.

Resources

Research Facilities

• A new $62.7 million Basic Sciences and Biomedical Engineering Building, which brings together scientists from many disciplines to focus on neuroscience, immunology, structural biology, cellular and molecular biology, and biomedical engineering.
• The Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, a multi-million dollar facility overlooking the Mississippi River
• The Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics Center, a facility for manufacturing biological agents used in clinical trials
• The Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, where large bore nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers are used to image activity in the brain and other biological systems
• The Brain Sciences Center at the affiliated Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center (MVAMC), where innovative technology is used to study neuromuscular control, and MVAMC's Positrom Emission Tomography (PET) Center where clinically oriented imaging research is conducted in cardiology, neurology, and psychiatry.
• The Biomedical Engineering Institute
• The Institute of Human Genetics
• The Center for Immunology
• Research Animal Resources
• The Biomedical Imaging & Processing Lab

Academic Health Center Technology

Faculty disclose an average of 80-90 ideas annually for new health technologies, ranging from vaccines to dental materials. Patents are awarded to about 50 inventions a year, and more than 40 are licensed to biomedical companies. Annual royalty income is about $ 5 million.