1960

In this era of "Big Medicine," all parties agree that Wisconsin General Hospital is inadequate. Much political wrangling and internal debating ensues around whether to build across the street from Wisconsin General Hospital, on central campus, or to start from scratch on the west end of campus adjacent to the Veterans Hospital. A decision is finally made to head west.

1964

New McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research opens. The McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research was established as one of the first basic cancer research facilities in the world.

1966

UW Hospital transplant program and organ procurement programs established. 

1968

The world's first successful sibling-to-sibling bone marrow transplant performed simultaneously at UW and Minnesota. 

The Department of Family Medicine is formed.

Charles Mistretta creates digital subtraction angiography, a powerful computerized method that has become the gold standard for visualizing blood vessels.

1973

Medical physicist Charles Mistretta pioneers process combining X-ray and computer technology. Waisman Center on Mental Retardation and Human Development, named after renowned UW researcher Dr. Harry Waisman, is established.

1974

Dermatologist Derek Cripps helps develop the SPF (Sun Protection Factor) scale for rating sunscreen lotions.

1975

Howard Temin is named co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering reverse transcriptase, the enzyme that explains how retroviruses cause cancer and AIDS.

1978-mid-1980s

The new Clinical Science Center on west campus opens, bringing together modern inpatient and clinical services with Medical School, School of Nursing and School of Pharmacy training facilities. By far the largest construction project in the state’s history, it carries unprecedented opportunities for constituents of the Center for Health Sciences. Major remodeling follows on the central-campus Medical Sciences Center, which continues to house the basic science departments and the school’s preclinical education programs.

1987

UW surgeon Folkert Belzer and biochemist James Southard revolutionize transplant surgery with organ preservation solution. They and their clinical colleagues become world leaders in organ transplant operations.