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Minnesota Life Science History

The following includes select facts from life science history, both global and Minnesota state specific, that help explain the origins of the state's life science industry. Please note that these facts are part of a much larger state-specific history database that will be launched in the near future. In the meantime, we encourage you to learn about the scientists behind the discoveries, the entrepreneurs, philanthropists, political leaders, and significant events, institutions and companies that are the foundation of the life science industry in the state of Minnesota.

If you are aware of a notable event, person, organization/company or accomplishment that we should include, please e-mail us at: Suggestions@InfoResource.org


1848 -- American Association for the Advancement of Science was founded.

American Association for the Advancement of Science American Association for the Advancement of Science founded in 1848 marked the emergence of a national scientific community in the United States, and was the first organization established to promote the development of science and engineering at the national level and to represent the interests of all its disciplines.

Today, the AAAS serves nearly 300 affiliated societies and academies of science and publishes the peer-reviewed general science journal Science. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives that include science policy, international programs, science education, and public understanding of science.


1851 -- University of Minnesota was founded as a preparatory school.

University of Minnesota, Pillsbury Hall In 1851, the University of Minnesota (UM) was founded as a preparatory school, but financial problems forced it's closure during the Civil War. In 1867, it reopened with the help of Minneapolis entrepreneur John Sargent Pillsbury, who later was a University regent, state senator, and governor who used his influence to establish the school through the Morrill Land-Grant Act, as Minnesota's land-grant university.

Today, the University of Minnesota, has four campuses, and is one of the most comprehensive universities in the U.S., and is a major research institution, with scholars and technology development of national and international reputation.


1859 -- Charles Darwin published "The Origin of Species."

Charles Darwin, 1855 In 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life" in which he postulated his theory of evolution that explained how the diverse of species on Earth evolved from a simple, singled-celled ancestor.

Darwin's theory of evolutionary selection holds that variation within species occurs randomly and that the survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that organism's ability to adapt to its environment. Darwin's theory of evolution remains the foundation of modern biology.



1865 -- Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics, presented his laws of heredity.

Gregor Mendel Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian considered the father of modern genetics, conducted crossbreeding experiments with pea plants between 1856 and 1863. Through this work, he established many of the rules of heredity.

"In 1859 I obtained a very fertile descendant with large, tasty seeds from a first generation hybrid. Since in the following year, its progeny retained the desirable characteristics and were uniform, the variety was cultivated in our vegetable garden, and many plants were raised every year up to 1865. (Gregor Mendel to Carl Nägeli, April 1867).



1887 -- Marine Hospital Service Hygienic Laboratory (National Institutes of Health) was founded.

Joseph Kinyoun The National Institutes of Health (NIH) traces its roots to 1887, when a one-room laboratory was created within the Marine Hospital Service (MHS), predecessor agency to the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS). The MHS was established in 1798 to provide for the medical care of merchant seamen -- charged by Congress with examining passengers on arriving ships for clinical signs of infectious diseases, such as cholera and yellow fever, to prevent epidemics.

During the 1870s and 1880s, scientists in Europe presented compelling evidence that microscopic organisms were the causes of several infectious diseases, and MHS officials closely followed these developments. In 1887, Joseph Kinyoun, a MHS physician trained in the new bacteriological methods, set up a one-room laboratory in the Marine Hospital at Stapleton, Staten Island, New York. Kinyoun called this facility a "laboratory of hygiene" in imitation of German facilities, and within a few months, he identified the cholera bacillus and used his Zeiss microscope to demonstrate it to his colleagues as confirmation of their clinical diagnoses (Photo: courtesy of the NIH Almanac).


1902 -- Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. was founded.

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. (3M) founded by five businessmen in Two Harbors, MN to mine mineral deposits for grinding-wheel abrasives. The venture was unsuccessful and the company relocated to nearby Duluth to develop sandpaper products. In the early 1920s, 3M produced world's first waterproof sandpaper which reduced airborne dusts during automobile manufacturing, and in 1925 lab assistant Richard G. Drew invented masking tape a first step toward diversification and the first of many Scotch® pressure-sensitive tapes.

In the 1940s and 1950s, 3M expanded into new markets including reflective sheeting for highway markings, magnetic sound recording tape, filament adhesive tape, offset printing plates, dry-silver microfilm, carbonless papers, overhead projection systems, and a rapidly growing new health care business of medical and dental products. In the 1970s and 1980s 3M expanded into pharmaceuticals, radiology and energy control, and the well known Post-it® Notes.

Today, 3M Health Care, the largest of seven major 3M businesses, is dedicated to improving the practice, delivery and outcome of care in medical, dental, pharmaceutical, health information and personal care markets. 3M Drug Delivery Systems Division, part of the 3M Health Care family, is a global leader in the development of inhalation and transdermal technologies. As the creator of the first metered-dose inhaler, the division's history spans more than 50 years of medical innovation as a true pioneer of these technologies in both components as well as total drug delivery systems.


1902 -- The Biologics Control Act was established.

Dr. Joseph J. Kinyoun, NIH The Biologics Control Act, established in 1902, had major consequences for the Hygienic Laboratory. It charged the laboratory with regulating the production of vaccines and antitoxins, making it a regulatory agency four years before passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act. The danger posed by biological products that had emerged from bacteriologic discoveries resulted from their production in animals and their administration by injection. In 1901, thirteen children in St. Louis died after receiving diphtheria antitoxin contaminated with tetanus spores. This tragedy spurred Congress to pass the Biologics Control Act, and between 1903-1907 standards were established and licenses issued to pharmaceutical firms for making smallpox and rabies vaccines, diphtheria and tetanus antitoxins, and various other antibacterial antisera. (In 1972, responsibility for regulation of biologics was transferred to the Food and Drug Administration).

Marine Hospital Service seal The Marine Hospital Service (MHS), established in 1798, was reorganized in 1912 and renamed the Public Health Service (PHS). The PHS was authorized to conduct research into noncontagious diseases and into the pollution of streams and lakes in the U.S. During World War I, the PHS attended primarily to sanitation of areas around military bases in the U.S., and when the 1918 influenza pandemic struck Washington, physicians from the laboratory were pressed into service treating patients in the District of Columbia because so many local doctors had fallen ill.


1902 -- Archer-Daniels-Midland Company was founded.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (ADM) was founded in Minnespolis as a linseed crushing business in 1902 by George A. Archer and John W. Daniels. In 1923, Archer-Daniels Linseed Company acquired Midland Linseed Products Company, and the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company was formed. In 1969, ADM moved its corporate headquarters and research laboratory to Decatur, Illinois.

Today, ADM is a world leader in agricultural processing and one of the world's largest processors of soybeans, corn, wheat and cocoa. ADM is also a leader in the production of soy meal and oil, ethanol, corn sweeteners, flour, and value-added food and feed ingredients.


1914 -- The Mayo Clinic was established.

Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic evolved gradually from the frontier practice of Dr. William Worrall Mayo and his two sons, William J. and Charles H. Mayo. Mayo Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization based in Rochester, Minnesota. Its mission is to provide the best care to every patient every day through integrated clinical practice, education and research.

More than five million people have been treated at Mayo Clinic since its frontier founding. Today it encompasses three clinics and four hospitals in three states, employing more than 34,000 physicians, scientists, nurses and allied health workers.


1918 -- Spanish Influenza Pandemic.

Spanish Flu, 1918 It is estimated that between 25 and 40 million people died from the the influenza outbreak that began in 1918, swept across America in a week and around the world in three months. In all, between 500,000 and 700,000 Americans --civilians and soldiers-- died from the influenza, more than were lost in World War I, II, and the Korean and Viet Nam wars combined.

On September 29, civilian, military, and school officials jointly declared that influenza had made its way into Minneapolis. The first case, which appeared on September 27, was later identified in a man who had visited his son in Camp Dix, New Jersey. Approximately 150 cases were reported in the city, the vast majority among cadets and soldiers from University of Minnesota Student Army Training Corps units or the small detachment at the Dunwoody Institute Training Camp.

By the first days of October, Minneapolis’s civilian and military authorities estimated approximately 1,000 cases of influenza, which included over 500 sick army soldiers at Fort Snelling Hospital. By October 19, the number of cases in the city had reached nearly 3,000. In Minneapolis, the epidemic was slowly declining. On October 27, only 39 new civilian cases of influenza were reported, by far the lowest number since the early days of the epidemic. Minneapolis’s influenza measures were lifted on Friday, November 15. But by early-December, the city once again began experiencing a rise in cases, common in cities throughout the Midwest and West. Over the course of January, the influenza situation in the Twin Cities steadily improved. Using the official U.S. Census Bureau influenza and pneumonia death counts from the beginning of the fall wave of the epidemic through the end of February 1919, Minneapolis had an excess death rate of 267 per 100,000.

Additional information about the Spanish influenza pandemic, including audio interviews, photographs, teacher guides and more can be found through the The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919: A Digital Encyclopedia, PBS's The American Experience, and Centers for Disease Control, National Vaccine Program Office.


1921 -- Minnesota Cooperative Creameries Association (Land O'Lakes) founded.

Land O'Lakes In 1921, representatives from 320 Minnesota co-op creameries met in St. Paul to establish the Minnesota Cooperative Creameries Association (Land O'Lakes) to help the creameries boost the price they receive for their butter by improving quality and by strengthening the creameries' marketing efforts. In 1924, a contest was held to find a name for the new, sweet cream butter being marketed by the Association and "Land O'Lakes" was selected as the winning name.

In 1926, the popularity of the Land O'Lakes name prompted the Association to change its name to Land O'Lakes Creameries, Inc. Today, Land O'Lakes extends its reach from coast-to-coast and to more than 50 countries worldwide.


1930 -- The name of the Hygienic Laboratory was changed to the National Institute of Health.

Dr. Joseph J. Kinyoun, NIH In 1930, the Ransdell Act changed the name of the Hygienic Laboratory to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and authorized the establishment of fellowships for research into basic biological and medical problems. The roots of this act extended to 1918, when chemists who had worked with the Chemical Warfare Service in World War I sought to establish an institute in the private sector to apply fundamental knowledge in chemistry to problems of medicine.


1933 -- Thomas Hunt Morgan was awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his chromosome theory of heredity.

Thomas Hunt Morgan Thomas Hunt Morgan pioneered the new science of genetics through experimental research with the fruit fly (Drosophila), laying the foundations for the future of biology. On the basis of fly-breeding experiments he demonstrated that genes are linked in a series on chromosomes and that they determine indentifiable, hereditary traits.

In 1928, Thomas Hunt Morgan transferred to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to organize work in biology, and five years later he was awarded the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his chromosome theory of heredity. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)



1937 -- The National Cancer Institute was created.

National 
    Cancer Institue

In 1937, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) was created with sponsorship from every Senator in Congress, and was authorized to award grants to nonfederal scientists for research on cancer and to fund fellowships at NCI for young researchers.

Today, the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, is the federal government's principal agency for cancer research and training.


1944 -- Public Health Service Act was established.

Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center The 1944 Public Health Service Act defined the shape of medical research in the post-war world. The entire NIH budget expanded from $8 million in 1947 to more than $1 billion in 1966, now fondly remembered as "the golden years" of NIH expansion. The 1944 PHS Act authorized NIH to conduct clinical research, and after the war Congress provided funding to build a research hospital, now called the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The Center which opened in 1953 with 540 beds was designed to bring research laboratories into close proximity with hospital wards in order to promote productive collaboration between laboratory scientists and clinicians.

The NIH today, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research and is composed of 27 Institutes and Centers, providing leadership and financial support to researchers in every state and throughout the world.


1947 -- Transistor was invented at AT&T's Bell Laboratories.

John Bardeen William Shockley Walter Brattain The transistor, the invention that marked the dawn of the information age, was invented by John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain at AT&T's Bell Laboratories. Bardeen, Shockley and Brattain were awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of the transistor effect.

Transistors have become an invisible technology that is part of almost every electronic device. Every major information age innovation was made possible by the transistor and its application can be found all around us.

Brattain received his B.S. degree from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA and a M.A. degree from the University of Oregon. (Photos: © The Nobel Foundation)


1949 -- Medtronic was founded.

Medtronic In 1949, Earl E. Bakken and and his brother-in-law Palmer Hermundslie form Medtronic to repair electronic hospital equipment, based on Earl's part-time work at Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. Earl, an electrical engineering graduate student at the University of Minnesota left his graduate studies, Palmer quit his job with a local lumber firm, and together they moved into 600-square-foot garage in northeast Minneapolis. In the early 1950s, the company's revenues came from sales of other manufacturers' products, but researchers frequent requests for modifed equipment and new specialiazed testing devices resulted in the company building custom-made products including external defibrillators, forceps, an animal respirator, a cardiac rate monitor, and a physiologic stimulator.

In the mid-1950s, Bakken's acquaintance with Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, a pioneer in open heart surgery at the University of Minnesota Medical School, lead to the development a new kind of wearable, external, battery-powered pacemaker -- the beginning of a new era in the therapeutic application of electrical technology for patients around the world. In 1960, Medtronic acquired exclusive rights to produce and market the new Chardack-Greatbatch implantable pulse generator from Drs. William Chardack and Andrew Gage at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Buffalo, New York, and at the same time significantly expanded sales offices throughout the United States and Canada.

Today, Medtronic is a global leader in medical technology, alleviating pain, restoring health and extending life for millions of people around the world with its Headquarters in Minneapolis and regional headquarters in Switzerland and Japan, the company employs approximately 32,000 people worldwide.


1953 -- Double helix structure of DNA was revealed.

James D. Watson Francis Crick Maurice Wilkins The double helix structure of DNA, the hereditary molecule is revealed by two scientists, James D. Watson and Francis Crick. This is one of the key discoveries of the century. Watson and Crick shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine with Maurice Wilkins for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nuclear acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.

Rosalind Franklin, whose work contributed to the discovery, died before this date and the rules do not allow a Nobel Prize to be awarded posthumously. (Photos: © The Nobel Foundation)


1958 -- Integrated circuit was invented.

Photo of Jack Kilby, inventor of the integrated circuit. Jack Kilby, an engineer at Texas Instruments shows only a transistor and other components on a slice of germanium. This invention (7/16-by-1/16-inches in size), called an integrated circuit, revolutionized the electronics industry. Kilby was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the integrated circuit. (Photo: Jack Kilby courtesy of Texas Instruments)

Jack Kilby went on to pioneer military, industrial, and commercial applications of microchip technology. He headed teams that built both the first military system and the first computer incorporating integrated circuits. He later co-invented both the hand-held calculator and the thermal printer that was used in portable data terminals. Mr. Kilby officially retired from TI in 1983, but he maintained a significant involvement with the company throughout his life.


1961 -- President John F. Kennedy expanded the U.S. Space Program

President John F. Kennedy expands U.S. Space Program Listen to President John F. Kennedy's speech in his historic message to a joint session of the Congress, on May 25, 1961 declared, "...I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." This goal was achieved when astronaut Neil A. Armstrong became the first human to set foot upon the Moon at 10:56 p.m. EDT, July 20, 1969. Shown in the background are, (left) Vice President Lyndon Johnson, and (right) Speaker of the House Sam T. Rayburn. The expansion of the U.S. Space Program resulted in the development of a wide range of technology with enormous benefit to human and animal kind. (Photo: courtesy National Aeronautics & Space Administration)


1968 -- University of Minnesota team performed the first successful human bone marrow transplant.

Dr. Robert A. Good In 1968, A University of Minnesota team lead by Robert Alan Good performed the first successful human bone marrow transplant between persons who were not identical twins and is regarded as a founder of modern immunology. Good, born in Crosby, Minnesota, attended the University of Minnesota and its medical school, receiving a B.A. degree in 1944, and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in 1947.


1969 -- Man walked on the moon.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon. In July of 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, American astronauts, made history by becoming the first men to walk on the moon. Listen to Neil Armstrong's first words as he steps onto the lunar surface (66 kb .wav file). Photo: Courtesy of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration)

An important benefit of the Apollo Lunar Program and other NASA programs is the ever-growing pipeline of technology that improves human and veterinary healthcare diagnostics and therapeutics.


1969 -- Victor McKusick published "Mendelian Inheritance in Man".

Victor McKusick Victor McKusick, widely acknowledged as the father of medical genetics, spent his career studying the genetic basis of diseases and disorders with the belief that such an understanding could lead to new methods of diagnosis and treatment. He studied, identified, and mapped genes responsible for inherited conditions such as Marfan syndrome and dwarfism (specifically in Amish communities). In 1969, he proposed the idea of mapping the human genome, over 30 years before the Human Genome Project was established.

McKusick, a graduate of Johns Hopkins (M.D. 1946), spent his entire career there and founded the Division of Medical Genetics in 1957, the first research center and clinic of its kind. In 1969 he published the 1st edition of his book "Mendelian Inheritance of Man", one of the most comprehensive collections of inherited disease genes. In 2002, McKusick received the highest scientific honor in the U.S., the National Medal of Science.


1970 -- Norman Borlaug was awarded Nobel Peace Prize.

Norman Borlaug Norman Borlaug, University of Minnesota graduate, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for leading the efforts to improve wheat varieties and introduce them around the world. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)

Born of Norwegian descent, Dr. Borlaug was raised in Cresco, Iowa, a small farming community in northeast Iowa. He learned his work ethic on a small mixed crop and livestock family farm and obtained initial education in a one-room rural school house. In 1944, Dr. Borlaug participated in the Rockefeller Foundation's pioneering technical assistance program in Mexico, where he was a research scientist in charge of wheat improvement. It was on the research stations and farmers' fields of Mexico that Dr. Borlaug developed successive generations of wheat varieties with broad and stable disease resistance, broad adaptation to growing conditions across many degrees of latitude, and with exceedingly high yield potential.

These new wheat varieties and improved crop management practices transformed agricultural production in Mexico during the 1940's and 1950's and later in Asia and Latin America, sparking what today is known as the "Green Revolution." Because of his achievements to prevent hunger, famine and misery around the world, it is said that Dr. Borlaug has "saved more lives than any other person who has ever lived." (Courtesy of The World Food Prize Foundation).


1971 -- NASDAQ Stock Market was founded.

NASDAQ Stock Market was founded as the world's first electronic stock market by the National Association of Securities Dealers. The NASDAQ system, created by the Bunker Ramos Corp. allowed the financial community, for the first time, to determine which market offered the best price on a given security.


1971 -- President Nixon declared war on cancer creating the Cancer Centers Program of the National Cancer Institute.

On Dec. 23, 1971, the National Cancer Act of 1971, enacted by President Richard Nixon as part of the nation’s war on cancer, established the Cancer Centers Program of the National Cancer Institute. The National Cancer Act, "The War on Cancer," gave the NCI unique autonomy at NIH with special budgetary authority. The annual budget of NCI, called the bypass budget, be submitted directly to the president, bypassing traditional approval by the NIH or the Department of HHS required of other NIH institutes.


1973 -- Recombinant DNA was perfected.

Stanley Cohen The modern era of biotechnology begins when Stanley Cohen of Stanford University and Herbert Boyer of the University of California at San Francisco successfully recombined ends of bacterial DNA after splicing a toad gene in between. They called their accomplishment recombinant DNA, but the media preferred the term genetic engineering. (Photo: Courtesy Stanley Cohen)

Boyer and Cohen's achievement was an advancement upon the techniques developed by Paul Berg, in 1972, for inserting viral DNA into bacterial DNA. Cohen's research at Stanford was with plasmids—the nonchromosomal, circular units of DNA found in, and exchanged by, bacteria, while Boyer's was restriction enzymes produced by bacteria to counter invasion by bacteriophages.


1974 -- Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) was enacted.

Jacob Javits Pete Williams John N. Erlenborn, the ranking Republican on the House Committee, was responsible for bringing the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to a floor vote, and is one of the ERISA’s "Founding Fathers." Together with Senator Jacob Javits (R-NY), Senator Pete Williams (D-NJ) and Congressman John Dent (D-PA), Erlenborn crafted provisions and participated in negotiations that were instrumental to the enactment of ERISA which was - and remains - the single most important legislation governing employee benefit plans in the United States creating a growing source of new capital. (Photos: Jacob Javits and Pete Williams courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office).


1975 -- Monoclonal antibodies were produced.

Niels Jerne Georges Köhler César Milstein In 1975, Georges Köhler and César Milstein, showed how monoclonal antibodies can be generated by isolating individual fused myeloma cells.

The 1984 Nobel Laureate in Medicine was awarded jointly to: Niels Jerne, Georges Köhler and César Milstein for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies. (Photos: © The Nobel Foundation).


1976 -- Genentech was founded.

Genentech Genentech was founded by venture capitalist Robert Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert Boyer. In the early 1970s, Boyer and geneticist Stanley Cohen at Stanford University pioneered recombinant DNA technology.

Within a few short years Swanson and Boyer invented a new industry - biotechnology. In 1980, Genentech issued its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and raised $35 million with an offering that jumped from $35 a share to a high of $88 after less than an hour on the market. This event was one of the largest stock run-ups ever, and that event set the stage for future biotechnolgy industry offerings.


1977 -- First human gene was cloned.

Walter Gilbert Frederick Sanger Walter Gilbert induced bacteria to synthesize insulin and interferon, and Frederick Sanger published the complete sequence of phage FX174. The 1980 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry was awarded jointly to Frederick Sanger and Walter Gilbert for "for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids, and to Paul Berg for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA.

Gilbert and Sanger independently developed different methods to determine the exact sequence of the nucleotide building blocks in DNA. The investigations of Berg, Gilbert and Sanger have given us a detailed insight into the chemical basis of the genetic machinery in living organisms (Photos: © The Nobel Foundation).


1979 -- The first use of artificial blood in a patient conducted at the University of Minnesota Hospital.


1980 -- U.S. Supreme Court ruled man-made organism patentable.

Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty. Diamond v. Chakrabarty, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds five-to-four the patentability of genetically altered organisms, opening the door to greater patent protection for any modified life forms.

In 1972, Mohan Chakrabarty, a microbiologist, filed a patent application, assigned to the General Electric Co. for a human-made genetically engineered bacterium capable of breaking down multiple components of crude oil. Because of this property, which is possessed by no naturally occurring bacteria, Chakrabarty's invention was believed to have significant value for the treatment of oil spills. The application asserted 36 claims related to Chakrabarty's invention of "a bacterium from the genus Pseudomonas containing therein at least two stable energy-generating plasmids, each of said plasmids providing a separate hydrocarbon degradative pathway.

Opinions: Chief Justice Warren Burger delivered the opinion of the Court, in which justices Potter Stewart, Harry Blackmun, William Rehnquist, and John Paul Stevens joined. William Brennan filed a dissenting opinion, in which Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, and Lewis Powell joined.


1980 -- Bayh-Dole Act provided for university technology transfer.

Birch Bayh, Senator, Indiana Robert Dole, Senator, Kansas H.R.6933, Public Law: 96-517, December 12, 1980. A bill to amend title 35 of the United States Code. This Act known as the Bayh-Dole Act provided for the legal transfer of research and technology originating from U.S. universities and federal laboratories to private companies for commercialization. Technology transfer offices are now common in universities and federal laboratories and are the technology foundation for numerous biotechnology and medical device companies. (Photos: Birch Bayh and Robert Dole courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office)




1983 -- Orphan Drug Act was created.

U.S. FDA The Orphan Drug Act encouraged the research and development of drugs for rare or "orphan" diseases defined as a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 Americans.

The Orphan Drug Act provided for financial incentives to help companies recover the cost of developing much needed therapies for small patient populations. The FDA estimates that more than 11 million patients in the U.S. and millions more around the world, have benefited from this legislation.


1984 -- Medical Alley® was founded.

Medical Alley®, a 501(c)(6) nonprofit trade association, founded to support Minnesota’s health care industry.


1984 -- Alec Jeffreys and technician Vicky Wilson discovered minisatellites leading to the development of genetic fingerprinting.

Sir Alec Jeffreys In 1984, geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys, and technician Vicky Wilson at the University of Leicester in England discovered minisatellites leading to the development of genetic fingerprinting. The new technology was first used in 1985 to resolve a disputed immigration case that confirmed the identity of a British boy whose family was from Ghana.

In 1988, Colin Pitchfork was convicted of murdering two girls in 1983 and 1986 in Narborough, Leicestershire, England after his DNA samples matched semen samples taken from the two dead girls. Jeffreys' work in this case convicted the killer, but also exonerated Richard Buckland, a suspect who otherwise might have spent his life in prison. In 1994, Jeffreys' was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to genetics.


1990 -- Human Genome Project was established.

Human Genome Project Logo The U.S. Human Genome Project was established -- a 13-year effort coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. The main goals of the Human Genome Project were to provide a complete and accurate sequence of the 3 billion DNA base pairs that make up the human genome and to find all of the estimated 20,000 to 25,000 human genes. The project, originally planned to last 15 years, was expected to be completed by 2003 due to rapid technological advances.


1991 -- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota founded.

Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota was founded in 1991 as part of the University's Academic Health Center, which includes the Medical School, Dental School, College of Pharmacy, and Schools of Public Health and Veterinary Medicine.

The Masonic Cancer Center's research partners include the University's Stem Cell Institute, Center for Immunology, Center for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and the Institute of Human Genetics; and its clinical research and treatment partners include the University of Minnesota Physicians; University of Minnesota Medical Center; and University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital.

In 1991, The National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota a comprehensive cancer center in 1998, and in 2003 and 2009, NCI renewed this designation.


1991 -- MNBIO was founded.

MNBIOThe MNBIO, a non-profit trade organization, was founded in 1991 to promote the steady growth of Minnesota's life sciences industry through partnerships of industry, financial resources, academia, and government.

In 2005, MNBIO merged with Medical Alley®, representing the medical device industry, to provide a more focused effort in supporting the human health, agricultural and industrial biosciences in Minnesota.

1993 -- Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) was founded.

Biotechnology Industry Organization Biotechnology Industry Organization is the world's largest organization to serve and represent the biotechnology industry. BIO's leadership and service-oriented guidance have helped advance the industry and bring the benefits of biotechnology to people everywhere.



1993 -- Kary B. Mullis was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Kary B. Mullis Kary B. Mullis of La Jolla, CA and a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley (Ph.D.) was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for contributions to the developments of methods within DNA-based chemistry, specifically for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)

PCR allows scientists to quickly replicate small strands of DNA, greatly simplifying the sequencing and cloning of genes. First presented in 1985, PCR has become one of the most widespread methods of analyzing DNA. Notably, PCR requires the heat-stable enzyme Taq (Thermus Aquaticus) which originated from hot springs located in Yellowstone National Park.


2001 -- Human Genome Project draft sequence was published.

Human Genome Project Logo The February 16 issue of Science and February 15 issue of Nature contained the working draft of the human genome sequence (U.S. Human Genome Project). Nature papers included initial analysis of the descriptions of the sequence generated by the publicly sponsored Human Genome Project, while Science publications focused on the draft sequence reported by the private company, Celera Genomics.


2003 -- Peter Agre was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Peter Agre Peter Agre, a native of Minnesota and graduate of Augsburg College, was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes, specifically for the discovery of water channels. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)

Agre, raised in Northfield, received his B.A. in Chemistry from Augsburg College in Minneapolis and his M.D. in 1974 from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Agre was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Society for Microbiology.


2003 -- The Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics was formed.

The Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics. The Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics was formed in 2003 as a unique collaborative venture among Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota, and State of Minnesota. The idea was born out of a desire to elevate Minnesota’s position in the area of bioscience research.

The Partnership's research takes place at both institutions — cooperatively. The teams made up of scientists, researchers, and clinicians from both institutions are the real embodiment of the Partnership. They meet regularly, communicate constantly and publish jointly. The Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics continues to assess ways to accommodate laboratory and other space needs on the Mayo Clinic campus in Rochester, as well as key infrastructure locations at the University's Twin Cities campus.


2005 -- Medical Alley® and MNBIO merged.

Medical Alley®, representing the medical device industry, and MNBIO representing the biotechnology industry merged to provide a more focused effort in supporting the human health, agricultural and industrial biosciences in Minnesota.

MNBIO was a non-profit trade organization that was founded in 1991 to promote the steady growth of Minnesota's life sciences industry through partnerships of industry, financial resources, academia, and government.


2007 -- The National Institutes of Health established the Human Microbiome Project.

Human Microbiome Project On Dec. 19, 2007, the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), a $150 million initiative, was established by the National Institutes of Health with the mission of generating resources that would enable the comprehensive characterization of the human microbiome and analysis of its role in human health and disease.

The HMP is the collection of all the microorganisms living in association with the human body, including eukaryotes, archaea, bacteria and viruses. Bacteria in an average human body number ten times more than human cells, for a total of about 1000 more genes than are present in the human genome.



Learn about the history of the life science industry in other states:

Plus the provinces of:

  • Alberta
  • British Columbia


Other Life Science History Resources

  • Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • Chemical Heritage Foundation
  • Food & Drug Administration
  • Gotham Prize for Cancer Research
  • International Balzan Foundation
  • International Museum of Surgical Science
  • Lasker Foundation
  • National Academy of Sciences
  • National Health Museum
  • National Institutes of Health History, Office of
  • National Medal of Science
  • Prix Galien USA
  • The Nobel Foundation
  • The World Food Prize


If you are aware of a notable event or person at your company or organization that should be included in Minnesota Life Science History, please e-mail us at: suggestions@inforesource.org.


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