Skip to main content
Indiana University
The chemistry building on the Indiana University Bloomington campus
IU researchers proved that stannous fluoride protects against tooth decay, leading Procter & Gamble to develop Crest toothpaste in the 1950s.

IU's Commitment to Indiana's Future

Timeline

In recent years, IU has set its sights on building a world-class, top-tier life sciences research effort in Indiana. The university offers a bold vision and focused, astute leadership in advancing Indiana in life sciences research, development, and delivery. It is a vision that imagines a brighter future for our state that is built on decades of success in scientific and medical discovery.

Expanded timeline (14 page PDF; 192KB - print version)

Rendering of Simon Hall 2007 Simon Hall, the $55.7 million, 140,000-square-foot multidisciplinary research center being built at IU Bloomington, is expected to open its doors in February 2007. The building’s configuration will inspire collaboration among scientists from biology, chemistry, mathematics, and psychology. Space will be allotted for cell biologists, microbiologists, molecular biologists, geneticists, analytical chemists and biochemists, and biophysicists, including one new hire for the Biocomplexity Institute.
Protein structure graphic 2006 The National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute selects a team of scientists from Indiana and Purdue Universities to assess and develop the next generation of tools to improve biomarker discovery. The IU and Purdue Analytical Proteomics Team is awarded a grant of about $7 million as one of five national centers selected by the NCI for its clinical proteomic technologies initiative for cancer. The grants will establish a network to assess the proteomics technologies used to improve cancer research and treatment.
Photo detail of Kathy Miller 2005 A trial at the IU Cancer Center Center led by Kathy Miller, a physician and associate professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine, indicates an improvement in progression-free survival when the drug bevacizumab is administered with chemotherapy to patients with metastatic breast cancer. This study is the first to find a benefit of antiangiogenic therapy in patients with breast cancer.
An expansion of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, a partnership of the IU School of Medicine and Clarian Health Partners, begins. Construction is expected to be completed in 2008.
Photo of Roger Roeske 2004 Biochemist Roger Roeske, a faculty member with the IU School of Medicine, is the first IU faculty member to discover the compound for a drug that makes it to the market. The drug, Plenaxis, receives FDA approval for the treatment of prostate cancer.
2003 In August, the first four-organ transplant in Indiana is performed at the IU School of Medicine. The procedure is one of the first ever performed in the United States.
Photo of David Clemmer 2002 Popular Science names David Clemmer one of the country’s 10 most brilliant scientists. Clemmer formerly chaired IU Bloomington’s Department of Chemistry.
INGEN logo graphic 2000 The Indiana Genomics Initiative (INGEN) is established with initial funding of $105 million from the Lilly Endowment (later increased to $155 million), at the time the largest single grant awarded by the endowment and the largest single grant received by IU. The initiative is designed to fund research that can lead to new insights about diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, and cancer.
1990 IU School of Medicine surgeon John Brown performs the world’s first twin-to-twin heart transplant.
The IU School of Medicine establishes the Bowen Research Center in honor of Otis R. Bowen, former governor of Indiana, secretary of Health and Human Services for the United States, and an IU School of Medicine faculty member in the Department of Family Medicine. The facility is dedicated to research that will improve health and the lives of the residents of Indiana.
Photo of Hal E. Broxmeyer 1988 Hal E. Broxmeyer and his colleagues at the IU Medical Center’s Walther Oncology Center isolate and develop cord stem cells for the world’s first successful transplant. The procedure saves the life of a five-year-old boy suffering from Fanconi anemia, a genetic and often-fatal blood disease.
1985 The world's first DNA bank is established at the IU Medical Center.
Jan Jansen, a physician with the IU School of Medicine, performs Indiana’s first bone marrow transplant at Riley Hospital for Children. The IU School of Medicine bone marrow transplant program is the first in Indiana.
1974 Lawrence Einhorn, a physician with IU’s School of Medicine, treats the first patient with cis-platinol, instituting a cure for testicular cancer. IU develops into the country’s leading center for the treatment of testicular cancer, treating more than 300 patients a year.
Photo of the Regenstrief Institute for Health Care 1969 The Regenstrief Institute for Health Care, a research foundation located on the IU School of Medicine campus, is officially established with funding from Hoosier Samuel Regenstrief. Regenstrief’s research scientists developed the Regenstrief Medical Records System, the nation’s most comprehensive database of its kind and the basis for the Indiana Network for Patient Care, which gives ER physicians swift, secure access to critical patient information.
Photo of Salvador Luria Salvador Luria shares the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Max Delbruck and Alfred Hershey for the study of the mechanism of virus infection in living cells. Luria’s first graduate student was James Watson, who went on to discover the structure of DNA.
1954 Harris B. Shumacker, Jr., chair of the IU School of Medicine’s Department of Surgery, performs the first open-heart surgery in Indianapolis using a heart-lung bypass machine. He also perfects procedures to correct congenital heart defects. Under his direction, IU School of Medicine surgical research teams pioneer the use of synthetic grafts to replace damaged blood vessels, experimented with renal transplants, and tested surgical glues.
Photo from Crest toothpaste study 1951 A major study at IU Bloomington documents the role of fluoride in preventing dental cavities, leading to the birth of Crest toothpaste in 1956.
Photo of IU Bloomington professor Alfred Kinsey 1948 IU Bloomington professor Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, which becomes a national bestseller.
1941 One of the world’s first cyclotrons becomes operational at IU.
Rendering of Simon Hall 1931 Professor Rolla N. Harger, a toxicologist, invents the Drunk-O-Meter, the first device used to calculate blood-alcohol content through a series of chemical reactions.
Photo of the first radiation therapy machine established at Long Hospital 1921 The first radiation therapy machine is established at Long Hospital (now Indiana University Hospital).
1908 Indiana Medical College (Purdue Medical Department) combines with the State College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Bloomington Medical Department of Indiana University in Indianapolis. The Indiana University School of Medicine is born.
Willis B. Gatch, future dean of the IU School of Medicine, invents the adjustable hospital bed during his residency at Johns Hopkins.
Photo of William Lowe Bryan 1888 With the purchase of a chronoscope, William Lowe Bryan, future president of IU and the American Psychological Association, establishes the oldest continuing psychology laboratory in the United States.
1867 The world’s first gall bladder surgery is performed by John Stough Bobbs, the future founder and president of Indiana Medical College, the oldest of the schools incorporated into the IU School of Medicine in 1908.
Photo of early IU building 1840 IU builds its first science laboratory for $2,000.