Research Firsts

Duke has blazed trails in medicine for more than seven decades.

Here's a sampling of "Duke Firsts":

1936 A Duke surgeon introduces ultraviolet lamps into operating rooms to kill airborne germs that cause post-operative Staph infections-dramatically reducing the number of infections and related deaths.

1950 A Duke pediatrician leads the push for drug companies to develop the child-proof safety cap for medicine bottles.

1956 Duke becomes first to use systemic hypothermia during cardiac surgery. This technique of cooling patients to less than 50 degrees Fahrenheit to minimize tissue damage during lengthy surgical procedures is now standard practice worldwide.

1985 Duke becomes one of two hospitals to conduct the first human clinical trials of AZT, the first drug to substantially improve quality of life for AIDS patients.

1990 Duke researchers discover a gene that increases people's risk of developing the most common form of Alzheimer disease, showing for the first time that it can be inherited.

1990s Duke geneticists invent a three-minute tests to screen newborns for over 30 metabolic diseases at once. Though devastating if undetected, the diseases can be controlled once identified. The test is now used throughout the country.

1993 Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center develops the nation's first outpatient bone-marrow transplantation program.

1995 Duke scientists help discover the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes responsible for many inherited forms of breast and ovarian cancers.

1998 Duke researchers are the first to use magnetic resonance spectroscopy to track levels of N-acetylaspartate (N-AA) as a marker for Alzheimer disease, proving that such a marker exists and that it can be detected via MRS.

1999 A Duke anesthesiologist creates a novel "bioreactor" system and uses it to grow blood vessels that look and act like the real thing. Though there are hurdles to overcome before the vessels can be used in bypass surgeries, the development is a significant advance in the field of tissue engineering.

2003 Duke researchers demonstrate for the first time that magnetic resonance technology could be used to observe the effects of a medication on brain structures, an important first step toward improving drug research for treating Alzheimer disease.

2005 Researchers at Duke and Vanderbilt universities discover the first major gene known to determine an individual's risk for developing age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of visual impairment and legal blindness in the elderly.

2006 The FDA approves Myozyme, the first lifesaving treatment for children with Pompe disease. The treatment was discovered and developed at Duke.