The History of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons | Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Source: https://vagelos.columbia.edu/about-us/history-vagelos-college-physicians-and-surgeons
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:17
The History of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons | Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
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The History of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
The Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons dates back more than 250 years, to 1767 when Columbia University, then only a 13-year-old college known as King’s College, established a medical faculty. The medical faculty was created two years after the University of Pennsylvania started a medical faculty, but Columbia’s medical school was the first in the American Colonies to grant the MD degree, in 1770.
The American Revolution interrupted all programs at King’s College, which had been established by royal grant of George II, King of England. When the college reopened after the American Revolution, it was known as Columbia College. The medical school reopened in 1791.
In 1814 the medical faculty of Columbia College merged with the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which had obtained an independent charter in 1807. In 1860, by agreement between the Trustees of the two institutions, the College of Physicians and Surgeons became the Medical Department of Columbia College; for several years the diplomas of the graduates were signed by both the president of Columbia College and the president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1891, the College of Physicians and Surgeons was incorporated as an integral part of Columbia.
Columbia’s medical school was a partner with Presbyterian Hospital in developing the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in 1928, putting patient care, research, and education on the same campus. The hospital, since renamed NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, is the primary teaching hospital for Columbia’s medical school, which in 2017 was renamed the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
For more than 250 years, the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons has pioneered medical education, research, and patient care for its neighborhood, for New York City, and for patients from around the world who could go anywhere for their care.
VP&S faculty have conducted groundbreaking research over the centuries, from developing Nobel Prize-winning cardiac catheterization to identifying the gene for Huntington’s disease to developing Nobel Prize-winning cryo-electron microscopy that determines the high-resolution structure of biomolecules in solution.
VP&S made history again in 2018 when generous donations from P. Roy Vagelos, a 1954 graduate, his wife, Diana, and many other alumni and supporters created a program that provides scholarships in place of loans for all students with financial need. The scholarship program is making medical school affordable for people who previously would not have thought about applying. This could allow students to pursue careers in fields such as primary care, pediatrics, and research, where remuneration is lower, because they will not be limited by medical school debt.
Noted alumni of VP&S include Benjamin Spock, better known as “Dr. Spock”; Robin Cook, author of “Coma” and other medical thrillers; Charles Drew, a pioneer in blood banking; Allen Oldfather Whipple, who developed the Whipple procedure; retired New York Knicks player Ernie Vandeweghe Jr.; Virginia Apgar, who created the Apgar Score; astronaut Story Musgrave; novelist Walker Percy; industrialist Armand Hammer; Olympic swimming medalist Jenny Thompson; and Burrill Crohn, for whom Crohn’s disease is named. Five VP&S graduates have received Nobel Prizes, and three current members of the faculty are Nobel Laureates.
1754
Columbia University is founded as King's College.
King's College circa 1777
Columbia University begins as King's College by royal grant of George II of England "for the instruction of youth in the Learned Languages, and the Liberal Arts and Sciences."
1767
King's College establishes second medical school in the 13 colonies.
King's College organized a medical faculty in 1767 and was the first institution in the North American Colonies to confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
1770
King's College awards first MD in the 13 American Colonies.
The first graduates in medicine are Robert Tucker and Samuel Kissarn, who receive the degree of Bachelor of Medicine in May 1769, and Doctor of Medicine in May 1770 and May 1771, respectively.
1771
First teaching hospital is founded in New York.
In 1771, Dr. Samuel Bard and Dr. John Jones co-found the New York Hospital in lower Manhattan. This is the first teaching hospital in New York.
1784
King’s College reopens as Columbia College after the Revolutionary War.
1807
The College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S) is founded by charter.
1814
Medical faculty of Columbia College merges with P&S.
Dr. Samuel Bard oversees the merger of Columbia College and P&S, which had obtained an independent charter in 1807.
1861
Civil War impacts P&S.
P&S grants a leave to Dr. John C. Dalton Jr. to join the U.S. Army Medical Corps during the Civil War. He remains with the army until 1864, serving in military operations in coastal South Carolina and Georgia, where he is responsible for the health of thousands of soldiers. A total of 409 P&S alumni served in the Civil War.
1872
George Huntington, MD, first outlines Huntington's disease.
George Huntington'1871 publishes the article, “On Chorea,” outlining the symptoms and progression of a degenerative neurological condition that becomes known as Huntington’s chorea, or Huntington’s disease.
1884
William Henry Vanderbilt donates land for P&S.
William Henry Vanderbilt donates land on 59th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues (now Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues) and $300,000 for a new building for P&S, making the largest gift to a medical school up to that time.
1911
Harkness gift launches partnership between Columbia and Presbyterian Hospital.
The agreement signed by Columbia and Presbyterian Hospital establishes a model that is replicated by major institutions around the world, in which facilities dedicated to patient care, medical education, and research share a location.
1917
P&S begins admitting women for the first time.
The first six women graduate in 1921. Since then, women have shaped medicine at P&S.
1928
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center is dedicated in Washington Heights.
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, the world’s first medical center to combine complete facilities for patient care, medical education, and research in a single complex, is dedicated on Oct. 12, 1928 in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City.
1935
Whipple procedure is pioneered by Allen Whipple, MD.
Dr. Allen O. Whipple'1908 pioneers the pancreaticoduodenectomy, a complex procedure to remove pancreatic tumors. Now known as the Whipple procedure, the operation is reportedly devised on the spot, when Dr. Whipple realizes a patient with a gastric condition actually has pancreatic cancer.
1938
Cystic fibrosis is identified by Dorothy Andersen, MD.
Dorothy Andersen, MD, professor of pathology, is the first to recognize the disease cystic fibrosis in 1938 and helps to create a test to identify it. Building on Dr. Anderson's work, Dr. Paul di Sant’Agnese'48 develops the noninvasive, and now standard, “sweat test” for cystic fibrosis in 1953, when he recognizes salt loss as the cause of death in patients during a New York City heat wave. Pictured is Dr. Andersen in 1961, holding a cystic fibrosis patient as she receives a check to further her research from Victor Blitzer, president of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
1939
Treatment for lethal meningitis is developed by Hattie E. Alexander, MD.
Hattie E. Alexander, MD, faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics, develops the first effective treatment for a lethal form of bacterial meningitis caused by Haemophilus influenza. Infants and children with this condition nearly always died until the development of her anti-serum, which results in an 80 percent recovery rate.
1940
Charles Drew develops a method to preserve and store blood plasma.
Play video Charles Drew, blood bank pioneer
As a graduate student at Columbia, Charles Drew'40 identifies an efficient way to process and store large quantities of blood plasma, leading to the Blood for Britain program in World War II that helps to save thousands of lives. His discovery, the foundation of modern blood banking, transforms the practice of emergency medicine. Dr. Drew is the first African-American to receive a Doctor of Medical Science from Columbia.
1943
Bacitracin is developed at P&S.
P&S laboratory supervisor Balbina Johnson makes a curious observation while studying a culture of Bacillus subtilis taken from a 7-year-old girl. During an initial microscope exam, she observes Staphylococcus aureus in the culture but then it disappears overnight. Follow-up research with surgery professor Frank L. Meleney'1916 isolates the microbe responsible for destroying the staph bacteria and leads to the development of a new antibiotic. The medicine called bacitracin, or “bacillus of Tracy,” is named for the patient who inspires its discovery. Bacitracin is an ideal topical agent for infections that, until then, required surgery. It remains the most common ingredient in over-the-counter antibiotic ointments.
1946
Benjamin Spock, MD, publishes “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care.”
Publication of “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” turns Dr. Benjamin Spock'29 into a popular authority on parenting—and a global celebrity. His book is dramatically different from past child-rearing manuals, which recommend discipline and strict feeding schedules, and instead offers parents the reassurance to trust their instincts and love their children, as well as basic, medically-informed health advice. The book becomes an influential, best-selling guide for parents.
1947
Elvin Kabat, PhD, identifies multiple sclerosis as an autoimmune disorder.
For his contributions to immunology and immunochemistry, Elvin Kabat, PhD, receives the National Medal of Science in 1991.
1952
Arthur Voorhees'46 develops the first successful artificial arteries.
1953
Virginia Apgar, MD, publishes a simple 10-point scoring method for predicting infant health at birth.
The Apgar score measures five body functions to determine the need for life-saving assistance within 60 seconds of birth and remains the international standard for assessing newborn health. It is named for Virginia Apgar'33, who served on the faculty from 1935 to 1959 and was the first woman appointed to a full professorship at P&S.
1956
André F. Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
André F. Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards, MD1923
P&S faculty members André F. Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards'23 win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with German scientist Werner Forssmann, for the development of cardiac catheterization, laying the groundwork for open-heart surgery and interventional cardiology. Catheterization entails inserting a small tube into the heart and provides physicians with a powerful new tool to diagnose disease and study the human circulatory system, launching a conceptual merger of the heart and lung into a single organ.
1964
Columbia researchers pioneer a vaccine that helps to eradicate Rh disease in newborns.
Rh disease is a form of hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn that once claimed the lives of nearly 10,000 babies a year in the United States. In the 1960s, Vincent Freda, MD, an obstetrician, and John Gorman, MD, director of the blood bank at Columbia, pioneer a vaccine that effectively eradicates the disease in newborn children. They receive the 1980 Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award in recognition of their work.
Read more
.
1979
Nancy Wexler, PhD, leads effort to identify Huntington’s disease gene.
Nancy Wexler, PhD, Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology, begins extensive research on families in Venezuela affected by Huntington’s disease, collecting and analyzing thousands of blood samples. Her work leads to the identification of the gene responsible for the disease in 1993.
1984
Columbia surgeon performs first successful pediatric heart transplant.
Surgeon Eric Rose'75 performs the first successful pediatric heart transplant at Columbia. Pictured are the transplant recipient, 4-year-old J.P. Lovette IV, and his parents. Pediatric heart transplants are now standard, with more than 100 performed at Columbia each year.
1993
Columbia holds first White Coat Ceremony.
The Arnold P. Gold Foundation inaugurates the first White Coat Ceremony ceremony at P&S as a rite of passage that cloaks each medical student in his or her first white coat.
1998
Angela Christiano, PhD, discovers first human gene associated with hair loss.
Columbia researchers identify gene for inherited baldness.
Read more
.
2000
Eric Kandel, MD, wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Eric Kandel, MD, University Professor of Physiology and Cell Biophysics, Psychiatry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Arvid Carlsson and Paul Greengard, for contributions to the field of neuroscience, in particular their work on the molecular basis of memory.
2004
Richard Axel, MD, wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Richard Axel, MD, University Professor, wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Linda B. Buck, PhD, for determining the genes that govern the sense of smell. He is pictured with postdoc Allan Wong, PhD, in the 2-photon imaging room of the Axel lab.
2007
The PARTNER Trial Marks a New Era of Cardiac Care
Led by Columbia's Martin Leon, MD, and Craig Smith, MD, the PARTNER trial begins testing the efficacy of minimally invasive heart valve replacement (TAVR). This technique involves using a catheter and imaging to replace a damaged heart valve, rather than traditionally invasive open heart surgery. It improves outcomes for patients too sick for traditional surgery and has been widely adopted by cardiac surgeons around the world.
Read more in the New England Journal of Medicine
2016
NIH awards precision medicine grant.
A $4 million NIH grant gives Columbia, Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, and NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem a key role in a precision medicine cohort program.
Read more
.
June
2016
The Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center is officially dedicated.
The Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center, named for P. Roy Vagelos'54 and Diana Vagelos, is officially dedicated on June 9, 2016. The new building is a state-of-the-art medical and graduate education facility to train the next generation of leaders in medicine and biomedical science.
Read more
.
2017
Joachim Frank, PhD, wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017
Joachim Frank, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics and of biological sciences, wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shared with Richard Henderson and Jacques Dubochet, “for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution.”
2017
Roy and Diana Vagelos donate $250 million to P&S.
Dr. P. Roy and Diana Vagelos
Columbia University announced a new gift of $250 million from Dr. P. Roy and Diana Vagelos for the College of Physicians and Surgeons, bringing the couple’s total support for medicine at Columbia to more than $310 million. A major portion of the gift, $150 million, will endow a fund to help Columbia eliminate student loans for medical students who qualify for financial aid, currently about half of the student body in the medical school. About 20 percent of students – those with the greatest need – will receive full-tuition scholarships. University President Lee C. Bollinger announced the medical school, which celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2017, will officially be known as the Columbia University Roy and Diana Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
2018
New scholarship program launches.
Columbia replaces medical school loans with scholarships for students with financial need, thanks to gifts from P. Roy Vagelos’1954 and his wife, Diana, and many other alumni, faculty, and friends.
Read about the scholarship program.
2022
Artificial Intelligence Predicts Treatment Success
In a
paper
published in
JAMA Oncology
, Columbia University researchers demonstrate that applying artificial intelligence to standard-of-care imaging can help predict how well
immunotherapy
will work for patients with melanoma. In particular, they developed a machine learning algorithm that analyzes a patient’s computed tomography (CT) scans and creates a biomarker – known as a radiomic signature – that correlates with patient outcome.
Read more
Back to top
Skip to content
The History of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
The Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons dates back more than 250 years, to 1767 when Columbia University, then only a 13-year-old college known as King’s College, established a medical faculty. The medical faculty was created two years after the University of Pennsylvania started a medical faculty, but Columbia’s medical school was the first in the American Colonies to grant the MD degree, in 1770.
The American Revolution interrupted all programs at King’s College, which had been established by royal grant of George II, King of England. When the college reopened after the American Revolution, it was known as Columbia College. The medical school reopened in 1791.
In 1814 the medical faculty of Columbia College merged with the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which had obtained an independent charter in 1807. In 1860, by agreement between the Trustees of the two institutions, the College of Physicians and Surgeons became the Medical Department of Columbia College; for several years the diplomas of the graduates were signed by both the president of Columbia College and the president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1891, the College of Physicians and Surgeons was incorporated as an integral part of Columbia.
Columbia’s medical school was a partner with Presbyterian Hospital in developing the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in 1928, putting patient care, research, and education on the same campus. The hospital, since renamed NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, is the primary teaching hospital for Columbia’s medical school, which in 2017 was renamed the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
For more than 250 years, the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons has pioneered medical education, research, and patient care for its neighborhood, for New York City, and for patients from around the world who could go anywhere for their care.
VP&S faculty have conducted groundbreaking research over the centuries, from developing Nobel Prize-winning cardiac catheterization to identifying the gene for Huntington’s disease to developing Nobel Prize-winning cryo-electron microscopy that determines the high-resolution structure of biomolecules in solution.
VP&S made history again in 2018 when generous donations from P. Roy Vagelos, a 1954 graduate, his wife, Diana, and many other alumni and supporters created a program that provides scholarships in place of loans for all students with financial need. The scholarship program is making medical school affordable for people who previously would not have thought about applying. This could allow students to pursue careers in fields such as primary care, pediatrics, and research, where remuneration is lower, because they will not be limited by medical school debt.
Noted alumni of VP&S include Benjamin Spock, better known as “Dr. Spock”; Robin Cook, author of “Coma” and other medical thrillers; Charles Drew, a pioneer in blood banking; Allen Oldfather Whipple, who developed the Whipple procedure; retired New York Knicks player Ernie Vandeweghe Jr.; Virginia Apgar, who created the Apgar Score; astronaut Story Musgrave; novelist Walker Percy; industrialist Armand Hammer; Olympic swimming medalist Jenny Thompson; and Burrill Crohn, for whom Crohn’s disease is named. Five VP&S graduates have received Nobel Prizes, and three current members of the faculty are Nobel Laureates.
1754
Columbia University is founded as King's College.
King's College circa 1777
Columbia University begins as King's College by royal grant of George II of England "for the instruction of youth in the Learned Languages, and the Liberal Arts and Sciences."
1767
King's College establishes second medical school in the 13 colonies.
King's College organized a medical faculty in 1767 and was the first institution in the North American Colonies to confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
1770
King's College awards first MD in the 13 American Colonies.
The first graduates in medicine are Robert Tucker and Samuel Kissarn, who receive the degree of Bachelor of Medicine in May 1769, and Doctor of Medicine in May 1770 and May 1771, respectively.
1771
First teaching hospital is founded in New York.
In 1771, Dr. Samuel Bard and Dr. John Jones co-found the New York Hospital in lower Manhattan. This is the first teaching hospital in New York.
1784
King’s College reopens as Columbia College after the Revolutionary War.
1807
The College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S) is founded by charter.
1814
Medical faculty of Columbia College merges with P&S.
Dr. Samuel Bard oversees the merger of Columbia College and P&S, which had obtained an independent charter in 1807.
1861
Civil War impacts P&S.
P&S grants a leave to Dr. John C. Dalton Jr. to join the U.S. Army Medical Corps during the Civil War. He remains with the army until 1864, serving in military operations in coastal South Carolina and Georgia, where he is responsible for the health of thousands of soldiers. A total of 409 P&S alumni served in the Civil War.
1872
George Huntington, MD, first outlines Huntington's disease.
George Huntington'1871 publishes the article, “On Chorea,” outlining the symptoms and progression of a degenerative neurological condition that becomes known as Huntington’s chorea, or Huntington’s disease.
1884
William Henry Vanderbilt donates land for P&S.
William Henry Vanderbilt donates land on 59th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues (now Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues) and $300,000 for a new building for P&S, making the largest gift to a medical school up to that time.
1911
Harkness gift launches partnership between Columbia and Presbyterian Hospital.
The agreement signed by Columbia and Presbyterian Hospital establishes a model that is replicated by major institutions around the world, in which facilities dedicated to patient care, medical education, and research share a location.
1917
P&S begins admitting women for the first time.
The first six women graduate in 1921. Since then, women have shaped medicine at P&S.
1928
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center is dedicated in Washington Heights.
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, the world’s first medical center to combine complete facilities for patient care, medical education, and research in a single complex, is dedicated on Oct. 12, 1928 in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City.
1935
Whipple procedure is pioneered by Allen Whipple, MD.
Dr. Allen O. Whipple'1908 pioneers the pancreaticoduodenectomy, a complex procedure to remove pancreatic tumors. Now known as the Whipple procedure, the operation is reportedly devised on the spot, when Dr. Whipple realizes a patient with a gastric condition actually has pancreatic cancer.
1938
Cystic fibrosis is identified by Dorothy Andersen, MD.
Dorothy Andersen, MD, professor of pathology, is the first to recognize the disease cystic fibrosis in 1938 and helps to create a test to identify it. Building on Dr. Anderson's work, Dr. Paul di Sant’Agnese'48 develops the noninvasive, and now standard, “sweat test” for cystic fibrosis in 1953, when he recognizes salt loss as the cause of death in patients during a New York City heat wave. Pictured is Dr. Andersen in 1961, holding a cystic fibrosis patient as she receives a check to further her research from Victor Blitzer, president of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
1939
Treatment for lethal meningitis is developed by Hattie E. Alexander, MD.
Hattie E. Alexander, MD, faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics, develops the first effective treatment for a lethal form of bacterial meningitis caused by Haemophilus influenza. Infants and children with this condition nearly always died until the development of her anti-serum, which results in an 80 percent recovery rate.
1940
Charles Drew develops a method to preserve and store blood plasma.
Play video Charles Drew, blood bank pioneer
As a graduate student at Columbia, Charles Drew'40 identifies an efficient way to process and store large quantities of blood plasma, leading to the Blood for Britain program in World War II that helps to save thousands of lives. His discovery, the foundation of modern blood banking, transforms the practice of emergency medicine. Dr. Drew is the first African-American to receive a Doctor of Medical Science from Columbia.
1943
Bacitracin is developed at P&S.
P&S laboratory supervisor Balbina Johnson makes a curious observation while studying a culture of Bacillus subtilis taken from a 7-year-old girl. During an initial microscope exam, she observes Staphylococcus aureus in the culture but then it disappears overnight. Follow-up research with surgery professor Frank L. Meleney'1916 isolates the microbe responsible for destroying the staph bacteria and leads to the development of a new antibiotic. The medicine called bacitracin, or “bacillus of Tracy,” is named for the patient who inspires its discovery. Bacitracin is an ideal topical agent for infections that, until then, required surgery. It remains the most common ingredient in over-the-counter antibiotic ointments.
1946
Benjamin Spock, MD, publishes “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care.”
Publication of “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” turns Dr. Benjamin Spock'29 into a popular authority on parenting—and a global celebrity. His book is dramatically different from past child-rearing manuals, which recommend discipline and strict feeding schedules, and instead offers parents the reassurance to trust their instincts and love their children, as well as basic, medically-informed health advice. The book becomes an influential, best-selling guide for parents.
1947
Elvin Kabat, PhD, identifies multiple sclerosis as an autoimmune disorder.
For his contributions to immunology and immunochemistry, Elvin Kabat, PhD, receives the National Medal of Science in 1991.
1952
Arthur Voorhees'46 develops the first successful artificial arteries.
1953
Virginia Apgar, MD, publishes a simple 10-point scoring method for predicting infant health at birth.
The Apgar score measures five body functions to determine the need for life-saving assistance within 60 seconds of birth and remains the international standard for assessing newborn health. It is named for Virginia Apgar'33, who served on the faculty from 1935 to 1959 and was the first woman appointed to a full professorship at P&S.
1956
André F. Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
André F. Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards, MD1923
P&S faculty members André F. Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards'23 win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with German scientist Werner Forssmann, for the development of cardiac catheterization, laying the groundwork for open-heart surgery and interventional cardiology. Catheterization entails inserting a small tube into the heart and provides physicians with a powerful new tool to diagnose disease and study the human circulatory system, launching a conceptual merger of the heart and lung into a single organ.
1964
Columbia researchers pioneer a vaccine that helps to eradicate Rh disease in newborns.
Rh disease is a form of hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn that once claimed the lives of nearly 10,000 babies a year in the United States. In the 1960s, Vincent Freda, MD, an obstetrician, and John Gorman, MD, director of the blood bank at Columbia, pioneer a vaccine that effectively eradicates the disease in newborn children. They receive the 1980 Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award in recognition of their work.
Read more
.
1979
Nancy Wexler, PhD, leads effort to identify Huntington’s disease gene.
Nancy Wexler, PhD, Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology, begins extensive research on families in Venezuela affected by Huntington’s disease, collecting and analyzing thousands of blood samples. Her work leads to the identification of the gene responsible for the disease in 1993.
1984
Columbia surgeon performs first successful pediatric heart transplant.
Surgeon Eric Rose'75 performs the first successful pediatric heart transplant at Columbia. Pictured are the transplant recipient, 4-year-old J.P. Lovette IV, and his parents. Pediatric heart transplants are now standard, with more than 100 performed at Columbia each year.
1993
Columbia holds first White Coat Ceremony.
The Arnold P. Gold Foundation inaugurates the first White Coat Ceremony ceremony at P&S as a rite of passage that cloaks each medical student in his or her first white coat.
1998
Angela Christiano, PhD, discovers first human gene associated with hair loss.
Columbia researchers identify gene for inherited baldness.
Read more
.
2000
Eric Kandel, MD, wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Eric Kandel, MD, University Professor of Physiology and Cell Biophysics, Psychiatry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Arvid Carlsson and Paul Greengard, for contributions to the field of neuroscience, in particular their work on the molecular basis of memory.
2004
Richard Axel, MD, wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Richard Axel, MD, University Professor, wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Linda B. Buck, PhD, for determining the genes that govern the sense of smell. He is pictured with postdoc Allan Wong, PhD, in the 2-photon imaging room of the Axel lab.
2007
The PARTNER Trial Marks a New Era of Cardiac Care
Led by Columbia's Martin Leon, MD, and Craig Smith, MD, the PARTNER trial begins testing the efficacy of minimally invasive heart valve replacement (TAVR). This technique involves using a catheter and imaging to replace a damaged heart valve, rather than traditionally invasive open heart surgery. It improves outcomes for patients too sick for traditional surgery and has been widely adopted by cardiac surgeons around the world.
Read more in the New England Journal of Medicine
2016
NIH awards precision medicine grant.
A $4 million NIH grant gives Columbia, Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, and NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem a key role in a precision medicine cohort program.
Read more
.
June
2016
The Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center is officially dedicated.
The Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center, named for P. Roy Vagelos'54 and Diana Vagelos, is officially dedicated on June 9, 2016. The new building is a state-of-the-art medical and graduate education facility to train the next generation of leaders in medicine and biomedical science.
Read more
.
2017
Joachim Frank, PhD, wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017
Joachim Frank, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics and of biological sciences, wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shared with Richard Henderson and Jacques Dubochet, “for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution.”
2017
Roy and Diana Vagelos donate $250 million to P&S.
Dr. P. Roy and Diana Vagelos
Columbia University announced a new gift of $250 million from Dr. P. Roy and Diana Vagelos for the College of Physicians and Surgeons, bringing the couple’s total support for medicine at Columbia to more than $310 million. A major portion of the gift, $150 million, will endow a fund to help Columbia eliminate student loans for medical students who qualify for financial aid, currently about half of the student body in the medical school. About 20 percent of students – those with the greatest need – will receive full-tuition scholarships. University President Lee C. Bollinger announced the medical school, which celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2017, will officially be known as the Columbia University Roy and Diana Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
2018
New scholarship program launches.
Columbia replaces medical school loans with scholarships for students with financial need, thanks to gifts from P. Roy Vagelos’1954 and his wife, Diana, and many other alumni, faculty, and friends.
Read about the scholarship program.
2022
Artificial Intelligence Predicts Treatment Success
In a
paper
published in
JAMA Oncology
, Columbia University researchers demonstrate that applying artificial intelligence to standard-of-care imaging can help predict how well
immunotherapy
will work for patients with melanoma. In particular, they developed a machine learning algorithm that analyzes a patient’s computed tomography (CT) scans and creates a biomarker – known as a radiomic signature – that correlates with patient outcome.
Read more
Back to top