Imagine a world where dementia is rare or non-existent, where we can stop the next pandemic before it starts, where all children have access to the latest medical advances regardless of their circumstances, and where words like “ cancer ” and “ heart disease ” no longer evoke fear and dread.
H E
A T D U K E
JU S T D R E A M S
We don’t just imagine a healthier future: we work to make it a reality. We dream big, and every day we move the world closer to making these dreams come true.
Over the last century, Duke Health has built a foundation of excellence. From the very beginning, we have tackled the biggest challenges in biomedical science and patient care. Our researchers have helped SHAPE THE LANDSCAPE OF HEALTH CARE with pioneering discoveries such as the identification of a cell pathway that forms the basis for up to half of all prescription drugs, groundbreaking advances in heart and lung transplantation, revolutionary therapies for genetic diseases, and many more.
Duke Health’s scientists and clinicians are inventing new ways to STOP DISEASE BEFORE IT STARTS , developing new classes of vaccines and therapies, and creating new paradigms of care to improve health worldwide. We are creating national models of medical education, launching curriculum innovations that prepare our students and trainees to be the leaders the world needs. Our clinical enterprises offer state-of-the-art facilities, expert and compassionate providers, and cutting-edge treatments that attract patients from around the world.
As we embark on our second century, Duke is more committed than ever to transforming health care, preparing the next generation of leaders, and SOLVING THE WORLD’S GREATEST MEDICAL CHALLENGES.
We live at a time when an increasingly complex and interconnected world poses new health challenges. We are threatened by global pandemics, rapidly mutating pathogens, stubborn disparities in access and care, and the effects of climate challenges.
At the same time, revolutionary improvements in technology and biomedical science make this a moment of unparalleled opportunity. We have capabilities at our fingertips that earlier generations of scientists and clinicians could only dream of. We are on the cusp of truly transformational advances in science and health care. Investment in key areas will spark the breakthroughs that will make the formerly impossible possible.
We are Duke Health. And we are MADE FOR THIS .
Now is the time for Duke Health to seize the opportunity to fulfill that promise. By integrating our world-class education, research, clinical care, and community partnership activities in one team with a common purpose, Duke Health aims to change the face of health care — by educating the brightest minds, by leveraging innovation and expertise to make the next transformative discovery, and by saying yes to patients when they have nowhere else to turn.
For those who acknowledge the challenges but step forward to embrace them. For those unafraid to take risks and try new things. For those who will do whatever it takes to discover the next lifesaving breakthrough, increase access to quality care, and cure the incurable. This is the time for Duke Health, because this is our best shot to reshape the future.
We invite you to join us in this life-changing mission. As part of a university-wide effort, Duke Health is embarking on the ambitious MADE FOR THIS campaign to generate resources that will propel innovation, drive discovery, and improve lives around the world.
We’re uniting all the extraordinary members of the Duke Health community to meet this moment. That means scientists, clinicians, educators, learners, staff, patients, community partners … AND YOU .
We embrace an audacious optimism that a brighter new world is possible — a world where more people can live their lives to the fullest potential and with the dignity all humans deserve. And we are ready to lead the way.
IF YOU SHARE THAT OPTIMISM AND THAT DETERMINATION, YOU ARE ONE OF US.
Your generosity and your vision are the fuel that propels our work. Together, we will drive new discoveries and accelerate their translation to new therapies. We will re-imagine our hospitals and clinics to provide a compassionate and inclusive environment and broaden our reach to more people in need of the highest quality care in the world. We will give more bright and committed people the opportunity to learn, experience, share, and serve.
Together, we’ll build the future of health care that we know is possible.
Duke Health encompasses Duke University’s world-class patient care services, health professions education and training programs, and biomedical research and discovery. We are collectively dedicated to making meaningful progress toward our shared ambitions — because no challenge in health care can be solved alone.
Duke is one of the very few institutions that integrates the entire spectrum of biomedical discovery and care in one place.
Basic science that generates the fundamental insights that drive medical advances? Duke does that. Translational research that turns foundational knowledge into new treatments? We do that. Clinical trials to test and refine new therapies? Duke is home to the world’s largest academic clinical research institute, with more than 2 million patients enrolled in over 2,500 active studies around the globe.
Our pioneering education and training programs prepare the next generation of health care professionals to be the scientists, clinicians, and leaders who will shape the future. Our renowned health system restores hope, health, and healing to hundreds of thousands of patients every year. And we partner to serve, engage, and learn from communities not only here in Durham but across North Carolina and around the world.
Each of these missions fuels the others in a virtuous cycle of mutual support. Our unique integration of basic science, translational research, clinical trials, patient care, and education positions Duke to deliver the next wave of breakthroughs and meet the biggest challenges in health care. JOIN US IN THIS TRANSFORMATIVE JOURNEY.
and build a healthier, more equitable world.
Duke Health will make the most meaningful advances by maximizing our existing strengths and coordinating our campaign with partners across Duke University and beyond. We will focus on key areas where Duke is already at the leading edge, and where additional investment and innovation have the most potential to catalyze transformational advances.
New technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and precision health have become integral to health care research and delivery. These capabilities have enormous potential to improve decision-making and patient outcomes. But AI’s tremendous promise comes with risks. The challenges of transparency, bias, and insufficient algorithm testing can have unintended consequences. Building trust and ensuring equitable access will be central to capitalizing on the true value of AI in health care.
Duke is leading the effort to harness the vast potential for AI and other emerging technologies to advance medicine and build safeguards to ensure its use is ethical, equitable, safe, and beneficial. We are working to shape a world where AI and other new capabilities serve and support the human interactions that are essential to providing exceptional health care, where these new technologies inform medical providers and free them to spend more time at the bedside with patients, and where new systems that can rapidly analyze vast stores of data will help us solve medical mysteries and discover new treatments.
More and more, we are learning that the key to preventing and repairing damage and disease lies within our own bodies. Each of us is host to a remarkable network of powerful protective and healing processes, from the immune response that swarms to fight invading pathogens to cellular processes of regeneration and regrowth. At Duke Health, we are learning how to understand, harness, and strengthen these intrinsic mechanisms of resilience with increasing precision to prevent and treat disease.
We aim to tap the brain’s ability to keep Alzheimer’s disease at bay and help enhance and extend that innate protection. We are training the immune system to outwit cancer’s ability to resist treatment. In these and countless other areas, researchers at Duke are leading us toward a future where our bodies and brains are stronger and safer. Biologic resilience is a key pillar of the Duke Science and Technology initiative, which has already brought more than two dozen internationally renowned researchers to Duke to build teams that explore the unknown and create new approaches to health and disease.
We are focusing on four critical areas where the transformative advances in medicine in the coming years will have the most impact, and where Duke is poised to make the biggest difference.
We are uncovering the secrets that drive cancer and turning that knowledge against the disease, developing new ways to thwart its ability to develop, grow, spread, and recur.
We are creating new approaches to control the immune response to more effectively eliminate harmful biological invaders like viruses and tumors and accept benign ones such as transplanted organs.
We are revealing the unique structures and processes of the brain and employing advanced technologies to heal injury and prevent disease.
We are generating new insights into the fundamental nature of cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses and translating those insights into personalized therapies and preventive interventions to help people most at risk.
Duke Health is forging its path to the future in alignment with Duke University’s campaign to build on the remarkable successes of its first century and meet the world’s greatest challenges head-on.
Duke Health’s research and community partnerships to study and address the effects of climate on health are a vital component of the university-wide Duke Climate Commitment. Our researchers are active around the globe, investigating how climate affects human health in myriad ways, including the effects of extreme weather on respiratory and cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, food security, and mental health.
We are firmly dedicated to addressing health disparities across the entire spectrum of health and wellness, from ensuring more diverse participation in clinical trials to addressing social drivers of health and barriers to care to conducting rigorous research to identify and mitigate health disparities. Through these efforts, Duke Health not only addresses health disparities but fosters a more inclusive and resilient health care system.
Hospitals and other patient care facilities continually evolve to better meet the needs of individual patients and communities as well as providers and staff. At Duke Health, we aren’t waiting for the future to arrive: we’re already building it. The best health care in the coming decades will be increasingly personalized. More care will be delivered in the community, and health care facilities will be designed to improve patient experience and ensure the best possible care for all patients.
Duke is already implementing all of these features, with much more to come. Our new medical campus at Duke Health Cary is one example. A full-service medical center that exemplifies a new model for health care, this is not your usual community hospital but a stateof-the-art, patient- and staff-centric hospital, incorporated into the natural environment and the surrounding community to maximize convenience, support well-being, and ensure long-term sustainability.
At Duke Health, we are driven by a relentless pursuit of excellence and a commitment to transform health care. Our unique approach is encapsulated in four powerful themes that define our campaign and our ethos.
At Duke Health, we aim high. It’s in our blood: when James B. Duke founded Duke University, he said he wanted it to be home to the best academic medical institution in the Southeast. Within 10 years it was among the best in the nation. Now it’s one of the best in the world.
Guided by a succession of visionary leaders and driven by a commitment to serve society, we set bold goals and push the boundaries of what is possible. Our ambition fuels groundbreaking research, innovative treatments, pioneering solutions, and a vision for a healthier future for all. We’re setting the new standard for how we treat the most serious diseases and equipping the leaders who will revolutionize the field.
The brain is the most complex organ in the body, and the diseases and disorders that affect it are some of the most challenging. Scientists at Duke are inventing novel approaches to understand the inner workings of the brain and to create ever more effective ways to repair and restore it.
Deep-brain stimulation (DBS), for example, is a wellestablished therapy that uses implantable devices to treat neurological diseases and movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. But no two brains are alike. Cameron McIntyre, PhD, a pioneer in the field of deep-brain stimulation, and colleagues at Duke are developing increasingly precise ways to administer these therapies and customize them for individual patients, giving each patient the most optimal treatment.
McIntyre and colleagues have recently developed an extraordinary visualization tool that translates human brain scans into interactive holograms. Using augmented-reality headsets, users can map blood vessels, axonal pathways, and the incredibly dense network of connections between regions throughout the brain. Multiple users can virtually examine and discuss the same brain in real time. The technology may one day help doctors collaborate to plan complex surgeries that are difficult to chart in 2D, such as removing brain tumors or implanting DBS electrodes.
MCINTYRE, PHD BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
Revolutionary advances in genomics, gene editing, and big data have given us the ability to understand, prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat disease with extraordinary levels of precision.
At the micro level, Duke’s Charles Gersbach, PhD, and colleagues are pioneering the use of genomic technologies such as CRISPR to manipulate specific regions of the genome and open whole new targets of opportunity for treating a wide range of diseases, including genetic disorders, neurodegeneration, and cancer.
And at the population level, Svati Shah, MD, MHS, spearheads the Duke Center for Precision Health, which bridges the worlds of research and patient care by integrating genomic data with clinical operations. Shah and her colleagues recently launched OneDukeGen, a large-scale research study that aims to collect and analyze DNA and other data from 100,000 Duke Health patients, generating an invaluable repository that will inform new research on numerous diseases and conditions.
Across Duke Health, researchers are pushing the boundaries of what is possible to tailor health care for each individual.
Whether it’s redefining how we teach or discovering lifesaving cures, the challenges in 21st century biomedical science and health care are too big to solve alone. That’s why we bring together experts from all across campus and perspectives from within our community and beyond. Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. By working together for shared purposes — across disciplines, with our community partners, and alongside our patients — we achieve extraordinary outcomes and create lasting impact. Because when we win, we win as a team.
Among the risks posed by a rapidly changing climate is the threat of fungal pathogens. Fungal infections currently cause 1.5 million deaths worldwide, and rising temperatures have the potential to make pathogenic fungi still more dangerous.
Erica J. Washington, PhD, a Duke Science and Technology Scholar, is exploring a crucial enzyme pathway that enables fungi to survive high temperatures. If researchers can disrupt this pathway, they may make fungi more vulnerable to warmer temperatures and potentially prevent fungal infections.
Another Duke Science and Technology Scholar, Amy Gladfelter, PhD, has identified a protein that helps fungi and plants adapt to changing conditions, including temperature. Her work has the potential to help make crops more heat-tolerant and to render pathogenic fungi less resilient.
Still another Duke scientist, Asiya Gusa, PhD, is exploring whether environmental disruptions make the fungus Cryptococcus, a particularly dangerous pathogen for people with compromised immune systems, even more virulent by increasing the spread of spores.
Duke Health experts are hard at work to protect individuals and populations from the risks changing conditions may pose to human health.
Cancer outcomes improve when patients’ primary care providers are active members of their cancer care team. That’s why Duke Cancer Institute founded the Center for Onco-Primary Care — the first program of its kind in the nation.
Directed by renowned cancer survivorship experts Kevin Charles Oeffinger, MD, and Cheyenne Corbett, PhD, the center fosters collaboration between primary care physicians and oncology specialists, involving primary care practitioners in clinical decision-making and managing comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease during and following cancer treatment. Optimal management of non-cancer-related comorbidities reduces emergency department visits and hospital admissions, and patients benefit from collaborative and coordinated care.
Oeffinger, Corbett, and their team engage Duke Primary Care’s network of 400 providers across 44 clinic sites and primary groups to get patients to the right place at the right time, producing better outcomes. They also conduct innovative research and train the next generation of clinicians and researchers.
Duke pioneered this critical collaborative approach, and we are sharing what we’ve learned with other institutions that seek to build similar programs. In cancer care, as in so many other things, Duke Health leads the way.
At Duke Health, we embrace bold challenges with unyielding optimism. The biggest issues present daunting hurdles, but the future we envision is worth fighting for, and history has shown us that determination, creativity, perseverance, and teamwork can achieve things that were once thought impossible. We relentlessly seek solutions, overcome and learn from obstacles, and turn possibilities into realities. We are undeterred by setbacks and are always looking for the path forward. Because at Duke Health, we’re inspired by possibilities, and we’ll find a way to get to yes.
Some of the most important early research into Alzheimer’s disease took place at Duke, including the identification of the genetic variant APOE4 as a major genetic predisposition for the disease. That seminal discovery and others sparked hopes that therapeutic interventions capable of preventing or even curing Alzheimer’s might be on the horizon.
Thus far, however, those hopes have remained unfulfilled, and Alzheimer’s remains one of the world’s most devastating and intractable diseases.
But we are not even close to giving up the fight. Duke scientists continue to reveal new knowledge and uncover the secrets that drive Alzheimer’s disease. Heather Whitson, MD, MHS, director of the Duke/UNC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
(ADRC), has shed invaluable light on the workings of the disease with longitudinal studies that track at-risk individuals over many years.
The ADRC is unique among its peers in focusing much of its research on young people — Alzheimer’s is often present decades before symptoms appear — and on Black and Native American populations, who have a significantly higher risk of the disease.
Every discovery Whitson and her colleagues across Duke make moves us closer to preventive measures, effective treatments, and ultimately a cure.
Few challenges in medicine are more daunting, or more important, than Alzheimer’s disease. That’s exactly why we have embraced this challenge, and why we will not rest until we succeed.
Duke Health is one of the top four solid organ transplant centers in the nation. We perform over 400 life-saving congenital heart surgeries annually, with shorter wait times and better survival rates for heart transplants than the national average. In recent years, Duke’s heart surgeons have pioneered a series of breakthrough heart transplant procedures, giving new life and new hope to children and adults who would otherwise have had no options.
Duke’s pediatric cardiac transplant team, led by Joseph Turek, MD, PhD, MBA, recently pulled off something of a miracle: using one donor heart to save two infants who needed transplants. The procedure built on an earlier breakthrough: the world’s first partial heart transplant, in which Turek and his team transplanted donated heart valves that would grow along with the recipient, avoiding the usual need for multiple follow-up surgeries.
For the domino transplant, Turek transplanted a donor heart into an infant with congenital heart disease. The valves from the damaged heart were healthy, however. Rather than discard them with the rest of the replaced heart, Turek transplanted the valves into another infant who needed them.
The two procedures are among the most important advances in congenital heart surgery in decades. Thanks to Duke Health, more children with heart disease will have the opportunity to grow up and live full and happy lives.
Grand ambitions are just hopes until people take action to bring them about, and our commitment to action drives us to deliver results. From pioneering medical advancements to improving patient care and making a tangible difference in the lives of those we serve, we are all in.
And our work doesn’t end at the cure. In health care, you’re never solving just one problem. Every solution leads to new questions, and new questions mean new opportunities. We fight for the right policies, empower our students and trainees, and scale our discoveries for the greatest benefit. At Duke Health, we don’t just dream great things: we live to do the work it takes to achieve them.
All commercial aircraft carry a flight data recorder, known colloquially as a “black box,” which aggregates huge amounts of invaluable data about each flight that ultimately are used to improve systems, processes, and passenger safety.
At Duke Health, patient safety is paramount. Christopher Mantyh, MD, professor of surgery and chief quality officer for Duke University Medical Center, is pioneering an innovative system that does much the same as a flight data recorder, but in the operating room.
The OR Black Box® system, developed by Surgical Safety Technologies, Inc., records virtually everything that happens from beginning to end during surgical procedures: the actions performed by the surgical team, conditions in the OR, the patient’s vital signs, how long each step takes, which instruments are used, and much more.
Those data are then analyzed to assess procedures, inform decision-making, flag potential issues, and suggest improvements.
The OR Black Box® gives Duke Health surgical teams knowledge at a scale that was previously unimaginable — all in the interest of making sure every patient at Duke has the safest and most positive possible outcome.
Nationwide, disparities in health care are complex and deep-rooted, and they have a profound effect on access to and quality of care. At Duke Health, we are committed to addressing these disparities, and we’re starting right here at home.
Duke Health’s Collaborative to Advance Clinical Health Equity (CACHE) is a community-driven initiative that leverages the power of data science to identify and address health care disparities. We look in the mirror of our own clinical outcomes and analyze these data to address the root causes of disparities.
CACHE, founded by Richard Shannon, MD, and now directed by Michael Pignone, MD, uses data from the entire Duke Health system to pinpoint and address disparities in areas such as cancer screening, hypertension, diabetes, maternal morbidity, and gun violence. The program identifies clinical outcomes that significantly impact patient health and well-being; evaluates
those outcomes for the presence of disparities; and works with patients to understand the underlying factors that drive them. We use these insights to develop interventions that address the root causes of disparities both inside and beyond the health care system.
The CACHE initiative is just one part of Duke Health’s determined efforts to distill insights from its providers, patients, and communities and improve health outcomes.
Health, we believe in the extraordinary impact of generosity.
Our philanthropic partners play a pivotal role in Duke Health’s missions. Their generous support enables us to tackle the most pressing health challenges, innovate new treatments, and ensure that every patient receives the highest standard of care. These donations are not just financial gifts; they are investments in a healthier future for all. Together, we can achieve extraordinary outcomes and make a lasting impact on the world.
Philanthropic support accelerates groundbreaking research by providing essential funding for innovative projects and clinical trials. This enables Duke Health to explore new treatments and technologies, such as advancements in cancer therapy, Alzheimer’s disease research, and pediatric organ transplants. These contributions help bridge the gap between initial research and obtaining federal grants, allowing for quicker implementation of life-saving discoveries.
Philanthropy funds scholarships, fellowships, and educational programs, making it possible for students from diverse backgrounds to pursue health professions without the burden of overwhelming debt. This support ensures that Duke Health can attract and train top talent, fostering a skilled and compassionate workforce dedicated to improving patient outcomes.
Philanthropy funds specialized programs and services that enhance the quality of patient care. Contributions support initiatives like Duke Children’s, heart transplant programs, and mobile clinics that reach underserved communities. These funds also help improve facilities and provide cutting-edge medical equipment, ensuring that patients receive the best possible care.
Philanthropy is a cornerstone of Duke Health’s efforts to build and sustain meaningful community partnerships. Your support helps us create and sustain programs that support local organizations and educational institutions to address critical issues such as education, economic stability, food insecurity, and health care access. These collaborations create lasting, positive change.
Our philanthropic partners save lives. An anonymous donor recently made a historic $50 million gift to Duke University Health System that will have a profound impact on cancer care throughout the region. The donation supports the development of a proton beam therapy center at Duke, making this life-changing cancer treatment available to countless patients, many of them children. Proton beam therapy enables clinicians to direct targeted radiation more precisely to tumors, sparing nearby tissues — especially important for treating children and patients with tumors in sensitive areas such as the head and neck. This type of therapy also has fewer side effects than conventional radiation therapy.
Thanks to this generous donor, Duke’s proton beam facility will provide targeted radiation for some 800 patients each year, as well as fueling innovation and cutting-edge research.
Support from our philanthropic partners fuels the research that leads to new therapies. Ever since Duke established one of the nation’s first brain tumor centers in 1937, we have been home to one of the nation’s leading institutions dedicated to research and patient care for one of the most dreaded diagnoses in medicine. Recently, years of research at Duke led to the approval of one of the most successful drugs yet developed for glioblastoma.
Philanthropy is a driving force in building and sustaining that excellence. Duke’s Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center is built on a powerful legacy of philanthropic support by the family of the late Preston Robert Tisch, a business leader who was treated at Duke in the early 2000s. In gratitude for the dedication and care demonstrated by the Duke brain tumor team, his family made the first of a series of transformational gifts to Duke in 2005. Visionary support by the Tisch family and others drives the discoveries that give new hope and new life to thousands of adults and children.
Philanthropic support can leverage benefits that ripple far beyond the original gift. Gifts to support pilot research help scientists generate data that qualifies for exponentially greater public and private funding. Support for endowed professorships attracts the leading lights of science and medicine and creates whole constellations of colleagues, students, postdocs, and funding opportunities.
When the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) was initiating efforts to develop a pan-coronavirus vaccine, smaller gifts kept the work going. And when a gap in federal funding threatened to stall the project, several modest but timely unrestricted gifts served to bridge the gap. That timely infusion of philanthropic resources sustained the project, yielding promising results that ultimately led to over $28 million in subsequent funding. And DHVI is on the path to a major breakthrough for human health.
YOUR SUPPORT IS CRUCIAL FOR ADVANCING THE MISSION OF DUKE HEALTH
By investing in key areas such as personnel, research, program support, infrastructure, and unrestricted funds, donors play a vital role in fostering innovation, enhancing patient care, and ensuring our ability to respond to emerging challenges. These contributions not only sustain and elevate existing programs but also pave the way for groundbreaking discoveries and the development of future health care leaders.
Your generous support for Duke Health helps us meet essential needs in the following areas:
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
Ensure the recruitment and retention of top-tier faculty, fostering academic excellence and innovation.
ENDOWED DIRECTORSHIPS
Support recruitment and retention of premier clinical leaders, driving innovation, facilitating strategic initiatives, and enhancing program growth.
FINANCIAL AID AND SCHOLARSHIPS
Provide opportunities for talented students from diverse backgrounds to pursue medical education without undue financial burden.
FELLOWSHIPS
Enable advanced training and research opportunities for emerging medical and biomedical professionals.
PILOT STUDIES
Fund initial research projects that can lead to significant scientific breakthroughs.
HIGH RISK-HIGH REWARD RESEARCH
Support innovative and potentially transformative research that may not receive traditional funding.
FILL GAPS
Address funding shortfalls in critical research areas, ensuring continuous progress.
Sustain and elevate existing programs to maintain and improve the quality and reach of current research, educational, patient care, and community activities.
Establish, expand, and ensure long-term stability of state-of-the-art facilities through philanthropic support, including naming opportunities.
Invest in cutting-edge technologies that maximize our ability to advance discovery and enhance care.
Provide flexibility that enables Duke Health to allocate resources where they are most urgently needed, ensuring adaptability and responsiveness to emerging challenges.
1924-2024
Duke pediatrician Jay Arena, MD, leads the push for the development of childproof safety caps for medicine bottles and later launches the first poison control movement in the United States.
James B. Duke establishes The Duke Endowment and directs that part of his $40 million gift be used to transform Durham’s Trinity College into Duke University. The next year, he makes an additional bequest to establish Duke Hospital and the Schools of Medicine and Nursing.
Eugene A. Stead Jr., MD, then-chairman of the Department of Medicine, starts the nation’s first physician assistant educational program.
Duke University Hospital opens to patients, and the School of Medicine welcomes its first class of 70 students.
UV LAMPS REDUCE INFECTIONS
Duke surgeon J. Deryl Hart, MD, introduces ultraviolet lamps into operating rooms to kill airborne germs, dramatically reducing the number of post-operative staph infections and related deaths.
Psychiatrist Ewald W. Busse, MD, establishes the Duke University Center for Aging, the first research center of its kind in the nation. The Duke Center for Aging continues to pioneer long-term studies of health problems among the elderly.
Barnes Woodhall, MD, establishes the brain tumor program at Duke, one of the first brain tumor research and clinical programs in the U.S.
The School of Medicine transforms medical education with its “New Curriculum,” which introduces patient care in the second year and dedicates the entire third year to research.
LINCOLN COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER FOUNDED
Charles DeWitt Watts, MD, the first board-certified Black surgeon in North Carolina, founds the Lincoln Community Health Center in Durham.
ALZHEIMER’S GENETIC RISK FACTOR
Duke researchers discover a gene that increases people’s risk of developing the most common form of Alzheimer’s disease, showing for the first time that it can be inherited.
DUKE HUMAN VACCINE INSTITUTE ESTABLISHED
The Duke Human Vaccine Institute is established to support efforts to develop vaccines and therapeutics for HIV/AIDS and other emerging infections.
FIRST OUTPATIENT BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT PROGRAM
Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center develops the nation’s first outpatient bone marrow transplantation program.
CURE FOR SEVERE COMBINED IMMUNODEFICIENCY
Pediatric immunologist Rebecca Buckley, MD, uses bone marrow transplantation to cure severe combined immunodeficiency, also known as “bubble boy disease.”
DUKE COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER ESTABLISHED
The Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center becomes one of the nation’s first cancer centers to be established with the passage of the National Cancer Act.
CURE FOR COMPLETE DIGEORGE SYNDROME
Pediatric immunologist Louise Markert, MD, PhD, uses thymus transplantation to cure once-fatal complete DiGeorge Syndrome.
FIRST HUMAN CLINICAL TRIALS OF AZT
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.
POMPE DISEASE
The FDA approves Myozyme, the first lifesaving treatment for children with Pompe disease. The treatment was discovered and developed at Duke.
The McGovern-Davison Children’s Health Center brings all of Duke’s pediatric specialties under one roof. The $32.5 million facility is completely paid for through philanthropy.
Jeffery Lawson, MD, PhD, and Laura Niklason, MD, PhD, develop a bioengineered blood vessel, which Lawson grafts into an artery in a patient’s arm, the first in-human procedure of its kind in the U.S.
DUKE CLINICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
The Duke Clinical Research Institute is founded, with Robert M. Califf, MD, as the first executive director, and becomes the world’s largest academic clinical research enterprise.
Duke is tapped by the National Institutes of Health to lead the $300 million Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology consortium, dedicated to HIV vaccine development and design.
ROBERT LEFKOWITZ SHARES NOBEL PRIZE
Robert J. Lefkowitz, MD, shares the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with his former post-doctoral fellow, Brian K. Kobilka, MD, for their work on a class of cell surface receptors that have become the target of many prescription drugs.
A Duke surgical team implants North Carolina’s first retinal prosthesis system, or “bionic eye,” which restores limited vision after blindness from retinitis pigmentosa.
PAUL MODRICH RECEIVES NOBEL PRIZE
Paul Modrich, PhD, is one three researchers awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their mechanistic studies of DNA repair, which provides fundamental knowledge of how a living cell functions and helps guide development of new cancer treatments.
A genetically modified poliovirus therapy developed at Duke Cancer Institute shows significantly improved long-term survival for patients with recurrent glioblastoma.
Duke surgeons perform the world’s first partial heart transplant, with the living arteries and valves from a freshly donated heart fused onto a patient’s existing heart.
The FDA approves vorasidenib, a drug based on research and clinical trials conducted at Duke, which more than doubles progression-free survival in patients with glioblastoma.
A Duke team led by Linda Cendales, MD, performs the first hand transplant in North Carolina, attaching the limb to a 54-year-old patient whose hand was severed in a childhood accident.
Duke becomes a national model for its effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic, innovating ways to provide exceptional patient care, deliver vaccinations, teach and learn, and conduct surveillance testing.
A $100 million award from The Duke Endowment fuels the launch of Duke Science and Technology (DST), accelerating the recruitment of leading scholars in fields including cancer, neuroscience, and immunobiology.
Duke Health establishes the Duke Health Integrated Practice, creating a unified, integrated academic health system that will better serve patients, communities, faculty, and staff.
The FDA approves elacestrant, the first and only treatment for drug-resistant breast cancers with mutations in estrogen receptor ESR1, developed in the lab of Donald McDonnell at Duke.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases taps the Duke Human Vaccine Institute to develop a vaccine that protects against multiple types of coronaviruses and viral variants.
LEARN MORE ABOUT WAYS TO MAKE YOUR GIFT TO DUKE HEALTH: DUKE.IS/DUKEHEALTHWAYSTOGIVE
Duke Health encompasses the world-class academic health care and research of the Duke University Health System, Duke University School of Medicine, Duke University School of Nursing, Duke-NUS Medical School, Duke Global Health Institute, and the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy.
The health system advances our clinical mission by delivering care across three hospitals (Duke University Hospital, Duke Regional Hospital, and Duke Raleigh Hospital) and numerous outpatient services, including Duke Primary Care, Duke Health Integrated Practices, Duke HomeCare & Hospice, Duke Health and Wellness, and multiple affiliations.
Leading the education and research missions of Duke Health are the School of Medicine and its numerous departments, centers, and institutes; the School of Nursing; Duke-NUS Medical School; Duke Global Health Institute; and the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy.
Through the integration of its education, research, and clinical care missions, Duke Health is steadfast in its dedication to improving the lives of all who come to us for hope, health, and healing. We do so by elevating standards of care; conducting breakthrough research and discovery; teaching and training the next generation of providers; and strengthening global and community health.
FRONT COVER IMAGE
Xunrong Luo, MD, PhD, Boyce Haller Distinguished Professor in Nephrology, speaks with a patient. Luo is a kidney and pancreas transplant specialist whose research focuses on mechanisms for establishing and maintaining immune tolerance in transplantation.
Photography by Erin Roth, Duke Health Marketing and Communications
BACK COVER IMAGE
Cameron McIntyre, PhD, professor of neurosurgery and professor of biomedical engineering, wearing an augmented reality headset that translates brain scans into interactive holograms.
Photography by Eamon Queeney, Duke University School of Medicine
