Nathan's Body Shop

The story of medical research atDartmouth begins with NathanSmith's 1824 Practical Essay on Typhous Fever. Todayresearch is a multi-million-dollarbusiness, crucial to the school'sreputation, accreditation, andbottom line. Since the mid- 1980s,annual income from grants andcontracts has almost tripled to 553 million. Here's a painlessexamination of two centuries ofDartmouth research.

Dr. James Bernat, an expert on the philosophical, ethical, and medical questions surrounding brain death, is currently being tapped by the Vatican for his insights.

DMS researchers discovered that brain reaction time slows very little as healthy people age. Neurologist Alexander Reeves proved in 1986 that although the brain slows after the age of 20, the rate of change is so slight that after 60 years an individual's reactions are slowed by just one-tenth of a second.

Researchers from DMS, the Veterans' Hospital in White River Junction, Vermont, the University of Miami, and the University of Manitoba reported this year that women with heart disease are less likely than men to undergo diagnostic procedures such as angiography or treadmill stress tests.

In 1983 Dartmouth became one of the first centers in the country to use monoclonal antibodies (antibodies created in the lab from mouse cells fused to antibody cells) to treat acute myeloid leukemia. The antibodies remove microscopic malignant cells from a patient's bone marrow.

Professor Thomas Colacchio directs a study to find links between diet and fecal mutagens. This information may lead to a biological marker or a screening test for increased risk for colorectal cancer.

A group headed by Dr. Jack Wennberg is developing interactive software that incorporates state-of-the-art information on out-comes. The tutorial will aid primary physicians and urologists in helping patients make a choice between surgery and watchful waiting.

Six years after graduating, DMS grad and faculty member Reuben Mussey 1803 disproved Benjamin Rush's theory that the body is incapable of absorbing substances through the skin.

In 1996 Dr. Michael Gazzaniga '61 demonstrated that in some people the ability to speak resides in one hemisphere of the brain and the ability to write in the other. It was previously believed that all language functions came from the left hemisphere. Gazzaniga's work indicates that human inventions such as reading and writing can take place in different areas of the brain.

During the late 19705, professor of pharmacology Herbert Borison studied how the brain controls breathing.

Dr. David Roberts DMS '75 and a team that includes engineers and former provost John Strobehn are studying the role of heat in the treatment of intracranial tumors.

Med-school prof Gilman Frost, along with his brother, Dartmouth astronomer Edwin Frost, took the first X-Rays of a human being. The results of their 1896 experiment clearly showed a broken left wrist on Hanover resident Eddie McCarthy and changed the medical profession forever.

Researchers at the famed Dartmouth Eye Institute discovered an optical disorder known as aniseikonia. The disorder is caused by the eyes sending slightly different images to the brain, resulting in everything from headaches to car wrecks. In 1938, the AMA awarded the team a Bronze Medal.

Dr. Radford Tanzer '25, a plastic surgeon, developed the standard technique for total ear reconstruction in 1958.

Dr. Allen Dietrich heads up a group testing cancer prevention work among family physicians in their offices. Five target areas of the study: smoking; dietary counseling; early detection of cervical cancer, breast cancer, and colon cancer. The work is now being carried out at 110 physicians' offices in New Hampshire.

Research pioneered in 1978 by Michael Mayor and John Collier '72, Th '77, led to the development of improved replacement hips. Roughly half the hip implants are now of the type developed at Dartmouth. Collier is now experimenting with a stronger, longer-lasting polyethylene prosthesis.