UNMC: A decade of growth

On Jan. 1, 2010, who could have known how this decade would transform the state’s only public academic health science center? Back then, no one was talking about Ebola, the tsunami of construction projects was at low tide and governance documents to formally create Nebraska Medicine were still on the horizon. As the medical center enters a new era, UNMC Today looks back at some of the events that defined the decade and transformed the state’s economic engine and its only public academic health science center.









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In 2010, the ribbon was cut on the Center for Nursing Science.

2010

The decade kicked off with the launch of several important programs. To meet the demand for family physicians in rural Nebraska, UNMC and the University of Nebraska at Kearney established the Kearney Health Opportunities Program (KHOP). A UNMC Center for Staphylococcal Research was approved to bring researchers and clinicians together to develop treatments for staph infections. And UNMC welcomed its first High School Alliance class, a partnership between UNMC, metropolitan area school districts and an educational service unit.

Also in 2010:

2011









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The Harold M. and Beverly Maurer Center for Public Health opened 2011.

The Harold M. and Beverly Maurer Center for Public Health opened in May, giving the College of Public Health a home on the UNMC campus. Only five months after moving into its new $15 million building, the college was granted accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health and became a full member of the Association of Schools of Public Health. UNMC also celebrated the dedication of the Ruth and Bill Scott Student Plaza.

Also in 2011:

2012

UNMC Chancellor Harold Maurer, M.D., announced plans to step down as chancellor in 2013 and take on a new role in the department of pediatrics, as well as work with the University of Nebraska Foundation to lead fundraising efforts for a new cancer center campus. In actuality, Dr. Maurer stayed on until his successor came on board in 2014.

Also in 2012:

2013









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From left, Stanley Truhlsen, M.D., and his wife, Dorothy, at the ribbon cutting of the Stanley M. Truhlsen Eye Institute in 2013.

UNMC leaders cut the ribbon on the Stanley M. Truhlsen Eye Institute, a $20 million, 54,536-square-foot facility that combined state-of-the-art diagnostic medicine with the latest advances in clinical research. In addition, UNMC razed Swanson Hall (the former Children’s Memorial Hospital) to make way for what is today the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.

Also in 2013:

  • The NU Board of Regents approved a joint master’s/doctoral program in biomedical informatics.

    UNMC’s Genome Engineering Core facility launched TALENs, a new gene editing service that researcher C.B. Gurumurthy described as protein tools that work like custom-made DNA cutting scissors. Sound familiar? Dr. Gurumurthy would later introduce the world to CRISPR and Easi-CRISPR gene editing which has an entire page devoted to the technology on Wikipedia.

2014









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Rick Sacra, M.D., embraces his wife following his release from the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.

After 10 years of preparation and drills, the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit team rose to the challenge when the U.S. State Department sent them an American doctor who was working in West Africa when he tested positive for the Ebola virus. Three weeks later, the unit’s first patient — Rick Sacra, M.D., — left the medical center campus, virus free. In all, three Ebola patients — Rick Sacra, M.D., Ashoka Mukpo, and Martin Salia, M.D. — were sent to the Biocontainment Unit after contracting the disease. Since then, UNMC and Nebraska Medicine have taken a leading role in training other health care workers across the U.S. and around the world in dealing with infectious diseases.

Also in 2014:









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Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., was named chancellor of UNMC shortly after this visit to campus in 2013.

2015









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Dean Kyle Meyer, Ph.D., at a 2015 event marking the creation of the UNMC College of Allied Health Professions.

In July, the UNMC School of Allied Health Professions became an independent UNMC college — joining medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy and public health. Kyle Meyer, Ph.D., who had led UNMC’s allied health programs since 2006, became its founding dean.

Also in 2015:

2016









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From left, UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., chair of the Nebraska Medicine board, University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen and Bruce Lauritzen, member of the Clarkson Regional Health Services Board, sign the governance documents in 2016 formally creating Nebraska Medicine.

In June, in what UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., called a “historic day,” the principal parties representing Nebraska Medicine, the University of Nebraska Board of Regents and Clarkson Regional Health Services added their signatures to the final governance integration documents that formally created Nebraska Medicine.

Also in 2016:

2017









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Pamela Buffett and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden at the 2017 opening event for the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.

Joe Biden, former two-term vice president who headed a national Cancer Moonshot Task Force, served as the keynote speaker at the ribbon cutting and dedication of the $323 million Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, the largest project ever on the medical center’s Omaha campus.

Also in 2017:

2018









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A 2019 ceremony marked the start of renovations to the Munroe-Meyer Institute’s new home. The board of regents approved the move in 2018.

The Board of Regents approved the move and rebuilding of the Munroe-Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation from its existing location on the UNMC Omaha campus to the former First Data building on Pine Street, located near the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Scott Campus.

Also in 2018:

  • The UNMC campus continued its focus on sustainability, announcing the largest rooftop solar installation system in Nebraska. The 1,487 solar panels — placed atop the Sorrell Center, the Truhlsen Eye Institute, and the Maurer Center for Public Health the following year — generate up to 500 kilowatts of solar-powered electricity to help power UNMC.

2019

In a major collaborative effort, researchers at UNMC and the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University announced that they had for the first time eliminated replication-competent HIV-1 DNA — the virus responsible for AIDS — from the genomes of living animals. The study, reported online July 2 in the journal Nature Communications, marked a critical step toward the development of a possible cure for human HIV infection.

Also in 2019:









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Devin Nickol, M.D., associate professor and associate dean for interprofessional education, at the 2018 event when six statewide UNMC locations were connected for the first time via iWalls.