Established in 1984, Baylor Research Institute (BRI) promotes and supports research to bring innovative treatments from the laboratory workbench to the patient bedside. To achieve this bench-to-bedside concept, the institute focuses on basic science, clinical trials, and healthcare effectiveness and quality of care research. Investigators at Baylor are conducting more than 650 active research protocols spanning more than 20 medical specialties.
Baylor's reputation for innovation dates back many decades. In 1938, Joseph M. Hill, M.D., developed the ADTEVAC machine, which stored blood plasma without refrigeration and saved thousands of lives during World War II. More recently, in 1996, pulmonologists on staff at Baylor created an innovative, nationally accepted "two-step" asthma therapy program known as Rules of TwoT. That same year, Baylor recruited immunologist Jacques Banchereau, Ph.D., who is considered the "father" of dendritic cell technology by the international scientific community.
Today, the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, one component of BRI, is among the top immunological basic science research centers in the world. In 1997, transplant physicians at Baylor successfully performed the world's first "bridge to transplant" using a genetically altered pig liver. Additionally, president of the Baylor Research Institute and anesthesiologist on staff at Baylor, Michael Ramsay, M.D., developed the most widely used controlled sedation management tool in the international critical care environment.