The school was established when Buffalo was a boomtown on the Erie Canal and the gateway to the West. Leading citizens—primarily physicians and lawyers—proposed that an institution of higher learning be established, which led to the founding of the private, nonsectarian University of Buffalo. The Medical School, or Medical Department, as it was called, was the first decanal unit within the university, and 40 years passed before other departments were added.

Medical classes began February 24, 1847, with an enrollment of 66 students. The medical school’s first permanent location was next to Buffalo General Hospital in downtown Buffalo. In 1893, the school relocated to High Street in the city, where it remained until 1953, when it moved to its current location on the university’s South Campus.

In 1962, University of Buffalo merged with the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The Medical School then became the School of Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo. In 2015, it become known as the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences — the first school naming in UB history — in recognition of the Jeremy M. Jacobs family’s longstanding philanthropy and service to UB.

(Source: Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences website, accessed July 2018).