A year into his tenure as dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School, Dr. Brooks Jackson is working to revitalize a slipping institution.

With the governor expressing concern over the school's performance, Jackson is out to restore its days of research prominence, an era when the school was renowned for such breakthroughs as the first open-heart surgery and the vaccine for Lyme disease.

"We want to be really world-class," Jackson said. Having a world-class research and training program doesn't mean just prestige for the U, but also "new drugs, new vaccines and new medical devices that benefit all Minnesotans."

The new dean also wants to ensure the school can head off a looming shortage of physicians in various specialties and regions of the state. And he wants to nurture a sometimes difficult relationship with Fairview Health Services, which owns the university's hospital.

The slide in the school's reputation began arguably in the mid-1990s, around the time the National Institutes of Health sanctioned it following a series of financial scandals. Fiscal problems prompted the U to sell its teaching hospital to Fairview in 1997.

"Those same financial woes made it difficult to retain faculty," Jackson said. The NIH sanctions "required a lot of resources, and made it much more difficult for faculty to obtain grants, causing a number to leave and again making it more difficult to recruit."

The university slipped from the top 15 in the 1980s to 30th last year out of 144 schools in NIH grant funding, a ranking that many faculty and students consider a sign of excellence.

Meanwhile, the school suffered from a "malaise," according to a 2012 external review. Faculty, the report said, complained the U had "no consensus regarding [its] goals and aspirations."

The decline caught the attention of Gov. Mark Dayton, who last year established a committee, which includes Jackson, to find ways to improve the school.

The new dean says he aims to have the U in the top 20 of the NIH ranking within five years and the top 15 within a decade.

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Can new dean heal U medical school?