In 1976, St. Jude Medical was founded by Manny Villafana in Little Canada, a suburb of Saint Paul. The company developed bi-leaflet artificial heart valves, originally created at the University of Minnesota.

The company’s bi-leaflet valve was co-developed by Dr. Demetre Nicoloff of the University of Minnesota and St. Jude Medical employee Don Hanson. In 2017, Abbott acquired St. Jude Medical for $25 billion, which became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Abbott.