Note from the Director

Biomedical science has experienced explosive maturation and change during the last decade. Powerful technological tools have been developed for probing increasingly difficult questions. Creatively employed, these tools have already revealed spectacular insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying life processes. Even so, the act of discovery in which scientists engage has not changed. Practicing science remains as exhilarating, exasperating, unsettling, and, therefore, as rewarding, as it has been in the past. Results often are still surprising, unnerving, or confounding, thereby reinforcing the reward. However, the most effective pursuit of biomedical science is now seldom performed within the boundaries of individual techniques or disciplines upon which traditional medical school departments were founded. Rather, scientists are usually most productive when they can successfully meet the challenge of mobilizing diverse techniques and approaches to their questions.

The Program in Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School was established in a new research building in 1989 to meet this challenge. It is governed as an academic department of the Medical School. Faculty include both clinical investigators and basic scientists, many of whom focus their research on human disease processes. The faculty-directed laboratory groups and core facilities that compose the Program represent many disciplines in the bio-medical sciences: biochemistry and molecular biology, cell biology, medicine, immunology, molecular genetics and microbiology, pediatrics, pharmacology, physiology, genomics and proteomics. Program investigators employ a wide range of instrumentation and technical capabilities including X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance, digital imaging microscopy of single cells, and production of transgenic and gene-ablated animals. The scientific quality and diversity upon which the Program is based reflects the strong research commitment of the Medical School, which now ranks in the top third of US medical schools in annual NIH funding. This scientific environment makes the Program an exceptional training ground for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, who in turn contribute to its vitality and excitement.

Michael P. Czech, PhD
Professor and Chair
Program in Molecular Medicine