Message from the Biomedical Sciences Chair

Message from the Chair

The Department of Biomedical Sciences has a long history of excellence in research and teaching. I was fortunate enough to become Chair of the department in April 2018, and since then we have continued to excel in both areas.

In research, we have recruited outstanding faculty such as Drs. Peter Steyger, Brian North, and Tejbeer Kaur. The Translational Hearing Center, led by Dr. Steyger, has been established in our newly renovated facilities with multiple state-of-the-art equipment rooms which are located on the 4th floor of Criss I.

The generous support of the Bellucci DePaoli Family Foundation allowed the department to successfully organize the inaugural Bellucci Symposium (May 2019), establishing this annual event focusing on gene therapy for hearing loss and encouraging international collaboration among researchers in this field. This substantial gift from the Bellucci DePaoli Family Foundation also made possible the awards of four internal research grants on translational hearing research in 2019 and awards will be issued again in 2020.

Our strong cancer research group led by Dr. Laura Hansen has successfully been awarded a six-year LB595 grant. In addition, several faculty had been awarded NIH R01 and R21 grants, foundation multi-year grants, and DoD grants.

Our PhD, MD/PhD and Master students are enjoying the newly renovated student lounge on the 3rd floor of Criss II. The ongoing seminar series every Thursday, and three ongoing journal clubs, have provided opportunities for our students, research postdocs, staff, and faculty to discuss their own research with each other and outside speakers.

Our outstanding faculty have been the pillars in the 1st and 2nd year (M1 and M2) medical students’ education within the School of Medicine. Drs. Ken Kramer and Tom Pisarri are the Directors of the M1 and M2 curriculum, respectively, while other faculty have served as course directors, many of whom have received school-wide prestigious teaching awards.

With our tireless efforts and collaborative spirit, I am confident that the Department of Biomedical Sciences will continue to thrive and the best time has yet to come.

Jian Zuo, PhD
Professor and Chair,
Department of Biomedical Sciences