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A Letter from the Chair
In response to changing demands in the training of oral and general medical health professionals, the basic science departments of anatomy, biochemistry, microbiology, physiology and pharmacology were consolidated to form the new department in 1995. Graduate programs leading to the PhD, DDS/PhD and MS degrees were approved and designed to provide highly qualified and highly motivated individuals with an opportunity to receive appropriate training in the basic and clinical sciences relevant to the improvement of the oral and craniofacial health of the nation. The Department consists of over 40 faculty and staff, approximately 20 graduate students, and 20 postdoctoral fellows. The Department is research intensive with external funding of over $10M per year including a major NIH training grant for college, dental, medical, graduate and postdoctoral students, and junior faculty. Our research programs focus on three major areas: neuroscience and pain, molecular and cell biology, and infectious disease and immunology. The Department is responsible for the basic science education of dental students and also provides the mentoring of postgraduate dental students seeking clinical specialty training and desiring to complete an M.S. degree and thesis. Dr. Ronald Dubner Dr. Ronald Dubner was appointed as Chair of the new department in 1995 after having a distinguished career at the National Institutes of Health where he served as Chief of the Neurobiology and Anesthesiology Branch of the National Institute of Dental Research, NIH. Dr. Dubner was responsible for developing a research program that spanned the basic and clinical sciences thus providing him with the experience and ability to lead the new department into the future. Dr. Dubner is a leading scientist conducting research on the neurobiology of pain and its relevance to oral and craniofacial health. |
The Department
of Biomedical Sciences is a multidisciplinary basic science department
committed to the study of oral and craniofacial biology with an emphasis
on research and training of students at different levels of academic
development from college to graduate and postgraduate training. Since
its inception in 1840 as the first dental school in the United States,
the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery has included training in the
basic sciences as an important component of its graduate and dental
school programs.