Departments
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Week of 20 March 1998 |
Vol. I, No. 24 |
Feature
Article
BUSDM establishes department of molecular and cell biology
by Eric McHenry
With the creation of a new department, the Goldman School of Dental Medicine hopes to foster important basic research, make fresh contributions to the University's scholarly conversation, and further solidify an already strong reputation.
The department of molecular and cell biology, with four core faculty members, will become active July 1. Spencer Frankl, dean of SDM, says it is an idea whose time has come.
"Deciphering the molecular genetic bases of oral health disorders is a major challenge," Frankl says. "As a result, I felt it was very important that we move in this direction. We've been growing the research mission of this school for about the last decade, and the reason we've been able to get to this point is because we have such a solid group of fine scholars and researchers already on board, doing superb work. This was just a natural next step; we've evolved to it."
"The School of Dental Medicine has been very fortunate," he adds, "in consistently having the support of the University and Medical Center administration for endeavors such as this."
The department will occupy office and laboratory space on the Boston Medical Center campus. Its senior faculty members will be Professor and Chairman Carlos Hirschberg and Professor Phillips Robbins, two scientists whose reputations precede them. Frankl describes both as "giants" in the field of biochemistry. They will be joined by Assistant Professors Claudia Abeijon and Charles Specht. The four will serve SDM in both teaching and research capacities.
"We'll work with both dental students and postdoctoral scholars," Robbins says, "and we'll be engaging them in research that's relevant to their interests, as well as doing some seminar teaching."
The department will be something of an anomaly. While allocating resources for basic research in cell and molecular biology, according to Hirschberg, is a frontier that schools of dental medicine are beginning to explore, few have made such a clear commitment to it.
"Usually it has taken the form of a few appointments," Robbins says. "I think Dean Frankl is ahead of the curve in actually establishing a whole department. And since the underpinning of all progress in modern medicine is molecular biology and genomics, I certainly agree with him that this should be an integral part of the dental school."
Collectively, the new department's faculty represents several generations of mentoring. Hirschberg comes to SDM from the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, where he worked with Abeijon. Robbins will conclude a 39-year tenure at Massachusetts Institute of Technology to join the new department, and both Hirschberg and Specht did postdoctoral research in Robbins' laboratory at MIT -- Hirschberg in the early '70s, Specht in the early '90s.
Hirschberg says he found the prospect of launching a new department "particularly attractive" because of his collegiality with Robbins.
"We share some interests, but as researchers we complement each other; we don't overlap. And I think that's going to be a real strength of the department," Hirschberg says.
Similarly, Frankl foresees the new department strengthening a larger institutional symbiosis. It will join a diverse scientific community to which it can contribute and from which it can benefit.
"As schools of dental medicine move into the 21st century," he says, "they must support the research mission of their medical center and their parent university. They must be firmly integrated into that scholarly fabric."
"Dean Frankl has recruited several renowned scientists," adds Aram Chobanian, dean of the School of Medicine and provost of the Medical Campus. "I think this will enhance the research efforts not only at the dental school, but also the Medical Campus as a whole, and at the University as well."
By Frankl's estimate, SDM draws students interested in professional and academic dentistry in nearly equal numbers. The cachet the department of molecular and cell biology will lend the school's reputation for basic research, he says, may tip the balance.
"I think the new department, together with the existing research departments," says Frankl, "will attract students who would like to pursue careers in academic dentistry and research."