About Cell Biology        

The Cell Biology Department at the University of Massachusetts Medical School represents an exciting, highly interactive multidisciplinary program that is consistently rated among the top 15 in the nation. The Cell Biology faculty are conducting research into some of the most complex, medically relevant problems that face our society today, and are dedicated to preparing our students to face these challenges in an environment of rapid technological change. Our graduates are leaders in academics, industry and public service.

Over the last two decades the discipline of Cell Biology has undergone a tremendous explosion, both in terms of knowledge and in the scope of models and techniques that are used. Contemporary researchers in Cell Biology are translate their studies at the single molecule level to the study of disease in the whole animal. Researchers seek to answer questions in both basic and applied Cell Biology.

Faculty members in our Department utilize state-of-the-art approaches ranging from advanced microscopy to gene targeting in animals. For example:

• Electron microscopy is used to study the molecular structure of proteins involved in muscle contraction, nuclear structure and to determine how genetic mutations affect the structure of the flagellum, an organelle involved in cell motility and in human disease.
• Advanced light microscopy, combined with live cell imaging in real time, is used to study the mechanisms underlying how cells divide, the interactions between different groups of cells during development, or the movement of gene transcripts in the nucleus.
• Biochemical techniques are used to study gene expression and rearrangements of the chromatin remodeling and protein function.
• Gene targeting techniques in rodents are used to study gene function and development, and the role of tumor suppressors in development and cancer.

To support this wide range of techniques, the department houses a number of core facilities that are widely used by faculty from other departments. These include facilities for electron microscopy, confocal and digital imaging, DNA sequencing and construction of transgenic and knockout rodents.

As befits a medical school, many of the departmental faculty employ model systems with direct applications to human disease and development, including studies of cancer, reproductive biology, neurological disease, and kidney and bone developmental disorders. The department has a number of faculty with joint appointments in both basic and clinical departments including surgery,medicine, the cancer center and the neuroscience program, and plays a highly active role in graduate and medical student education. Courses offered in the Cell Biology graduate program reflect the departments clinical interest and include Cytoskeleton and Disease, The Molecular and Cellular Basis for Cancer and the Molecular and Cellular Biology of Multiple Organ Dysfunction.  Medical education courses include Mind, Brain & Behavior, Human Genetics, Cell and Tissue/Organ Biology and Gross Anatomy.