Welcome from
the Chairman
Robert Wordinger, PhD, professor
The Department of Cell Biology and Genetics has approximately $2 million in research funding awarded to its faculty annually. I am very proud that departmental research funding has increased over the past two years.Our projects are supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and a variety of private foundations. The acheivements of our researchers are especially impressive in light of their heavy teaching loads. Research is a significant part of what we do. We’re active in both traditional bench research and educational research. In fact, it’s unusual for a basic science department within a medical school to be involved in educational research projects. I believe it’s an indication of our depth and breadth as a department.
The department has a staff of 26, over half of which are full time faculty members playing a pivotal role in teaching the health science center’s graduate, physician assistant and medical students. Department faculty instruct Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine students in the anatomical sciences, such as gross anatomy, embryology, histology or microscopic anatomy, and parts of neuroanatomy. They are also actively involved in the teaching and administration of multiple programs in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, including master’s and doctoral degrees in cell biology and genetics, teaching structural anatomy to post-baccalaureate students and handling the administrative aspects of the forensic genetics program. Rusty Reeves, PhD, associate professor, serves as the program director of the master’s degree in science education. This department takes a lead in teaching. That’s part of our history and a fundamental part of our identity as a department. In the next decade, the nation is facing an increasing shortage of anatomists as faculty who currently teach anatomy at medical schools retire; we try to encourage our students to get a good foundation in the anatomical sciences. Their experience in this area could be the edge that gets them a job in the future.