Dr. Alakananda Basu has been appointed to head up the development of a new Graduate program in Cancer Biology.

"Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. There have been exciting new developments in the past few years. A newly developed interdisciplinary program in Cancer Biology will be offered starting Fall of 2007. The goal of this program is to provide students with rigorous education and training in the field of Cancer. The students will acquire a broad background in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology. In addition, they will be able to select additional courses in the area of cancer. A major advantage of this program is that the students will have the freedom to choose faculty advisors from any department according to their research interests. Our faculty members are engaged in various aspects of cancer research, including signal transduction, cancer immunology, tumor invasion, metastasis, DNA repair, apoptosis, cell proliferation and differentiation, drug resistance, gene delivery, cancer therapeutics, molecular carcinogenesis, and nanotechology/imaging. The research projects employ state-of-the-art molecular, cellular and biochemical techniques that include genomics, proteomics, mass spectrometry, molecular cloning, gene targeting, FACS analysis, advanced fluorescence spectroscopy, and optical imaging".

Advertisement of the program, student recruitment, and curriculum development will begin in the Fall of 2006

Due to Dr. Basu's increased responsibilities Dr. Richard Easom has been appointed as the Graduate Advisor for the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology programs.