Message from the University Executive Committee
Robert McGrath, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic
Affairs
Gail Habicht, Vice President for Research
Norman Edelman, Vice President for Health Sciences
We are very pleased to
announce the creation of a university-wide, interdisciplinary institute
for chemical biology and drug discovery. The founding director of the
institute is Distinguished Professor Iwao Ojima of the Department of
Chemistry, and the institute headquarters are on the seventh floor of the
Chemistry building. Individual faculty based in the departments of
Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Medicine, Molecular Genetics and
Microbiology, Pharmacological Sciences, Physiology and Biophysics, and
from the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments (ICTE)
and the Centers for Molecular Medicine are members of the new ICB&DD.
We expect that bringing together disciplinary
experts from many parts of our campus will be important in attracting
major Program Project and National Center for Research Resources Grants
from the NIH. Because the overarching goal of the new institute is to
have outstanding scientists collaborate in developing practical drugs,
strong support from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are
also expected.
Development funds
to help launch this initiative have come from each of
our vice presidential areas. The New York State Office of Science,
Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR) also contributed substantially
through a Faculty Development Award grant for Professor Ojima. We thank
the chairs of departments with faculty associated with the institute, and
also the Committee on Academic Planning and Resource Allocation (CAPRA) of
the University Senate, for valuable recommendations on aspects of setting
up the structure and policies for the new ICB&DD.