REDEFINING the FUTURE
of LIFE SCIENCES
at SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
Breakthroughs in biomedicine are providing new relief from pain and disease. Fresh understandings of the Earth’s properties are
yielding new approaches to environmental problems and preventing repetitions of old mistakes. Biomedical research and environmental
research are improving the quality of our lives in tangible ways. If these pursuits of knowledge appear unrelated at first glance,
take another look. Syracuse University did. Today’s medical problems are often related to or complicated by environmental conditions.
Today’s ecological challenges (global warming, to name a prominent example) require understanding the impact of change on the molecular
and cellular functions of organisms living in affected environments.
Convinced that progress in either field is contingent upon the collaborative efforts of both, Syracuse scientists have made a strategic decision to create an institutional research focus on cell signaling and ecological/environmental biology. As a result, the Life Sciences at Syracuse are poised for national leadership in the converging areas of biological and environmental research.
In the search for solutions at Syracuse, biologists are studying the
“micro” world right alongside and together with their “macro” world colleagues who are studying the environment. Together, they are
crossing new thresholds in the ways we study life on Earth. Their collaborative approach—at the heart of our Life Sciences Complex—is
giving new meaning to the concept of biocomplexity in the 21st century.
The Syracuse University Life Sciences Complex opens its doors in 2008.
The sustained success of the Life Sciences Complex requires support for several crucial initiatives:
Support success in undergraduate teaching and research…
Help us implement programs and curricula designed to improve classroom and laboratory instruction and promote “real-world” experiences
for students.
Support success in graduate education and research…
Help us establish academic programs that will attract and retain the brightest, most highly motivated graduate students.
Support faculty at the vanguard of research…
Help us create a Faculty Development Fund to provide a solid program of support for junior faculty emerging in their fields and for
senior faculty maintaining their positions at the thresholds of discovery. This fund will provide for a range of needs that includes
faculty travel to meetings, conferences, training sessions, and participation in collaborative projects to named professorships,
post-doctoral fellowships, and incentives to win additional funding from outside sources.
SUPPORT a STATE-OF-the-ART FACILITY…
An Imaging Center capable of world-class fluorescence microscopy of fixed and living tissue is necessary for research at
every level: faculty, graduate, and undergraduate. Faculty members who consider the Imaging Center an essential tool for their research
include professors Brian Calvi (cancer mechanisms), Melissa Pepling (female fertility), David Althoff (biocontrol of agricultural pests),
and Craig Albertson (evolution).
A Genomics Center, an on-site capability for extracting and sequencing DNA, is vital to researchers working on cell signaling
and ecology/evolutionary biology. They include professors Ramesh Raina (plants as anti-terrorism agents), Kari Seagraves (plant-insect
interactions), Douglas Frank (effects of herbivores on the micro-ecology of plant roots), Brian Calvi and Michael Cosgrove (cancer), and
Anthony Garza and Roy Welch (bacterial biofilms).
A Proteomics Center that detects, characterizes, and analyzes proteins and other large biological molecules is a critical capability
for research in cell signaling and ecology/evolutionary biology. This is of particular importance to biology and chemistry faculty
members—including Michael Cosgrove (cancer) and Anthony Garza and Roy Welch (bacterial biofilms)—as well as to all ecologists needing
to identify micro-organisms in a specific site or area.