| Letter from Director |
| History of IMMAG |
| Facilities |
| Funding |
| Educational Programs |
| People |
| Seminars |
| IMMAG Retreat 2005 |
| Contact Information |
| News Release |
|
History
Founded in 1993, the mission of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics (IMMAG) is to promote research excellence in the basic biomedical and clinical sciences at MCG. Open doors and interdisciplinary collaboration are at the heart of IMMAG research, as evidenced in the five programmatic research areas: Cancer Biology & Gene Regulation, Developmental & Regenerative Neurobiology, Molecular Immunology, Molecular Chaperone Biology/Radiobiology, and Regenerative Medicine. Each program is led by a world-renowned scientist (Drs. William Dynan, Lin Mei, Andrew Mellor, Nahid Mivechi, and Carlos Isales, respectively). Dr. Robert. Yu, an internationally known and honored biochemist, assumed the leadership of IMMAG in April, 2000, following the retirement of IMMAG’s founding director, Dr. Howard Rasmussen.
An annual retreat, held off-site at such venues as the north Georgia mountains, promotes the exchange of ideas between faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students. A vibrant weekly seminar program includes speakers from throughout the United States, as well as from the international scientific community. Laboratory groups meet regularly on an individual basis or with collaborating laboratories to discuss their latest research or recent journal articles. Informal lunch gatherings occur daily in the common areas on each floor of the Interdisciplinary Research Building.
Through selective emphasis on focused research activities to optimize funds and facilities, the faculty has established IMMAG as a renowned center of scientific excellence. Faculty recruited to IMMAG research programs originate from many nationally known research institutions, including Yale University, Harvard
University, the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Ludwig Cancer Institute (San Diego), Medical College of Virginia, Texas Tech University, Boston University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the Universities of Louisville (KY), Colorado, Alabama, and California (San Francisco), and Eli Lilly Co. Additional faculty were recruited to IMMAG from foreign research institutions, including the National Institutes for Medical Research and Child Health in London, England; Cambridge University in England, Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany; and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation in Tokyo, Japan.
The Georgia Research Alliance has facilitated senior faculty recruitment at IMMAG through its Eminent Scholar Program designed to attract the most talented scientists to Georgia. Current GRA Eminent Scholars at IMMAG are Drs. William Dynan, Lin Mei, Andrew Mellor, and Robert Yu. Nearly sixty MCG faculty, from clinical departments such as Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Radiology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Pathology, and from the basic science departments, hold joint appointments in IMMAG. This approach ensures that research faculty contribute to the educational and clinical missions administered through other MCG departments.
Many IMMAG faculty are based in the $21 million Interdisciplinary Research Building on Laney-Walker Boulevard. Additional IMMAG faculty are located in renovated laboratories in the Sanders Research and Education Building adjacent to the Interdisciplinary Research Building or in the Veterans Affairs Medical Center adjacent to the MCG Medical Center. Phase II of the Interdisciplinary Research Building opened in spring, 2004, and houses biotechnology incubator space, laboratory animals, and other basic science laboratories.