The School of Medicine

Medical Student Affairs 1682A School of Medicine Education Building

• (951) 827-7353; fax: (951) 827-5504

medadmissions@ucr.edu; medschool.ucr.edu

Ph.D. Program in Biomedical Sciences 1212 Webber Hall

• (951) 827-4540; biomed.ucr.edu/phd-program

The mission of the UCR School of Medicine is to improve the health of the people of California and, especially, to serve inland Southern Cali- fornia by training a diverse workforce of physicians and by developing innovative research and health care delivery programs that will im- prove the health of the medically underserved in the region and become models to be emulated throughout the state and nation.

The UCR School of Medicine, the first new public medical school to be developed in California in more than 40 years, is expressly designed to meet the physician workforce needs in inland Southern Califor- nia and to improve the health of people living in the region. The school’s community-based model provides medical students with clinical experiences in a variety of healthcare settings with diverse patient populations.

The M.D. curriculum offers a program that trains physicians who will be more attuned to the needs of increasingly diverse and under- served patient populations, with emphasis on culturally competent medical care. The Thomas Haider Program at the UCR School of Medi- cine maintains a unique pathway into medical school for UCR students, with up to 24 seats filled by students who attend UCR for at least six consec- utive quarters and complete their bachelor’s degree at UCR. somsa.ucr.edu

Together with affiliated medical centers in the community, the school is building a range of residency and fellowship training programs to provide the post-M.D. education required for physicians to become fully independent, licensed and board certified. gme.ucr.edu

The long-standing Ph.D. Program in Biomedical Sciences provides a unique integration of systems and disease-based medical curriculum with experimental applications to biomedical research problems. The program aims to train independent research scientists to bridge the wide gulfs that currently exist between basic science research and clinical medicine. biomed.ucr.edu/phd-program Biomedical sciences faculty in the school have robust research programs in such areas as neurodevelopmental, neuroinflammatory and neurodegen- erative disorders, traumatic brain injury, parasitic infections, intestinal bowel disease, metabolic and neuroendocrine control of fertility, tumor cell biology, vaccine development, and immune responses to viral infec- tions. This outstanding base is being expanded with additional faculty in the biomedical sciences and clinical sciences with the goals of estab- lishing new translational/clinical research programs and building research expertise in population-based health outcomes, prevention and wellness, health services and health disparities.

The BREATHE Center at the UCR School of Medicine is a multidisciplinary collaborative for studies Bridging Regional Ecology, Aerosolized Toxins, and Health Effects. Research efforts among the collaborative include regional climate modeling, culture and policy studies on air quality and health, environmental justice and health disparities, and the health impacts of aerosolized particles including dusts, soil microbes, allergenic pollens from invasive species, and pollutants. breathe.ucr.edu

The Center for Glial-Neuronal Interactions (CGNI) in UCR’s School of Medicine brings together researchers with very diverse expertise to foster innovative and collaborative research on problems of brain and spinal cord health and disease. Together, faculty, fellows and students seek to define molecular mechanisms required for optimal brain and spinal cord function as well as for prevention and therapeutic intervention of neurodevelopmental, neurologic and neurodegenerative diseases. Ongoing research includes programs on Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorders, cognitive disorders, epilepsy, stroke, glioblas- toma, infections of the brain, multiple sclerosis, neuroinflammatory disorders, phantom limb syndrome, substance abuse and traumatic brain injury. cgni.ucr.edu

The Center for Healthy Communities (CHC) serves to use innovative community-based research and to promote the health of communities in Inland Southern California. CHC is building bridges with community groups and interdisciplinary health-field faculty to promote the health of the culturally and economically diverse population surrounding UCR, particularly the medically underserved. healthycommunities.ucr.edu

The Center for Molecular and Translational Medicine provides a forum to accelerate and enhance collaboration among faculty whose re- search is devoted to the translation of basic sciences into potential therapeutics, medical devices or diagnostics. With this initiative, UC Riverside and the School of Medicine commit to devoting resources to assist in the development of novel treatments. The translation of basic lab- oratory discoveries into potential therapies, however, requires a multitude of efforts and expertise that no individual laboratory or funding source can, in isolation, fulfill. Potentially effective therapeutic strategies often never reach the patients due to the lack of proper support necessary to channel basic laboratory pre-clinical studies through the complex and rigorous testing of experimental therapeutics. It is envisioned that the Center would either directly support or catalyze funding initiatives to ad- vance the most promising innovative targeting approaches and agents into early stage clinical experimental therapeutics, therefore actively assisting in the first steps toward their development. molmed.ucr.edu

The School of Medicine has expanded its student pipeline programs that together provide a continuum of student enrichment and aca- demic support activities for students from the middle school level to postbaccalaureate level. Specific programs include Medical Leaders of To- morrow, Future Physician Leaders, Health Sciences Partnership, Community College Outreach, FastStart, Medical Scholars Program, and the Premedical Postbaccalaureate Program. medschool.ucr.edu/pipeline_programs.html

The Health Professions Advising Center (HPAC), a unit of Undergraduate Education, is a resource available to all UCR undergraduate students and alumni interested in careers in the health professions, including medicine, dentistry, nursing, optometry, pharmacy, physical therapy, veter- inary medicine and public health. Professional staff and peer mentors are available to guide students in planning pre-health professions coursework, gaining health-related experiences and completing service work. A variety of workshops on such topics as the application process and personal statement writing are also offered. se.ucr.edu/hpac/overview

In addition to the School of Medicine Research Building and School of Medicine Education Building, the school’s faculty, students and staff carry out their educational, research and administrative functions in Webber Hall, in Pierce Hall and in several clinical locations within Riverside and San Bernardino counties.