The Dartmouth Medical School will implement a new Life Sciences curriculum through a $1.5 million grant recently awarded by the Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust.
The grant, which will be awarded over a four-year period, will be used to support the new curriculum necessary for the development of a multidisciplinary genetics program.
The new curriculum advances will benefit not only medical school students, but undergraduates as well, according to Markey Trust Director for Medical Science Robert Glaser, M.D.
"With the Trust's grant, Dartmouth will be able to increase its offerings in the genetics area, but will also begin to establish a Life Sciences infrastructure that will promote intellectual bridges and an interdisciplinary learning environment for graduate students, medical students and undergraduates," Markey said.
The funding will allow the medical school to further develop investigation in the genetics of fundamental model systems, like yeast and Drosophila, the genetics of vertebrate systems and the genetics of heritable diseases like cancer and heart disease, Dartmouth Medical School Dean Andrew Wallace, M.D. said.
"This is one example where an investment by the Markey Trust will have a positive effect across all aspects of the academic medical community at Dartmouth - scholarship, research, teaching, medical practice and ethics," stated Constance Brinckerhoff, the Nathan Smith professor of medicine and biochemistry and associate dean of science at the medical school.
The Markey Trust was established by Lucille Markey, former owner of the Calumet Farm for breeding and racing of Thoroughbreds, and has awarded more than $440 million for research, scholarships and fellowships in medical research, according to the release.
In 1989, The Markey Trust awarded the Dartmouth Medical School a $1 million grant to purchase a modular laboratory to expand research programs and provide improved facilities.
