January 10, 2008

Dear School of Medicine Community:

Executive Vice Dean Keith Yamamoto and I are pleased to announce the creation of the Graduate Program in Molecular Medicine (GPMM) and the appointment of Professor Louis Reichardt, PhD, as its director.  In addition, we announce that Dr. Reichardt has been appointed director of the UCSF Clinical and Translational Sciences Training Program for Laboratory-Based Scientists. Dr. Reichardt is Jack D. and DeLoris Lange Professor of Cell Physiology and professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics.

The creation of GPMM was the major recommendation from the School of Medicine Graduate Education Mini-retreat in November 2006. As GPMM director, Dr. Reichardt will lead the development of a new program, accessible by all UCSF graduate students enrolled in any of our graduate programs, that offers novel, high level educational opportunities in medically relevant basic and translational research, and also promotes a greater understanding of concepts and mechanistic approaches in modern medical science across all of our existing graduate programs. We anticipate that key elements of these programs will include new seminars, symposia, journal clubs and mini-courses that enable greater interaction among prominent basic, clinical, and translational scientists and UCSF trainees, both Ph.D. and M.D. The program will be developed in conjunction with an advisory board chaired by Dr. Yamamoto.  Watch for a new website soon that will describe the details.

Dr. Reichardt received an A.B. at Harvard, was a Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge, and received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Stanford.  After fellowships at the University of Geneva and in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, he joined the Neuroscience Division of the UCSF Department of Physiology in 1977, where he helped to develop and expand the Neuroscience Graduate Program. He has co-directed or directed that program since 1989 and has chaired the Executive Committee of the Herbert W. Boyer Program in Biological Sciences (PIBS) since 1998.

Dr. Reichardt’s research focuses on the roles of trophic factors, such as NGF, in regulating neuronal survival, differentiation, and function and on the roles of cell adhesion molecules in controlling axon growth, pathfinding, and synapse formation. This research is important for understanding the development of the nervous system, the etiologies of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, and the progression of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr. Reichardt’s scientific service includes memberships on scientific advisory boards for several medical philanthropic organizations; he was a founding editor of Neuron and serves on several other editorial boards. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In addition to his scientific achievements, Dr. Reichardt is a distinguished and renowned mountaineer.  He was a member of American expeditions which established new routes on both K2 and Mount Everest, reaching the summit of each peak.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Reichardt for accepting these new leadership responsibilities.

Sincerely,

Sam Hawgood
Interim Dean