Dartmouth Trustees approve Ph.D. programs in genetics, microbiology/immunology

Posted 04/09/01

At their spring meeting in Hanover, April 6-7, the Dartmouth Trustees approved:

• Addition of two new Ph.D. programs to be offered by Dartmouth Medical School in the areas of genetics and microbiology and immunology. The two new programs will bring to 15 the number of Ph.D. programs offered by Dartmouth.
• Dartmouth Medical School's proposed academic expansion of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., by adding four new floors to the Barbara E. Rubin building at DHMC which houses the cancer center.

Both of the new Ph.D. programs will function under the broader umbrella of the Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB) graduate program, created in 1994 through a joint initiative by Dartmouth's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Dartmouth Medical School. The MCB combined existing programs in cell and molecular biology in Dartmouth's Department of Biological Sciences with the biochemistry program at the Medical School to provide a broader, integrated program in these areas. Establishment of the two new Ph.D. programs will serve to emphasize those fields within the Medical School.

The academic expansion of the Rubin Building at DHMC will encompass a total of 100,000 gross square feet in four new floors, an expansion that was envisioned when the existing four-story building was constructed in 1996. One of the new floors will be a clinical faculty floor, another will be an office-based research floor, and the other two floors will provide laboratories for Dartmouth Medical School totaling 12-14 laboratories per floor. Plans call for construction to be completed by the end of 2003.

Expansion of the Rubin Building is critical to the continued success of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center housed there, which is a key program for both Dartmouth Medical School and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. NCCC supports both directly and indirectly a wide spectrum of academic departments and clinical services; and is one of only 37 programs in the United States designated as comprehensive cancer centers by the National Cancer Institute. The expansion will address a critical shortage of space to support current faculty which has stemmed from the success and growth of research programs at the cancer center.