Research Centers
Linda Hicke, Director
The goal of the recently established Center for Cell and Developmental Biology is to provide support and infrastructure for the Evanston campus′ strong and growing research programs in Cell Biology and Developmental Biology, as well as to help strengthen the training of future research scientists in these important areas of biomedical research.
D. Martin Watterson, Director
The Center for Drug Discovery and Chemical Biology evolved from the faculty-initiated Drug Discovery Program that was established in 1996 to facilitate interdisciplinary research and educational activities. The core group of faculty from two schools and three departments has since grown to include more than thirty clinical and basic science faculty who have expanded the research and educational infrastructure through acquisition of peer reviewed funds for major instrumentation, training, and collaborative research projects. The Center's mission, focus and operations reflect this history as it seeks to broaden its impact on the interface between molecular and integrative basic sciences and facilitate the translation of preclinical discoveries into clinical applications.
Joseph S. Takahashi, Director
The Center for Functional Genomics has as its mission to unify basic research efforts at Northwestern University focused on understanding gene function. Research within the Center has the following goals:
- use phenotype-driven, forward genetic approaches to identify genetic pathways and understand gene function
- use functional, expression-driven approaches to elucidate gene function
- use and develop informatics tools for analysis of complex phenotypic data as well as gene expression and sequence information
- develop and implement new approaches to study gene functions on a genome-wide scale
Rex L. Chisholm, Director
The Center for Genetic Medicine (CGM) was established to expand genetics-based research at Northwestern University and the Feinberg School of Medicine and to foster the development of genetically-based diagnostic tools and therapies at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, and Children′s Memorial Hospital. This collaboration between the university, the medical school, and the affiliated hospitals aims to increase the understanding of fundamental genetic mechanisms, discover the genetic basis of human diseases, and ultimately improve patient care. The Center also coordinates Northwestern′s educational activities in the area of genetics and strives to improve public understanding of the impact of genetics and genetic technologies on society.
Prem Kumar, Director
The Northwestern University CPCC conducts leading edge fundamental science and engineering research that leads to the development of advanced photonic communication and computing systems. The research focuses on optical and optoelectronic systems that push the technological limits to ever increasing speeds or levels of integration or that exploit fundamental laws of nature to accomplish communication, signal processing, and computing in radically new ways. The Center provides a venue for collaboration, coordination, dissemination, and promotion of research and teaching activities in the above areas.
Kelly Mayo, Director
Established in 1987 in recognition of Northwestern′s strength in reproductive biology, the Center for Reproductive Science (CRS) coordinates the research and training efforts of 33 faculty in nine departments on the Evanston Campus, at the Medical School and at Children′s Hospital. The Center has as its dual missions enhancing research in reproductive biology and its applications to human welfare, and optimizing the training of future research and teaching scientists in the broad area of reproductive biology. The Center facilitates interactions between basic and clinical scientists in both its research and training missions through interdisciplinary research grants, research facilities, research symposia, and student training programs. The Center does not have a formal graduate program, but works closely with students pursuing the Ph.D. degree in any of Northwestern′s three Life Sciences Graduate Programs (IBiS, IGP and NUIN).
Alfonso Mondragon, Director
The mission of the recently established Center for Structural Biology is to foster leading-edge research in this exciting interdisciplinary field. Center researchers carry out fundamental studies on the structures, dynamics, actions, and interactions of important biological macromolecules. The Center′s beautiful new research space fosters collaborative and interdisciplinary research through open, interconnected laboratories and shared space for instrumentation. Center researchers have access to state of the art instrumentation, including a 600 MHz NMR facility and a beamline for macromolecular crystallography at the Advanced Photon Source (at Argonne National Laboratory), which is the most powerful X-ray source in the world.
Alok Choudhary, Director
The goal of the CUCIS is to conduct highly innovative research in many synergistic areas of ultra-scale computing and information technologies. Furthermore, the goal of the center is to foster and enable inter-disciplinary research in computing technologies that scale to these levels. The CUCIS is directed by Prof. Alok Choudhary, and is presently supported by the NSF, DOE, Sandia National Labs, NASA, and Intel.
Joseph R. Moskal, Director
There has never been a greater need for the development of new and effective medicines for the treatment of diseases. However, the costs for creating new drugs have skyrocketed and therapies for many diseases are not being developed because the patient population is too small to be profitable. A new organizational model is necessary to translate discoveries with therapeutic potential into clinically useful compounds. The Falk Center for Molecular Therapeutics is such a model. The Center is a molecular biology-based drug discovery Center of Excellence within the Biomedical Engineering Department of McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University, tethered to a biotechnology company, Nyxis Neurotherapies, Inc.
Daniel Diermeier and William Kath, Co-Directors
A university-wide institute, the distinguished and diverse NICO faculty are from all areas of research, including engineering, business, natural sciences, education, medicine, law, and the social sciences. NICO's mission is to serve as a hub and facilitator of intellectual life at NU and to produce path-breaking research in the area of complex systems transcending the boundaries of established disciplines.
John F. Disterhoft, Director
The Northwestern University Institute for Neuroscience (NUIN) offers an interdisciplinary course of study leading to the Ph.D. in Neuroscience. More than 160 faculty from 20 different departments and 4 schools (The Graduate School, the Feinberg School of Medicine, The School of Communication and the School of Engineering) participate in NUIN, and many are now looking for students interested in graduate study. Northwestern University has two campuses linked by a shuttle bus, the Feinberg Medical School in downtown Chicago and the undergraduate campus in Evanston. Both campuses lie along the shores of beautiful Lake Michigan. The laboratories of NUIN faculty can be found on both campuses, as well as at the The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), Evanston-Northwestern Hospital (ENH) and the Children's Memorial Research Center (CMRC) in Chicago.
Steven Rosen, Director & Teresa Woodruff, Associate Director for Research
The physicians and basic scientists at the Cancer Center study the causes and behavior of cancer to develop more effective approaches to prevention and treatment. The Cancer Center's research programs are organized around members' strengths and foster interdisciplinary coordination and collaboration. Each member is in one of the Cancer Center's established research programs, including angiogenesis and cell motility, hormone action and signal transduction, molecular oncogenesis, and developmental biology. Through its grants program, the Center funds research projects, the purchase of equipment, and graduate student travel to national meetings.
The Center also supports the operations of shared facilities for transgenic mice, 2-D gel electrophoresis, oligonucleotide synthesis, histology, cell imaging, tissue culture supplies, and DNA and protein sequence analysis. Another important function of the Center is education. The Center hosts two annual symposia, one on basic science and one on clinical oncology, which bring scientists from around the world to speak at Northwestern University. In addition, members from Lurie Cancer Center laboratories present their work at yearly poster sessions.
