The USC Department of Medicine remains committed to the support of a wide variety of basic and clinical research programs conducted by its faculty. Presently, our faculty hold research grants with annual expenditures totaling $45.1 million, of which $39 million are NIH-sponsored. This latter expenditure represents about one-third of the total NIH funded research for the entire Keck School of Medicine, underscoring the key role Departmental faculty play in supporting the research enterprise of the School as a whole. Of special note is the remarkable ability of our individual research faculty to garner NIH grant support at a time of intense competition for extramural funding. This is best exemplified by the #1 ranking for the average dollars awarded per NIH funded investigator for all U.S. departments of medicine nationally over the last several years.

Two relatively new initiatives are worthy of special mention, as they are likely to have a major impact on the future direction of research for both the Department and the School. The first relates to the acquisition of an NIH sponsored “Clinical and Translational Science Award” (CTSA), which is a new program that will replace and expand the scope of the present General Clinical Research Center (GCRC). Dr. Thomas A. Buchanan, the Associate Dean for Clinical Research and the current Director of the General Clinical Research Director, is heading this effort. The second initiative is headed by Laurie D. DeLeve, Professor of Medicine, and relates to the creation of a new mentoring program for our physician trainees and fellows who might be interested in pursuing a future career in medical research. The vision, energy and personal effort invested into these two new initiatives by Drs. Buchanan and DeLeve will undoubtedly pay rich rewards for the Department’s research enterprise in the future.

Our faculty have been remarkably successful in establishing this excellent record of research productivity despite the present relatively severe downward pressure on the NIH budget.