The mission of the Department of Biomedical Sciences is to serve the College of Medicine at Rockford by:

• Providing superior education in basic biomedical sciences to all second-year medical students


• Developing and maintaining outstanding basic and applied biomedical research programs


• Providing an environment, resources, and opportunities for all faculty appropriate for pursuit of their scholarly interests and goals, and thus to achieve their potential as academicians, and research scientists


• Providing public services to the University and leadership to the community at large

The faculty and staff at the Department of Biomedical Sciences coordinates and teaches all the Pharmacology and Microbiology lectures to second-year medical students.

The Department is also initiating a master’s degree program in Medical Biotechnology.

Faculty research in the Department of Biomedical Sciences is mainly supported by grants from the National Institute of Health, Illinois Department of Public Health, Pfizer, SwedishAmerican Hospital and internal grants. Faculty conducts cutting-edge research in the areas of cancer immunotherapy, osteoporosis, neuroendocrinology, neurophysiology of pain, molecular biology, immunology and proteomics of infectious agents, sexually transmitted diseases, vaccine development against microorganisms and control of tropical infections.

These include several international collaborative research projects. Faculty enjoy a superb reputation for their significant contributions and leadership to scientific and professional societies at all levels of organization. Individual faculty research interest can be found on the faculty Web page link.

The department also conducts a Summer Science Research Program for high school and college students. This program is in collaboration with Pierce Biotechnology.