Life Sciences Initiative

The VCU Life Sciences Initiative is a comprehensive undergraduate and graduate program launched by VCU. The Initiative provides a unifying vision of the interrelationships among the biological components of life and involves everything from genes to ecological environments to human behavior.

Offering a unique undergraduate experience that combines scientific integrity and real-world learning, VCU Life Sciences Initiative brings together outstanding faculty from the university’s academic and health science campuses and features flexible curricula comprising several interdependent bodies of science—biology and chemistry, engineering and mathematics, medicine, technology and physics. 

The new $28.1 million, 132,000 square foot Eugene P. and Lois E. Trani Center for Life Science houses the Department of Biology, the Center for Environmental Studies, the Center for the Study of Biological Complexity, a satellite lab of the Nucleic Acid Research Facility, the Bioinformatics Computational Core Laboratory Suite, and the Office of the Vice Provost for Life Sciences. The building features 17 undergraduate instructional labs and 44 research labs.

School of Engineering

VCU’s School of Engineering offers degrees in Biomedical, Chemical and Life Science, Electrical and Computer, and Mechanical Engineering and in Computer Science. The members of the school’s Board of Trustees are the presidents and CEOs of major, manufacturing, business, and financial organizations in Virginia. The school stresses creativity, industry partnerships, strategic research, and understanding of business and communication skills.

VCU Institutes and Centers

VCU is recognized nationally and internationally for numerous areas of research strength. The university received $227.2 million of externally funded research awards in FY 2007. These are primarily federal funds, with NIH the largest sponsor. Ten percent came from private industry. The school is committed to becoming a stronger research university with the goal of being among the nation’s top 75 research institutions. The University has developed the following Institutes and Centers to facilitate scholarly collaboration with private industry. 

Pharmaceutical Development and Testing

The Clinical Trials Institute and the Outcomes Research Institute provides a venue to attract and work collaboratively with the pharmaceutical industry on a wide variety of Phase I - IV clinical trials.

Center for Drug Studies, a fully staffed 50-bed facility in the School of Pharmacy, is one of the largest academic Phase I clinical research centers in the country. Industry sponsors include many of the nation’s leading drug companies.

Institute for Structural Biology and Drug Discovery, established in May 1997, links structural biology, molecular medicine, biotechnology, and drug design to produce new medicines.

Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics  combines the strengths of MCV’s departments of Psychiatry and Human Genetics to study the role of genes and environment in psychiatric illness and behavior. The institute includes the Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry one of the largest twin registries in the world.

McGuire Research Institute at McGuire Virginia Medical Center is a non-profit organization associated with the Richmond Veterans Administration Medical Center -- a 500-bed tertiary referral hospital. The institute supports investigators with faculty appointments who conduct inpatient and outpatient Pre-clinical, Phase I, II, III, and IV trials and outcomes research. Currently 70 investigators are conducting 170 projects.

Medical Research and Treatment

General Clinical Research Center has received continuous funding through the National Institutes of Health since 1962. The center, one of more than 70 nationwide, supports clinical investigation into the pathophysiology of human disease and the testing of new methods of diagnosis and treatment. This miniature research hospital within the larger medical facility includes 10 inpatient research beds, outpatient space, and a cadre of highly skilled research personnel.

Massey Cancer Center, the focal point for basic and clinical research, education, and cancer health delivery activities at VCU, has received continuous funding from the National Cancer Institute since 1975, when it was designated as a clinical cancer center. More than 90 center members from 25 academic departments are involved in collaborative research activities. The center also operates shared laboratory resources for VCU’s basic scientists.

Hume-Lee Transplant Center. An international leader in organ transplantation since 1962, VCU had one of the nation’s first kidney transplant programs and was the first in the U.S. to perform adult-to-adult living liver transplants. The center also performs simultaneous kidney/pancreas transplants.

Medical Informatics and Technology Applications Consortium is a NASA-funded commercial center with industrial, academic and government partners, and a focus on telemedicine, medical informatics and medical technologies.

Center for Bioelectronics, Biosensors and Biochips (C3B) has a focus on gene chips used for detection and measurement of targeted DNA and RNA sequences in applications such as diagnostics. 

Other Life Sciences

Center for Study of Biological Complexity is a faculty think tank that supports significant research activity in forensic science and developmental biology and coordinates research capabilities in bioinformatics, genomics, and proteomics, with a specific focus on microbial genomics and developmental biology.

Center for Environmental Studies, the focal point for environmental science at VCU, emphasizes the importance of the life sciences through innovative research, hands-on teaching and community service. More than 40 faculty members mentor talented undergraduate and graduate students in environmental studies.