Director's Welcome
In July 2000 I became Director of the Developmental Biology Division at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation (CCHRF) in Cincinnati. Since then, the Division has recruited twelve new faculty members, bringing the faculty size to 25, and making this one of the largest developmental biology centers in the country. To accommodate this new growth, CCHRF has completed two new research buildings with outstanding research facilities, as well as a new library and conference center. Most of our recent hires have been programmatic. We have established faculty groups in eye development (in collaboration with the Ophthalmology Division: one endowed chair recruited and two Assistant Professors have been appointed), developmental neurobiology (two Assistant Professors and one endowed chair have been appointed), endoderm differentiation (two Assistant Professors recruited), and structural analysis (one Associate Professor recruited). My goals now are to continue to hire in the area of organogenesis, often in collaboration with other divisions at Children's, to expand the number of models systems (invertebrate systems in particular) used for developmental research.
This dramatic expansion of developmental biology is part of a very substantial investment by CCHRF into the basic sciences. There has been similar growth in the fields of neurobiology, immunology, cardiac and pulmonary biology, and genomics. Already one of the world's great children's hospitals (and ranked in the top three in the nation), the CCHRF intends to achieve the same degree of recognition in basic science, and to provide new knowledge into childhood diseases. The money for this investment is coming from the CCHRF's very large endowment.
New faculty appointments can be at any level, from tenure-track Assistant Professor to tenured Full Professor. All CCHRF faculty hold positions in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. The CCHRF is sited immediately adjacent to the other medical school departments, allowing easy interactions with faculty in related disciplines. Secondary appointments in other medical school departments can be negotiated if required. Candidates with either MD or PhD training will be considered.
Faculty positions in the Division of Developmental Biology are primarily research positions. Teaching loads are modest, and focus on building up the existing graduate course in Molecular and Developmental Biology, which is administered by the Division within the College of Medicine. Therefore, successful candidates will have extremely strong backgrounds in research, be able to generate or maintain nationally recognized, federally funded research programs of their own, and to interact collaboratively with their colleagues. It is my intention to generate a community of interacting scholars, with a common interest in developmental biology, and working with all animal model systems. The facilities for maintaining and breeding animal model systems are first class in the newly completed facility.
Outstanding opportunities also exist for research interactions with the clinical divisions at CCRF, with the aim of exploiting research that will improve the understanding, and ultimately the diagnosis and treatment, of childhood diseases. In addition to postdoctoral and graduate student training, the Division plays an important role in the training of young clinical faculty in basic research.
Cincinnati offers a first class lifestyle. As a big, midwestern city, it has a low cost of living, low crime, good theatre and music, excellent housing, and nationally ranked school systems. Set in hilly countryside on the banks of the Ohio River valley, it offers a beautiful environment with many recreational opportunities.
If you need further details concerning these positions, please contact Chris Wylie (Christopher.Wylie@cchmc.org).
Christopher Wylie
12/04
