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The growth of our college and department during the past decade has been remarkable. Our leadership continues under the campus-wide "One Health" initiative, which promotes the optimal health of animals, humans, and plants through key local, national and international collaborations. The BMS Department has a combined mission that encompasses three distinct areas.
- Teaching of the basic science curriculum to the veterinary medical students,
- Conducting state-of-the-art research that is relevant to the health of animals as well as humans, and
- Educating graduate students. Graduate education programs include the BMS graduate program, as well as a number of multidisciplinary interdepartmental programs within the University, including toxicology, neuroscience, molecular biology, genetics, and immunobiology.
The research programs being conducted in the department cover a wide range of topics including fundamental neuroscience, neurotoxicology, immunology, vaccine development, infectious diseases of several types, cell biology, nutrition, development, mechanisms of learning and memory, auditory processing, and aquatic biology. More information on specific research can be found on the BMS faculty websites. Regardless of research areas, our faculty are committed to the University's priority of service to the people of our great state of Iowa, and the global responsibilities associated with the “One Health” initiative.
If you are a prospective professional student in Veterinary Medicine, you will initiate your training in the BMS Department. Here you will learn the structure and physiology of domestic food and companion animals. Later you will receive instruction on the properties of drugs and how they can be used in the treatment of clinical conditions. There also are opportunities to work with BMS faculty as you pursue a concurrent DVM-MS or DVM-PhD degree. If you are a prospective graduate student, the department offers thesis and non-thesis MS and PhD programs with areas of emphasis in anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology, as well as the other interdepartmental majors previously mentioned.
Whatever your interests or educational goals, the Department of Biomedical Sciences is available as an active resource to you. Please feel free to contact our central department office or any of our faculty and staff if you have questions with which we can help.