The Burnham Institute for Medical Research and UCSB have named leading biomedical researcher Jamey Marth director of a new joint Center for Nanomedicine that will be established at UCSB.
The collaborative biomedical research partnership merges UCSB’s core expertise in engineering, materials sciences, nanotechnology and physics with Burnham’s strengths in the biological sciences and biomedical research. The new center will promote the convergence of these fields and pioneer the development of novel technologies for advancing human health.
Together, UCSB and Burnham plan to recruit additional scientists to the Center for Nanomedicine to create collaborative research teams that will produce innovative technologies for an entirely new generation of biosensors, medical devices, drug delivery nanoparticles, instruments for advanced biomedical research and other products.
Nanomedicine, an offshoot of nanotechnology, refers to highly specific medical intervention at the molecular scale for curing disease or repairing damaged tissues, such as bone, muscle or nerve.
“Interdisciplinary nanotechnologies are vital to establishing a holistic and rigorous approach to biomedical research that encompasses disparate knowledge and integrates all of the cellular molecules and factors that contribute to disease,” said Marth, who joined UCSB’s faculty in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, as well as Burnham’s faculty, on July 1.
At UCSB, Marth has been appointed to two prestigious endowed professorships. He is the first recipient of both the John Carbon Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Chair in Systems Biology in the campus’s Biomolecular Science and Engineering Program. Before joining Burnham and UCSB, Marth was professor of cellular and molecular medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at the UC San Diego School of Medicine.
“With appointments to both UCSB and Burnham, I look forward to building further bridges between the talented scientists at these institutions and to promoting our joint efforts to develop nanotechnologies for disease diagnosis, prevention, therapy, and cure,” Marth said. “This new and timely initiative will require the expertise of engineers, physicists, bioinformatics experts, and materials scientists working in close collaboration with biologists, that builds on the complementary expertise that exists at UCSB and the Burnham Institute for Medical Research.”
“We are pleased to welcome an elite scientist like Dr. Marth to Burnham and to this collaborative partnership with UCSB in the exciting field of nanomedicine,” said Dr. John Reed, Burnham’s president and chief executive officer, and professor and Donald Bren Presidential Chair at the institute. “The impact of our collaborative efforts will be far-reaching, not only in terms of advancing the science of nanomedicine, but in terms of economic development opportunities for new company generation and job creation.”