Cellular and Molecular Medicine Program

  • Our training faculty have close ties with the top rated Johns Hopkins Hospital creating an ideal environment for translational research

    Embryo

  • CMM offers a rigorous curriculum of tailored courses, small group discussions, grant writing, career training and internship opportunities.

    Retina

  • CMM graduates have unprecedented access to physician-scientists, patients and clinical trials for disease-focused research

    Translational

  • Since 1999, over 250 CMM graduates are making outstanding contributions in academia, industry, medicine and government

    Protein Structure

  • Founded in 1893, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine is a leader in graduate education, clinical care and research

    Neurons

  • Explore the quirky neighborhoods and panoramic Inner Harbor of Charm City, B’more

    Harbor

 The Graduate Training Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine prepares scientists for laboratory research at the cellular and molecular level with a direct impact on the understanding, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of human diseases. The Ph.D. graduates of the Program will have a rigorous training in scientific research and a thorough knowledge of human biology and human diseases.

1994 – 2022 ***

Celebrating 28 Years of the CMM Graduate Program..

The CMM program grew out of a need for training at the interface between medicine and the traditional basic science disciplines. Rapid progress in cellular and molecular biology has strongly impacted clinical medicine, offering insights on fundamental causes of many diseases. Now new discoveries in the laboratory can be applied rapidly to the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease. This has been made possible by emerging technology that allows scientists to identify genetic and molecular defects causing or predisposing to disease. The trainees in this program are working precisely at this interface between science and medicine where they will be able to contribute to the long term well being of society.

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“The History of CMM”


Thomas D. Pollard MD  Director of CMM, 1994-1995   

      • Hello everyone! Congratulations on 25 years of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Hopkins.
      • As you may know, the program was started with a generous gift of a few million dollars from the Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust.
        Mrs. Markey was the owner of the legendary Calumet Farms that raised eight winners of the Kentucky Derby and other triple crown races.  She used her fortune to establish the Trust to fund promising young biomedical researchers during their transitions from postdoctoral studies to independent faculty positions, the model for the current K99 awards from NIH.
      • I served on that selection committee for Markey Scholars while I was at Hopkins. Mrs. Markey instructed that all of the money be spent over about a decade, because she trusted her executors but could not know who might replace them in the future. At the end some money was left over, so the Trustees made a few gifts to expend the funds. We were fortunate to receive one, on the condition that I would be the founder of this graduate program. The Trustees wanted me to spend all of the money, but I managed to turn much of it into an endowment, which I believe still helps to support the program.
      •    Mrs. Markey would be delighted to know how much impact her gift has had on graduate education at Hopkins.

Peter Agre PhD  Director of CMM, 1996-1999   

      • Twenty-five years and going strong! CMM is the result of a need, a great idea, an opportunity, and much teamwork here at Johns Hopkins.
      •    The Need – While it is now difficult to imagine, before CMM most JH scientists in clinical departments had no access to graduate students. This put our investigators at a great disadvantage to compete for funding on disease-related research.
      •    A great idea – The 1992 JH School of Medicine Strategic Retreat identified this as a major deficiency in the JH research enterprise and the leadership unanimously sought a remedy.
      •    Opportunity – The Lucille Markey Foundation in their final spend-out announced that it would be to support new ideas for graduate programs in Molecular Medicine. Thomas Pollard (then the Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at JH) single-handedly prepared and filed the application. Six universities (UCSD, Harvard, U Chicago, UVA, Wash Univ St Louis, and Johns Hopkins) received funding. Of these programs, only JH CMM has survived.
      •    Teamwork – Under Tom’s direction, a totally new curriculum was devised and accreditation for granting the degree of Ph.D. was organized by Tom, Diane Griffin (Chairman of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at JHSPH) and myself (Department of Medicine). Faculty from throughout the medical school (John Isaacs, Pierre Coulombe, Rajini Rao, and many others) and staff (Theo Karpovich, Brenda Figueroa, and Colleen Graham) contributed the major effort that started as six students in 1994 and is now a national leader in generating future scientists studying diseases at a molecular and cellular level!

At the foundation of Johns Hopkins Medicine is research.

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine supports state of the art research and animal facilities, all on the East Baltimore campus.

    • Interdisciplinary, innovative and pioneering investigations at Johns Hopkins are not only the stuff of scientific history, but also the vital underpinning of both a world-renowned medical education and unsurpassed patient care.
    • Basic research provides a fundamental understanding of molecules and mechanisms that, without offering any apparent practical avenue for patient treatment, involves identifying cellular processes and genetic mutations and revealing breakdowns in cellular communication associated with all manner of diseases and disorders.
    • Translational research—often described as “bench-to-bedside” studies—accelerates the discovery of new treatments directed at the basic mechanisms of disorder and disease. Therefore, it hastens the time when effective treatments become reality.