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The Alkek Fountain and the Roy and Lillie Cullen Building are the 'front door' of BCM's main campus.
About BCM
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Department of Molecular & Human Genetics

For Patients

To schedule an appointment:

Please visit our web site at: http://www.bcm.edu/genetics/

Chair

Arthur L. Beaudet, M.D.

Mission Statement

The Institute for Molecular Genetics was created in 1985 and renamed Department of Molecular and Human Genetics in 1994. The department offers various research, clinical, and training programs in molecular and human genetics to graduate, medical, and postdoctoral students.

Faculty in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics have received numerous competitive research grants from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy Association and other granting agencies. They have also received national recognition and support from the Pew, Searle, and Markey Foundations, the Leukemia Society, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. We currently rank second in NIH funding among genetic departments at U.S. medical schools and rank first as measured by number of NIH grants by a wide margin.

Departmental facilities occupy over 70,000 square feet of space, and are equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation for research in molecular, cellular, and biochemical genetics. We have several facilities for specialized techniques to support these research efforts, including core laboratories for DNA sequencing, oligonucleotide synthesis, informatics, recombinant DNA library screening, genetic mapping, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), tissue culture, yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) identification, and confocal microscopy.

Education & Training Programs

Current Research

  • Functional genomics
  • Genome sequencing
  • Genome architecture in humans
  • Mammalian developmental genetics
  • Metabolic bases for inherited human disease
  • Gene therapy
  • Gene structure and expression
  • Mechanisms of replication, repair and recombination of DNA
  • Somatic cell genetics
  • Genetic control of skeletogenesis
  • Developmental genetics of bone and cartilage formation
  • Yeast and bacteria genetics
  • Drosophila genetics
  • Prader-Willi syndrome and Angelman syndrome
  • Glycerol kinase deficiency
  • Uniparental disomy
  • Deletion syndromes
  • Robertsonian translocations
  • Human imprinting
  • Cystic fibrosis
  • Mouse models of microdeletion/duplication syndromes
  • Cancer genetics
  • Mutation analysis by automated sequencing
  • Telomere replication
  • Human inherited neuropathies
  • Genetic basis of complex behavioral traits
  • Communications & development on Dictyostelium
  • Genetic ocular deficiencies
  • Eye development in Xenopus, mouse, and zebrafish
  • Hyperplasias
  • Inherited chromosomal instability syndromes
  • Prostate tumor suppressor genes

Centers & Clinics

Centers

Research Core Facilities

Labs

Clinics

Molecular & Human Genetics clinic overview

Contact Us

Department of Molecular and Human Genetics
Baylor College of Medicine
One Baylor Plaza, Room 428 E
Houston, TX 77030

Administrative Office

Last modified: April 8, 2010