One of the Medical School's Oldest Departments Changes Its Name and Focus:

Anatomy and Cell Biology Becomes Cell and Developmental Biology

When the U-M Medical School opened its doors in 1850, a professorship in anatomy was one of the six established professorships comprising the medical faculty. For the next hundred years, the Department of Anatomy at Michigan developed along the traditional lines of teaching and research in gross anatomy, microscopic anatomy, embryology and neuroanatomy. In the process, the department produced some major scholars in the field, including James McMurrich (gross anatomy), George Streeter (embryology), Carl Huber (neuroanatomy), Bradley Patten (embryology), and Elizabeth Crosby (neuroanatomy).

The Department retained its traditional orientation and areas of teaching and research emphasis until the 1970s, when sweeping changes in the biomedical research arena began to pull apart the monolithic bases of traditional preclinical disciplines. One reason for this change was the proliferation of many research-oriented professional societies, such as those of cell biology and the neurosciences, and the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of research in the field. The change in name to the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology more than 10 years ago was a reflection of those trends.

Although the related disciplines of cell and developmental biology have historical scientific roots in the discipline of anatomy, both have incorporated and come to rely upon techniques of modern molecular biology. This has required a substantial movement away from classical anatomical methods of research. Thus at the end of 1999, the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology became the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, its evolution in many respects mirroring the historical changes in the discipline of anatomy throughout the century.

Bruce Carlson, Ph.D., chairs the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. While Carlson is on sabbatical this year, Michael Welsh, Ph.D., professor of cell and developmental biology, is acting chair. Even as the academic discipline of anatomy has evolved into the interrelated disciplines of cell and developmental biology, the teaching of anatomy remains an integral and essential element of the Medical School curriculum.

To learn more about the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, visit the department Web site at: www.med.umich.edu/cdb/index.html.