Kresge Medical Research Building, 1954. Dermatology laboratories were located on the fifth and sixth floors until 1996.

History of the Training Program

Prior to 1975, the Department of Dermatology at the University of Michigan was correctly considered a clinical department. Before 1975, an NIH training grant existed at the University under the direction of Isadore Bernstein, Ph.D. This was an excellent basic skin science training program which produced a few academic dermatologists. However, during those years, the faculty of the department were largely descriptive dermatologists who successfully codified and treated skin diseases but had little or no laboratory based education. As a result there was a minimum of interaction between the clinical and laboratory realms of the department. The current program was established in 1977 by Dr. John Voorhees, the current Chair of the department, with the objective of better integrating the basic and clinical aspects of Dermatology. This new emphasis has resulted in extensive interaction and cooperation between clinical and basic science faculty.

Since 1975, new faculty have been hired who have the capacity and interest to perform laboratory research, the objective of which is a better understanding of skin disease. Over these years the department has grown such that today we employ 25 full-time faculty (18 clinical and 7 basic scientists). Since the first training grant award in 1977 we have had continuous NIH training grant support. During the 17 years of this training grant until 1996, 70 postdoctoral fellows received research training. Of these, 28 were supported by the NIH training grant. Of these 28 individuals, as of 1996 21 were in full-time academic medicine, 4 were in full-time private practice, and 2 were employed by the pharmaceutical industry. Another 42 postdoctoral fellows were supported by non-NIH funds, a common mechanism being grants from the foreign government sponsoring the trainee. Of these 42 non-NIH training grant fellows, as of 1996 thirty-eight were in full-time academic dermatology or still in fellowship training, and 2 were employed in the pharmaceutical industry.