Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine - Academic Programs

Academic Programs

• Bascom Palmer Eye Institute is the top facility in the country for ophthalmic clinical care and research. The Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital annually serves 160,000 outpatients of ophthalmology and other specialties, largely for microsurgery procedures.
• For its pioneering work in islet cell transplantation, the Diabetes Research Institute joined the National Institutes of Health and the Naval Medical Research Center as the only academic partner in the national initiative to cure diabetes through transplantation.
• The Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center treats 3,000 newly-diagnosed cancer patients each year, and treats thousands more in ongoing treatment from throughout the United States and Latin America. Approximately 200 clinical trials are under way, supported by more than $31 million in research grants.
• Dedicated to finding a cure for paralysis resulting from spinal cord injury, researchers at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis found the first direct evidence of successful regeneration of adult human central nervous system tissue. The Miami Project conducts basic and clinical research trials, as well as a program that permits spinal cord injured men to father children.
• The University of Miami Ear Institute houses the nation’s second most active cochlear implant program, restoring hearing to adults and children with profound deafness. The Barton G. Kids Hear Now Foundation Cochlear Implant Family Resource Center, dedicated to assisting hearing-challenged children and their families' transitions from a silent world into the hearing world through the use of cochlear implant technology, opened at the Ear Institute in September 2010.
• The School of Medicine’s Mailman Center for Child Development has a number of model programs that help children with developmental disabilities.
• The UM/Jackson Transplant Program is one of the nation’s busiest, responsible for half of the pediatric multivisceral transplants in the world. UM/Jackson has an active transplant program for bone marrow, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas and intestines.
• Significant federal funds support research at the Comprehensive AIDS Program, including HIV studies in pregnant women, pediatric AIDS clinical trials, various drug protocol studies, heterosexual transmission of AIDS, transfusion safety studies, and the national cooperative drug discovery group.
• The Center on Aging, dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for older people, conducts significant research on geriatric issues.
• The Center for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) was founded in 2011. The CTI brings together expertise in small molecule discovery, pharmacology and disease biology to enable academic drug discovery efforts. Several prominent projects include discovery of epigenetic modulators for cancer, inflammatory disease and neuroscience as well as programs centered on a variety of targets in mucopolysaccharidosis, addiction, schizophrenia, fragile X, obesity, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, among many others.
• The Miami Institute for Human Genomics seeks to apply genetic understanding to the practice of medicine. In 2007, Margaret Vance, MD and colleagues reported a new gene responsible for multiple sclerosis.
• The Department of Physical Therapy offers an entry level clinical doctoral degree (DPT) and an academic doctoral degree (PhD).
• The Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute seeks to understand the biology of stem cells and translate basic research into new regenerative therapies. In 2007, Joshua Hare, MD and colleagues reported that a new stem cell therapy was safe for the treatment of myocardial infarction and reduced complications from the condition.