Tom Blumenthal

I have now been Chair of MCDB for one year, and I am taking the opportunity provided by our new web site to introduce myself to those who don't know me well, to tell a little about my history and my research, and describe my goals as Chair.  A year ago, I moved to MCDB after 9 years of Chairing the Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Department at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.  First let me tell you a little about my background.  I was born in LA but grew up near Philadelphia. I went to Antioch College in Ohio, majoring in biology, and then to graduate school in genetics at Johns Hopkins.  Following graduation I became a post-doc with J.D. Watson at Harvard, and then became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Indiana University in Bloomington where I eventually became Chair.  After 9 years as Chair, I moved in 1997 to Colorado to Chair the department at the Health Sciences Center.  I have lived in Boulder since 1998, so it has been a real pleasure for me to trade-in a 34-mile car commute for a one-mile walk/bike ride.

My research concerns mechanisms of RNA splicing and genome organization in the roundworm, C. elegans.  Since MCDB is already a hotbed of research both in RNA biology in general and in C. elegans, this department was a perfect fit for me.  I began my C. elegans studies during a sabbatical year at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, where I cloned one of the first genes from this organism.  Until around 1988, my lab focused on mechanisms of developmental gene expression. Then we began our current work on mRNA splicing.  We discovered that the C. elegans genome has >1000 operons, clusters of co-regulated genes expressed from a single promoter, which was unprecedented at that time among animals.  Now it is known that many primitive animals organize a significant fraction of their genes this way.  We are studying both how the polycistronic pre-mRNAs coming from these operons are processed and the extent to which the operons represent assemblages of functionally related genes.  We are using both basic molecular biology and genetics to examine mechanisms by which C. elegans genes are expressed and how their transcripts are processed in the nucleus and transported to the cytoplasm.

My view of the role of department Chair is that the Chair should be a scientific leader as well as a public servant to help the faculty and students achieve their goals. I have spent much of my first year here learning how MCDB and the Boulder campus operate. I view MCDB as a great department, one that has made enormous contributions to our understanding of how life works at the molecular level.  This department has also been a fertile training ground for new scientists at both the graduate and post-graduate levels.  My aim is to do everything in my power to facilitate continuation of these fine traditions, and to build on them for the future.  Obviously, a great department is made up of strong faculty and students and a fine research and teaching space.  We occupy adjacent buildings, already beautifully set up to be among the finest in the country (although there are a few spots that could stand upgrading).  We’ve got excellent classrooms and meeting rooms and will be adding an interactive classroom soon.  We’ve got superb faculty, and we will continue to recruit new faculty members over the coming years.  We’ve got great students and post-docs, and we will continue to provide excellent education for them.  Finally, this department is held together by a truly wonderful group of staff members, who all work, mostly behind the scenes, to make the department function smoothly. I did not come in planning to make major changes.  I admire this department for what it has already done; I hope I can contribute to making it even better.