Medical and Dental Education

Our department is responsible for teaching various topics in biochemistry to first year medical students and first year dental students.

In the first year, we teach Human Biology and Disease (HB&D 401) jointly with other departments in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The block-based curriculum for years one and two has been designed to increase integration of normal human biology with disease processes and clinical skills from the first week of medical school onward. Basic science is taught in the context of its application with planned reiteration. Instruction is coordinated throughout sequentially-taught blocks. In year one, there are five blocks (most are eight weeks) separated by discipline and systems. Our faculty present lectures in block 1 (Foundations of Medicine I, HBD 401) and block 3 (Gastrointestinal, Endocrine, and Reproductive Medicine I, HBD 403). Our faculty members also participate extensively in the lab course and Problem Based Learning (PBL) seminars associated with blocks one, three, and seven.

Faculty Members also participate in teaching in the School of Dentistry. In 2008 the School of Dentistry began utilizing a block-based curriculum. Our faculty present lectures and serve as co-chairs in Foundations of Basic Science and Oral and Systemic Disease 2 courses.