About the Universities

Rutgers University

Chartered as Queens College in 1766, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, was the eighth institution of higher education founded in colonial America. In 1825, the name was changed to Rutgers College in honor of Colonel Henry Rutgers, a veteran of the Revolutionary War. Graduate instruction began at Rutgers in 1876.

The first Doctor of Philosophy degree was awarded in 1884. A graduate faculty was separately organized in 1932, and the Graduate School was formally established in 1952. Rutgers is now a member of the Association of American Universities, consisting of the nation's 59 most distinguished research universities.

UMDNJ-Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is divided into eight schools dedicated to strengthening New Jersey’s public, medical, dental, and health programs. UMDNJ-Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Piscataway campus utilizes the faculty, facilities, and institutes of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Biological Research at Rutgers University/UMDNJ-Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Piscataway Campus

From the breeding of the popular Rutgers "Big Boy" tomato and lawn grasses to the discovery of the important antibiotics actinomycin A and streptomycin (for which Rutgers professor Selman Waksman received the Nobel Prize), excellence has historically been a part of biological research at Rutgers/UMDNJ. Contributions and discoveries of current members of the research community are broad and numerous.

They include:

  • Discovery and characterization of mRNA caps.
  • Identification of optimal translation initiation sites.
  • Characterization of the transcription apparatus of eukaryotic RNA polymerase II.
  • Development of single-stranded vectors for DNA sequencing and in vitro mutagenesis.
  • Purification of naturally occurring interferons and cloning of their cDNA's.
  • Development of antisense nucleic acids as inhibitors of virus replication.
  • Discovery of pirating of cellular mRNAs to provide caps for influenza virus mRNA.
  • Identification of the gene products that regulate mitosis.
  • Three dimensional structure of the reverse transcriptase from HIV.