The mission of Mercer University School of Medicine (MUSM) is “to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia.”  One important dimension of that mission is the research and scholarship of the faculty on whom fulfillment of that mission depends.  The School has modern research facilities in the form of both individual labs and communal labs divided into individual bays.  In that way, researchers share facilities, equipment, and services.  Faculty have labs that are not necessarily contiguous with those of their discipline colleagues.  Consequently, the labs reflect the interdisciplinary delivery of the basic science curriculum to our students.
		Under the direction of the University President, Mercer University in general and MUSM in particular have placed a renewed emphasis on growth as a research institution.  Over the last two years, this emphasis has been reflected in a determined effort to improve resources available to support research.  We have hired, and are currently in the process of hiring, additional faculty whose primary function will be biomedical research.  In addition, core facilities for confocal microscopy and FACS have been established on the Macon Campus and for genomics and FACS on the Savannah Campus of MUSM. With our affiliated hospitals, we are continuing to foster collaborative efforts between basic science and clinical faculty and to strengthen our efforts at translational research.		Most of the basic medical science faculty conduct collaborative, interdisciplinary research that is funded by both national and local agencies.  Clinical faculty and medical students are regularly involved.  MUSM currently does not offer graduate studies for the Ph.D. or M.S. degrees, but there is an intiative to establish an M.D./Ph.D. program on MUSM's Macon Campus.  Meanwhile, postdoctoral opportunities are occasionally available. Our Dean’s Office is heavily invested in our research goals.  It provides financial support for general laboratory needs, such as animal care, radioactive waste disposal, radiation badging, and labcoat services.  In addition, start-up funds are given to new faculty who want to do research.