Partners in Scientific Process

For close to a half-century, Cleveland State University and Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute have partnered to enhance medical and science education while helping to advance discovery in numerous disciplines. The Joint Doctoral Program Partnership continues to flourish.

A recent agreement extends the three joint CSU/CCF doctoral programs, promotes continued teaching opportunities for Clinic researchers at CSU and advances research opportunities for CSU students and faculty at Cleveland Clinic.

CSU and Cleveland Clinic offer joint Ph.D. programs in regulatory biology, established in 1971, and bio-analytical chemistry, created in 1998. They also offer a doctorate in applied biomedical engineering, begun in 1997, and a concentration in molecular medicine, which is available through all three doctoral programs and was started in 2005. Close to 300 students have graduated from these programs and over 100 Cleveland Clinic scientists currently hold adjunct appointments at CSU.

In addition, CSU offers a laboratory summer research experience for biology and chemistry majors at Lerner and numerous CSU faculty conduct research with Cleveland Clinic scientists. This includes a longstanding relationship between CSU’s internationally recognized Center for Gene Regulation in Health and Disease and Lerner Research Institute.

“CSU’s growing reputation as a center for medical and scientific research and education is due in large part to our strong partnership with Cleveland Clinic, which has provided tremendous value to our students and faculty as well as the medical community at large,” notes Jerzy Sawicki, vice president for research at CSU.

Graduates of CSU/Cleveland Clinic doctoral programs serve in key scientific and administrative positions at some of the world’s most prestigious health care centers. They include: Andrius Kazlauskas, ’86, former professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School; Joe El-Khoury, ’12, co-director of the Clinical Chemistry Laboratory at Yale Medical School, and Linnea Baudhuin, ’02, associate professor of laboratory medicine and pathology at the Mayo Clinic.

Christine Moravec

Alumna Christine Moravec has provided outstanding service to CSU’s College of Sciences and Health Professions and the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences (BGES) since graduating with her Ph.D. in regulatory biology in 1988.

She is an adjunct faculty member in CSU’s BGES department, serves as head of CSU adjunct faculty at Cleveland Clinic, works with CSU Clinical Chemistry and Applied Biomedical Engineering students at the Clinic and was integral to launching a full-time, paid internship program in which CSU undergraduates are paired with a principal investigator at Lerner for an immersion and research experience.

The assistant dean for basic science education in the Lerner College of Medicine is also director of the Research Education and Training Center in the Lerner Research Institute. She received CSU’s George B. Davis Award for Service to the University in 2017.