About IGM

About IGM

Broadway Research Building

The Institute of Genetic Medicine (IGM), established in January 1999, was created to focus, and highlight, the long-standing leadership in genetic disease research, education and clinical expertise of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.  The field of genetic medicine is named to highlight how genetics information, and the human genome sequence, has led to an understanding of how our individual genetic differences affect both our health and diseases.   

The Institute is named in honor of Victor A. McKusick, M.D., and the late Daniel Nathans, M.D.; two pioneering Hopkins faculty members whose work at the bedside and in the laboratory over the past 40 years helped transform a fledgling scientific specialty into the driving force of genetic medicine.  The Institute is home to some of the most globally-recognized and world-renowned experts in genetics research and its practice in medicine.

The mission of the Institute is to further the understanding of human heredity and genetic medicine, and use that knowledge to treat and prevent disease.  The Institute hosts all relevant teaching, patient care and research in human and medical genetics at Johns Hopkins and provides national and international leadership in genetic medicine. It serves as a focal point for interactions between diverse investigators to promote the application of genetic discoveries to human disease and genetics education to the public. The IGM catalyzes the spread of human genetic perspectives to other related disciplines by collaboration with other departments within Hopkins. 

Administrative Structure

The Institute is unique in that it bridges basic science and clinical research and is designed to interact with all relevant departments and other institutes at Johns Hopkins.  Each IGM member has an appointment in a basic or clinical department, but resides in proximity to all other IGM members.  With its unique organizational structure, the IGM has created an environment where multidisciplinary research, education, and clinical programs work closely together to expedite the scientific understanding of genetics and to develop interventions for genetic disorders.

The Institute has 330 employees, 50 graduate students, and 37 core faculty members whose research efforts are focused in clinical, biochemical, and molecular bases of diseases, genomics, gene regulation, genetic epidemiology, computational biology, and bioinformatics.  The Institute also has 54 affiliated faculty members representing the Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Oncology, Pathology, Otolaryngology, Ophthalmology, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cell Biology, Epidemiology, Health Policy and Management, Institute for Cellular Engineering, Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, and the Kennedy Krieger Institute.

The Institute has programs in the area of graduate education, basic science research, clinical care and research, and genetic resources facilities. 

Additional Information About IGM