Illinois Medicine

cover story by Alice Patenaude "ONE UNIVERSITY" THE POWER OF the university's success in achieving President Hogan's vision of "one university," he says. "The clinical enterprise, taken together with all of the health science colleges and, particularly, the College of Medicine, constitutes at least one-third of the university's overall budget," says Hogan, PhD. "In addition, the health sciences, especially medicine, generate close to half of the university's overall research profile. Illinois Medicine is absolutely essential to our long-term growth and competi- tive position." What does a unified vision look like for Illinois Medicine? For A the first time, research efforts, clinical care and the education of tomor- row's health care professionals will be integrated on an enterprise-wide basis, furthering the university's commitment to improving patient care. "We're trying to link bench to bedside research more tightly than ever before," says Hogan, who arrived with four decades of experience in public higher education when he took the reins as university presi- dent last summer (see sidebar, next page). That emphasis on clinical and translational research—taking the basic science that happens at the bench or research lab and translating it to practical applications that can be used in patient care—will continue S A BLUEPRINT FOR THE FUTURE, President Michael J. Hogan's vision of "one university" leverages the combined strengths of the University of Illinois campuses as an organic whole. "Each campus has a distinct mission, but together we can function in complementary ways," says Hogan. "If we maintain the mis- sion or identity of each campus but focus on working together, we will be greater than the sum of our individual parts." The role of Illinois Medicine is crucial to . New University President Michael J. Hogan wants to build closer ties across campuses and among teaching, research and clinical care to set Illinois Medicine apart. "We want to build an integrated research enterprise across all the campuses and facilitate interdisciplinary cross-campus collaborations among our researchers, particularly when it comes to the medical sciences," says Hogan. Hogan's commitment to consistency and shared learning, regard- less of campus location, was the impetus for two new hires dedicated to the unified university mission—the vice president for health affairs, Joe G.N. "Skip" Garcia, MD, and interim vice president for research, Lawrence Schook, PhD. "It's no accident that Skip Garcia and Larry Schook know each other, have worked together and have collaborated as scientists," says Hogan. Garcia notes that the mission of the medical enterprise is going to be far more focused on the delivery of personalized medicine to La- tino and African-American populations susceptible to specific diseases. That initiative will require strong interaction with Schook and leverag- ing expertise in genomic sequencing and genetic computational sciences throughout the university. Schook, the Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell professor of Asnimal Sciences and director of the division of biomedical sciences on the Urbana campus, is responsible for leading the university's integrated research effort. He also has been appointed as a member of Gov. Patrick Quinn's Innovation Council, a collaborative effort of business and academic leaders focused on finding creative ways of boosting the state economy. "We are in a great position for the University of Illinois to as- sume a leadership role in the national research agenda," says Schook, an animal geneticist who led the international effort to sequence the swine genome. "We will advocate for our research programs across all campuses with both state and federal agencies." I L L INOI S MEDICINE | 25 HOGAN PHOTOGRAPHED BY LLOYD DEGRANE, GARCIA PHOTOGRAPHED BY ROBERTA DUPUIS-DEVLIN AND SCHOOK PHOTOGRAPHED BY JERRY THOMPSON

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