This is a challenging time as we navigate the impact of several federal actions to reduce vital research funding. As a national leader in biomedical research with $400 million in external research funding, UC Davis School of Medicine has a lot at stake.

This year, the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research again placed our school among the nation’s leading medical schools for National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding – with a new record-high $210 million in NIH grants in 2024. Eight departments ranked in the top 20 nationally in their fields, with two in the top 10.

The Hartwell Foundation named UC Davis among the prestigious 2025 Top Ten Centers of Biomedical Research. Distinguished faculty were also honored with top awards by The Hartwell Foundation, Clinical Research Forum and Association for Clinical and Translational Science.

The flood of recent federal research funding reductions — the NIH research funding cuts, in particular — put lifesaving advances at risk and disproportionately impact the University of California system as a preeminent NIH-funded research community. The proposed NIH facilities and administration (F&A) cuts are especially destabilizing since it is impossible to conduct research without infrastructure investments to build and maintain labs and facilities, and to cover operations costs to ensure patient safety, security, radiation safety, hazardous waste disposal, and other government-mandated expenses.

We are working closely with UC and UC Davis leaders, and national partners to advance our research mission as these cuts are challenged in the courts. Our commitment to research and training future scientists remains strong, but support from foundations and private donors will be more vital than ever.

Meanwhile, our school is proud to be a key partner of Aggie Square, a first-of-its-kind innovation district on the UC Davis Sacramento campus. It leverages UC Davis’ strengths in research and teaching, industry and community to create opportunities across the region.

“Support from foundations and private donors will be more vital than ever.”—Susan Murin, M.D., M.Sc., M.B.A., Dean, UC Davis School of Medicine

About 350 of our scientists and affiliated centers will conduct collaborative studies at Aggie Square on public health, neurosciences, cancer, surgical biomedical engineering, and more. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will be a major collaborator in cancer and neuroscience research. The space also offers leading-edge training suites and continuing education.

This spring, U.S. News & World Report again recognized the School of Medicine as one of the nation’s best graduate schools. We received a Tier 1 (top tier) ranking for excellence in primary care training, and recognition as a leading research school. We also rank 17th for “most graduates practicing in primary care.”

We are proud to share that the Association of American Medical Colleges recently selected two of our second-year students to participate in its Developing Future Leaders in Academic Medicine & Science.

We also congratulate our Class of 2025 on their Match Day. Eighty-two percent of our graduates will stay in California for residency, with 19 percent staying at UC Davis Health. More than 63 percent matched into primary care specialties.

Thank you for supporting our mission to train the next generation of physicians and scientists who are transforming lives.