The Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology has an annual budget of over 30 million dollars in research funding from external sources and ranks number one in U.S. medical school basic science departments (without a clinical component) in NIH funding. Research interests of the large, multidisciplinary faculty focuses on the molecular basis of gene regulation and the regulation of normal and abnormal cellular differentiation and growth. The Department is a participant in two Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE), one for prostate cancer and one for breast cancer, as well as a Program of Excellence in Gene Therapy on Cardiovascular Disease, and a Specialized Cooperative Center Program in Reproductive Research (SCCPRR). Members of the faculty hold appointments in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, the Breast Care Center, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Huffington Center on Aging and the Center for Comparative Medicine.