The intellectual climate in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, the School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is very stimulating. The collegiality of the faculty has produced a very collaborative atmosphere. Consequently, many research projects are being pursued collaboratively by multiple labs. This has allowed very broad, multidisciplinary approaches to be applied to scientific problems of interest to our faculty. This environment has certainly contributed to the success of our faculty, postdocs and students in their research endeavors.

There are many formal and informal opportunities for the exchange of scientific information within the UNC community. The Department hosts two seminar series, an extramural series, where leading scientists from other departments on campus and from other institutions present recent results from their laboratories, and an in-house series, where students, postdocs and faculty from the department have the opportunity to present their research. Each of the departments in the School of Medicine, as well as different curricula, also has their own extramural seminar program. In addition, several major symposia are held on campus each year, e.g. the Annual Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Symposium and the Cell and Molecular Biology Symposium.

There are many opportunities for informal scientific exchanges. Many members of the department belong to informal research groups in the medical school and/or University, which meet regularly to discuss recent progress in their labs. These groups include:

- Works in Progress in the Schaller / Burridge / Otey (Physiology) / Cance (Medicine )/ Taylor (Pathology) / Mack (Pathology) labs

- UNC Cell Motility Workgroup, Comprehensive Center for Inflammatory Disorders, Dental Research Center, Burridge / Jacobson / Schaller / Cheney (Physiology) labs

- Integrin Program Project Group Meeting, Burridge / White (Medicine / Pharmacology) / Juliano (Pharmacology) / Parise (Pharmacology) / Schaller / Otey (Physiology) labs

- DUKE-UNC Biomembrane group : Jacobson / Costello / Lentz (Biochemistry) / Thompson (Chemistry) / Berkowitz (Chemistry) /McIntosh (Duke) / Simon (Duke) labs

- Neurodevelopmental Journal Club: Deshmukh / Snider (Neuroscience) / Mannes (Biochemistry )/ LaMantia (Physiology) / Anton / Pevney labs

- PISR (Progress in Signaling Research): laboratories from the Departments of Pharmacology, Biochemistry & Biophysics and Cell & Developmental Biology (including the Burridge, Schaller & Weiss labs)

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