Wexner Medical Center plans to hire 500 new faculty members over the next five years. Credit: Jack Westerheide | Managing Editor for Multimedia

Wexner Medical Center will hire 500 new biomedical sciences faculty members over the next five years, including 350 clinicians and 150 research scientists, announced by Ohio State’s College of Medicine on Monday.

According to a news release, approximately 50 new research faculty are already set to join the College of Medicine.

“We are going to attract the best and brightest to join the outstanding physicians and scientists who lead the nation in fields ranging from regenerative medicine and wound healing to heart failure and spinal cord injury,” Dr. K. Craig Kent, dean of the College of Medicine, said in the news release. “We want to rapidly advance Columbus and Ohio State as a hub for research, patient-care and educational innovation.”

The university plans to recruit a mix of basic scientists and physician-researchers to further their research programs and clinical services. New expertise also will be brought to disciplines undergoing further development, including diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and opioid research, according to the release.

The new faculty also will be a part of planned changes in health-sciences training for students. Kent said in the release there will be a two-part approach under which students will take foundational courses together in the classroom and then join practitioner teams working together in clinical settings.

At a recent Wexner Medical Center Board meeting, Kent presented four recent basic-science recruits Leah Pyter, Kristin Stanfords, Lang Li and Doug Lewandowski as new faculty who “exemplify the talent and the quality that we can attract to our institution.”

The hiring plan coincides with the development of the medical campus, including a new hospital and ambulatory center that is expected to further research and patient care.

“The hospital tower is expected to be the largest single facilities project ever undertaken at Ohio State,” David McQuaid, CEO of the health system, who has partnered with Kent to advance the clinical and academic missions, said in the news release.