Science of Life

UNM Undergraduate Biochemistry Program Wins Re-Accreditation

The University of New Mexico School of Medicine’s undergraduate biochemistry program – an important pipeline for premed students applying to the MD degree track – has been re-accredited for seven years.

The re-accreditation by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) runs through 2029, said Karlett Parra, PhD, professor and chair of the UNM Department of Biochemistry & Microbiology. Documentation to support re-accreditation was submitted in September 2022, and word of the renewal came in January 2023.

Undergraduate biochemistry majors benefit from the expertise of the department’s researchers, who study topics as diverse as the role of iron metabolism in colon cancer, obesity and diabetes, breast cancer, kidney disease, the genetics and metabolism driving aging and postmortem radiological imaging, she said.

“It’s not typical to find an undergraduate program in a medical school,” Parra said. The program has part of the School of Medicine since the early 1980s, when it was organized by Robert Loftfield, MD, a founding faculty member.

The program graduates around 70 students each spring and another 10 or so during the winter convocation, she said. About 20 percent of the program’s graduates enroll in UNM’s MD program, she said. In addition to medicine, some graduates apply to the College of Pharmacy, veterinary schools and PhD programs.

[Students] gain a number of problem-solving skills and a high level of science knowledge that they can employ in almost any career

— Karlett Parra, PhD