The Department of Biomedical Sciences (BMS) has it origin in the amalgation of Anatomy and Histology, the erstwhile Medical Biochemistry which slowly underwent a change in emphasis to become Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, and Medical Physiology.
Academics in BMS lecture primarily Anatomy and Histology to all undergraduate students at the Health Sciences Faculty in addition to specialist groups (MMed, MChD, and private students (psychologists) receiving postgraduate neuroanatomy training.
Medical Physiology studies the normal functioning of biological systems of the body as well as the mechanisms of their interaction.
Molecular Biology and Human Genetics is a research division focusing primarily of TB research and inherited genetic abnormalities.
Biomedical Sciences is situated in the FISAN Building (FISiologie/ANatomie) and is one of the largest departments in the Faculty of Health Sciences.
A number of important MRC related research units fall under BMS amongst others the Desmond Tutu TB Centre, Anxiety and Stress Disorders Research Unit, MRC Centre for Molecular and Cellular Biology, the DST-NRF Centre of excellence for Biomedical TB Research, the Cardiology Research Group and the Experimental Diabetes Research Group.
The recently established morphology museum boasts with the most diverse exhibition of medical and medically related displays under one roof in Southern Africa. It resembles the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London UK but on a much smaller scale.
