Miki Ii

I am an Associate Professor and Discipline Lead at Illinois College of Osteopathic Medicine, a brand new medical school where I started in March 2026. I am responsible for all the curriculum to be taught in the first two years at the medical school, ensuring everything is good and monitoring how students are doing. I focus on student success in biochemistry and genetics. We are developing everything from zero, which is time-consuming and difficult work, but we are succeeding. I work on developing new technology used in the classroom, and students have a longitudinal experience in basic science as well as clinical experience and simulation of patient and physician situations. We are developing a very new program including AI integrated in our curriculum. Before this role, I was an Assistant Professor of biochemistry and genetics at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Erie, Pennsylvania for 1 year and 8 months. I have been a medical school professor for over 2 years and have been faculty at undergraduate institutions and medical schools for two decades. I am an accomplished researcher, nationally and internationally recognized, having published outstanding papers that were cited more than 1,000 times. I have gained skills and knowledge in obtaining research grants and educational grants from NIH and NSF. I have broad knowledge and experience across many different fields - I am a biochemist and geneticist, but also a molecular biologist, cell biologist, physiologist, and I am familiar with anatomy. I moved to several different institutions because of budget issues at undergraduate institutions, but I gained so much knowledge and experience by working for different institutions and medical schools. I got my PhD at a medical school in Japan, my original country, and then moved to the U.S. My passion for science developed when I was little - I wanted to be a researcher and get a Nobel Prize. I have a passion for both biomedical research and medical education because medicine is so important for everyone and human needs to thrive, and health is most important.