Taylor Named New Director of MD-PhD Program

He will also serve as assistant dean for student and academic affairs and has been appointed as a professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

Taylor began his duties June 1. His appointments were announced earlier this year by Michael E. Cain, MD, UB’s vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School.

Taylor is board certified by the American Boards of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility.

“Dr. Taylor is an accomplished physician-scientist, educator and clinician,” Cain said, noting he has been ranked #28 among endometriosis researchers and #29 among endometrium researchers in the world, according to Expertscape.

Taylor said he was “excited and honored” to join the Jacobs School faculty.

“Integrated training of combined degree, physician-scientists provides a foundation for rigorous biomedical research and health care innovation,” he said. “MD-PhD programs attract a disciplined cadre of young scholars who embrace a comprehensive curriculum that combines preparation in fundamental scientific research coupled with the humanistic and social determinants of modern clinical medicine.”

“This program constitutes a challenging, but satisfying 7-8 year commitment,” he added. “UB’s MD-PhD Program has produced leaders in clinical biomedicine for over 35 years and is poised presently — with its outstanding range of resources and facilities — to provide an ideal environment to recruit and develop the next generation of physician-scientist innovators.”

His research interests include human endometrial function, uterine biology, embryonic implantation and endometriosis.

His research programs have been consistently funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other research foundations, and industry.

Taylor has published over 240 peer-reviewed scientific papers. He has also authored 50 book chapters, and five books.

He has served on numerous NIH and other national research foundations study sections, and has lectured nationally and internationally.

Taylor received the American Society for Reproductive Medicine Distinguished Researcher Award (2007), was President of the Society for Reproductive Investigation (2010-11), and Honorary Secretary of the World Endometriosis Society (2011-2017).

Taylor previously held the positions of professor of obstetrics and gynecology, research director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, and director of the MD-PhD Program at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

Prior to that he was professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Wake Forest School of Medicine and was also co-director of its Molecular Medicine and Translational Sciences Program.

He served as the Willaford Leach/Armand Hendee Chair and Professor in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Emory University School of Medicine and as assistant, associate and professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.

Taylor received his undergraduate degree in biological sciences from Stanford University. He received his MD-PhD (Department of Cell Biology) from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

He completed his residency in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. 

Taylor completed a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, and a research fellowship in molecular cardiovascular biology at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Francisco.

He succeeds Suzanne G. Laychock, PhD, who served as director of the MD-PhD Program since 2017 and as co-director since 2003.

“I wish to thank Dr. Suzanne Laychock for her leadership role with the Jacobs School’s MD-PhD Program,” Cain said.