A cell biologist and biochemist who has served on the UCLA School of Medicine faculty since he joined the Department of Biological Chemistry in 1979, Leonard Rome, Ph.D., became a full professor in 1988 and has been senior associate dean for research in the School of Medicine since 1997. In addition, he has been the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research for the Life and Health Sciences since 2001.

Rome earned his B.S. in Chemistry and M.S. and Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health, where he worked on lysosome biogenesis. Rome has chaired the School of Medicine Faculty Executive Committee and is actively involved in graduate and medical education. He co-chairs the Human Biochemistry and Nutrition Laboratory, and is a recipient of the School of Medicine Award for Excellence in Education. Since becoming senior associate dean for research, he has organized a strategic plan for research in the school and spearheaded campus-wide efforts in genomics, proteomics and computational biology.

Rome's laboratory research centers on a novel cellular organelle called a "vault", which was discovered in his laboratory. Over three times the size of a ribosome, vaults are the largest cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein particles known. They are a naturally-occurring nano-capsule thought to carry out a basic cellular function. Rome is presently organizing a Nanoscience Interdisciplinary Research Team, a collaboration of disciplines including cell biologists, engineers, chemists and structural biologists who will engineer vaults so that they may one day be used in drug delivery and as components of nano-electrical machines.

Rome has received a number of honors for his research, including a March of Dimes Basil O'Connor grant and an American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award.