The Medical University of South Carolina opened in Charleston, South Carolina in 1824 as a small private college for the training of physicians. It is the sixth oldest continually operating school of medicine in the United States and the oldest in the Deep South. It has expanded into a state university with a medical center and six colleges for the education of a broad range of health professionals, biomedical scientists and other health related personnel. It also operates as a center for research and a public hospital.