Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Faculty of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology are dedicated to understanding life at the biochemical, genetic and cellular level. Our major goals are to make discoveries that provide new knowledge regarding the mechanisms that drive cellular systems and to move these findings from the bench to the bedside. Our second and equally important goal is to educate the next generation of highly-trained and capable scientists and physician investigators.

Using state-of-the-art biochemical, molecular and cellular approaches, our distinguished faculty are investigating protein structure and how this influences function, signal transduction mechanisms, apoptosis regulators, cancer biology, tumor suppressors, and DNA repair processes, muscle contractile mechanisms, and fluorescent measurement.

This effort includes the use of high-tech instrumentation including nuclear magnetic resonance, fluorescence spectroscopy, crystallography, proteomics/mass spectrometry and fluorescent cell imaging. The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology ranks in the top twenty in NIH funding among biochemistry departments in public medical schools and in the top twenty among biochemistry departments in all medical schools. Medical and graduate education are key components of the Department’s mission. Faculty train medical school students in molecular and cell sciences and support the MD/PhD program. The Biochemistry Graduate Program provides comprehensive training in preparation for independent research careers. The Biochemistry Graduate Program includes two tracks: Biochemistry/Molecular Biology and Structural Biology.