The Department of Biochemistry began as a semi-independent Division within the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1986, and became a separate Department in 2018. The Biochemistry Department is located on the east campus in the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building and current research in the Department spans a wide range of fields from biophysical chemistry to cellular and molecular biology.
Specific areas of focus in the Biochemistry Department are: (1) nucleic acid biochemistry, including RNA structure and function and mechanisms of transcription and replication, (2) signal transduction and cell cycle regulation, and (3) structural biology, including X-ray and electron microscopy, as well as proteomics and bioinformatics. One notable feature of research in the Department is the interactive and collaborative nature of the research, which has a broader effect on the whole university community.
Biochemistry By the Numbers
Biochemistry has over 140 researchers, currently consisting of:
21 tenure track faculty
1 research faculty
2 teaching professors
~75 Ph.D. students
~42 postdocs and scientists
~29 technical staff
7 administrative staff
~400 undergraduate Biochemistry majors, many of which perform undergraduate research and some graduate with Honors by completing an Honors thesis
The Biochemistry faculty include:
a Nobel Laureate
five members of the National Academy of Sciences
three Howard Hughes Investigators
Faculty Awards through the Years:
NIH MERIT Award
NIH Career Development Award
NSF CAREER Award
NIH Pioneer Award
Guggenheim Fellowship
Pew Scholar
Beckman Young Investigator
Searle Scholar
University Distinguished Professor
2010-2016 members of the Biochemistry Department published over 800 articles in scholarly journals. Overwhelmingly these papers include graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and undergraduate students as coauthors.
The Biochemistry Department has a vibrant graduate program and also has two NIH-funded pre-doctoral training programs – one in Signal and Cellular Regulation and a second in Molecular Biophysics. Approximately 60% of the recent Ph.D.s in the Department go on to perform postdoctoral research and most graduates end up with a position in academia or in the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry.
The Division also participates in community education and science outreach programs, examples include: Science Community Outreach Program and Education (S.C.O.P.E.) and Partnerships for Informal Science Education in the Community (PISEC).
The largest source of funding is the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences/NIH/DHHS. Past and current funding sources include, but are not limited to:
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
National Science Foundation
American Cancer Society
American Heart Association
Beckman Foundation
Boettcher Foundation
Pew Charitable Trusts
W. M. Keck Foundation
Individual faculty also collaborate with industry partners to support research in Biochemistry.
