The central goals of scientists in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology department are to research fundamental mechanisms in cells and organisms at the molecular level and to train the next generation of scientists. Read More...

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology offers a highly collaborative research community and an excellent training environment for young scientists.

The field of biochemistry and molecular biology has been transformed in the past decade with the sequencing of the human genome and genomes of other organisms, atomic resolution structures for many important macromolecules, and technological advances that allow integration of this information to address fundamental questions about the structure and function of cells and organisms. These developments create unprecedented opportunities for scientific research and understanding of human health and disease.

Research Highlight

Mechanism of Ant1-induced human diseases unraveled by the Chen lab - July 2015

Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell. About 90% of the energy that cells need is produced in the form of ATP by the OXPHOS apparatus on the mitochondrial inner membrane. After it's synthesis by the F0F1 ATP-synthase, ATP is exported out of mitochondria via adenine nucleotide translocase (Ant) by exchanging with the cytosolic ADP. Read more...

Using disease-associated mutations to understand the biochemical regulation of a multi-subunit histone methyltransferase complex - June 2014

Eukaryotic DNA is compacted into chromatin, which must be continually remodeled to allow for DNA processes such as transcription. The basic repeating unit of chromatin, the nucleosome, is composed of an octomer of histone proteins around which 147 base pairs of DNA is wrapped. One way chromatin remodeling is achieved is by posttransitional modification of histones. Read more...

Attack of the Killer Severer - in the Amberg Lab- May 2013

Graduate student Dimitra Aggeli, working in the Amberg lab, has discovered how to turn the small actin binding protein into an actin filament destroying machine. Building off the previous work by graduate student Mike Clark, Dimitra has been trying to understand why some of Mike's mutants are hyperactive for actin filament disassembly. Read more...

Understanding ε-mediated inhibition of bacterial F-type ATP synthase to develop drugs against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the Duncan Lab- March 2013

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is an infectious pathogen that causes Pulmonary Tuberculosis and kills over one million people every year. It is also a major cause of death in HIV patients. Evolution of extreme drug-resistant strains in MTB poses a serious problem towards its treatment. As a result, there is an ongoing need to develop novel drugs that can effectively fight the resistant strains. Read more...