| The Faculty and Research
Interests
Staff and Administration |
The DepartmentThe Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology has eight full-time faculty who occupy contiguous space in the Medical Sciences Building including new state-of-the-art modular laboratories in a recently completed addition. Ten to twelve graduate students are normally enrolled in the Ph.D. degree program with three new students accepted each year. The close physical proximity and small size of the Department allow for extensive faculty-student interactions. In addition to graduate student training and education, the Department has an active postdoctoral training program, an undergraduate research program, and also hosts visiting scientists from the United States and other countries.The Department offers a wide range of research opportunities in biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, virology, cancer biology, and signal transduction. Faculty publications appear in high impact journals such as the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Biochemistry, Cancer Research, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and The Journal of Cell Biology. The faculty are extremely successful in acquiring extramural funds for research projects from both private companies and agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation. Equipment resources of the Department are extensive and include cell and tissue culture, fluorescence microscopy, recombinant DNA cloning and sequencing, recombinant protein purification, protein sequencing, peptide synthesis, mass spectroscopy, and advanced computers. A modern Biomedical Library is located adjacent to the Medical Sciences Building and offers books, journals, computerized CD-ROM literature searches, extensive access to electronic versions of biomedical journals, document photocopying and delivery. The success of the Department in training predoctoral students is exemplified not only by the accomplishments of the students while in the program, but after graduation as well. During predoctoral training all students receive a stipend (currently $20,000/year plus health insurance and tuition). In addition, our students have competed successfully for fellowships from the National Science Foundation, NASA, National Institutes of Health and American Heart Association. Some of these fellowships provide over $23,000 stipends. Students have routinely received awards for their scientific presentations at both regional and national meetings. These accomplishments along with a solid publication record allow our graduates to obtain postdoctoral training positions at other prestigious institutions and to compete successfully for postdoctoral fellowships and jobs in the biotechnology and biomedical industries. Postdoctoral fellows have been successful in obtaining support from the National Institutes of Health as well as from private foundations.   The URL for this page is http://southmed.usouthal.edu/com/biochem/index.html
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