The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Penn State College of Medicine offers excellent training for careers in basic or medical sciences. The tremendous advances in the life sciences in the last two decades have transformed the discipline of biochemistry.

Our teaching and research reflects the excitement and potential for discovery in fundamental and applied aspects of the discipline. Research in the department includes investigations of the structure and function of macromolecules and macromolecular complexes, and regulation of gene expression and post-transcriptional events using the approaches of molecular and cell biology, and molecular genetics. Areas of specialization focus on cell surface components and membrane enzymes, protein folding and oligomerization, metalloproteases, motor proteins and intracellular trafficking and signaling pathways, regulation of gene expression and organization, chromatin remodeling and silencing, metabolomics, proteomics, regulation of proteolysis, enzyme biochemistry, glycoconjugates, and neurotoxins. These areas relate to the control of growth and cancer, mechanisms of anesthesia actions, neuropathology, kidney and intestinal diseases, diabetes and malaria.

Faculty maintain individual research projects, and participate in collaborative and interdisciplinary projects. Graduate students in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology receive research assistantships that carry a stipend, which for the 2008-2009 academic year is $22,260 plus tuition. Annual increments are routine. Because of the favorable student/faculty ratio, close personal contact between students and professors is a tradition in the department.