Doctoral Program in Biochemistry

At Brooklyn College, the biochemistry faculty is drawn from the Biology and Chemistry departments, offering doctoral students interested in biochemistry a vibrant, interdisciplinary, and research directed-program that is designed to foster both research training and opportunities for professional development that will give students more options for their careers after their Ph.D's are completed. The biochemistry faculty currently numbers fifteen; over half are women, with a low student-to-faculty ratio.

Research
The biochemistry faculty offers research specialties in: drug design and discovery; protein signaling, structure, conformation and function; membrane and membrane proteins (signaling, fertilization and dynamics); microscopy and spectrometry of biological molecules; and laser studies of conformation and dynamics of biological systems. Research groups work in areas of biophysics/physical chemistry, computational biochemistry, bioinformatics, and molecular biology. Some members of the faculty also participate in a CUNY-wide initiative in macromolecular assemblies.

Grant Support and Research Resources
Research by biochemistry faculty at Brooklyn College is supported by current research grants totaling over $7.4 million from the NIH, the NSF, and other agencies. Some of the facilities and equipment available to students doing research in the biochemistry program are described here. The college already has up-to-date facilities and equipment for research that will be enhanced by a new science building now in the planning stages.

The new Brooklyn College Library, considered the most technologically advanced in the CUNY, has electronic access to 28,000 journals.

In addition, there is the opportunity to share equipment located in the departments of Physics and Geology. and to have access to facilities in AREAC, a state-of-the-art marine-culture facility for environmental and behavioral research, and the Environmental Science Analysis Center for analysis of environmental parameters and toxins, among other shared equipment resources.

The departments of Biology and Chemistry are both well equipped for biochemical studies, with many new facilities for molecular, biochemical, biophysical, computational biological, and bioinformatic approaches.

The Brooklyn College Doctoral Program in Biochemistry
The atmosphere in the biochemistry program is personal, cooperative, and supportive. Highlights of the program are weekly seminars by visiting scientists, research meetings, and journal discussions.

Chemistry, biology, and biochemistry students populate the research labs, carrying out dissertation projects in subjects such as discovery of antitumor, antitubercular, antimalarial, and antifungal drug targets; bone mineralization; fuel production; molecular evolution; protein and nucleic acid structure and dynamics; organelle trafficking; cell-cycle regulation; and the role of cytoskeleton in cellular function. The college already has up-to-date facilities and equipment for research that will be enhanced by a new science building now in the planning stages. Research interests of the biochemistry faculty are described further below.

To ensure our doctoral students are competitive and have many career options after they obtain their degrees, Brooklyn College provides professional development workshops in such areas as science teaching, grant writing, laboratory management, effective scientific communication, writing in the sciences, building a competitive curriculum vita, and searching for academic, industrial and research jobs. Our commitment to our students is not complete when they file their dissertations-our faculty members continue to provide a supportive professional mentoring network to our students as they advance in their careers. Graduates of the biochemistry program go on to excellent post-doctoral fellowships, academic jobs, and industrial positions.