Established in 1986, the Biochemistry Division spans a wide range of fields from Bioinformatics and Cellular and Molecular Biology, to Synthetic and Biophysical Chemistry. The current areas of focus involve:

 

  • Nucleic Acid Chemistryand Biochemistry, including RNA structure and function and mechanisms of Transcription and Replication
  • Structural Biology, including X-ray and NMR, Proteomics, and Informatics
  • Molecular Biophysics and Signal Transduction
  • And much more

 

The current Biochemistry faculty include a Nobel Laureate, two members of the National Academy of Sciences, two Howard Hughes Investigators, a Howard Hughes Early Career Scientist, three NIH MERIT Awardees, three former NIH Career Development Awardees, an NSF CAREER Awardee, two former Guggenheim fellows, a former Pew Scholar, a former Beckman Young Investigator, two former Searle Scholars, and two University Distinguished Professors. 

In the past several years the Biochemistry faculty has averaged a total of approximately 50 papers in scholarly journals. These papers overwhelmingly include graduate students and post-doctorates as coauthors. The Biochemistry Divisions has a vibrant graduate program and participates in four NIH-funded grants, which support PhD training for current students. Approximately 60% of the recent PhDs in the Division go on to perform postdoctoral research and most graduates end up with a position in academia or in the biotech and/or pharmaceutical industry.

Research in Biochemistry laboratories is currently supported at a level of $440,000/yr per lab. Furthermore, the Biochemistry Division had external awards of $14,500,000 in FY 2008. The largest source of funding is the National Institutes of Health, and additional funding sources include:

  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • National Science Foundation
  • Department of Energy
  • Department of Defense
  • Pew Foundation
  • W. M. Keck Foundation
  • Beckman Foundation
  • American Cancer Society
  • Colorado Tobacco Research Fund
  • American Heart Association and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. 

 

Individual faculty collaboration with industrial partners and contracts/gifts to support research in Biochemistry are currently provided by Agilent Technologies, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, InDevR, Somalogic, and Array Biopharma.

In short, The Biochemistry Division of University of Colorado at Boulder offers a world-class interdisciplinary research environment in a beautiful mountain setting.

 

 

Opportunities for Underrepresented Students

The Colorado Advantage Program is intended to introduce college seniors interested in graduate school (PhD) to the outstanding Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) doctoral programs at CU-Boulder.

The Colorado Advantage Program will be having a Graduate Preview Weekend sometime in November 2013.  This is an opportunity to preview the Chemistry and Biochemistry PhD Programs at CU-Boulder.  Application and details about this weekend are here.

Certificate Program in IQ Biology

Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology  - Bioscience with an Altitude

We also participate in the Biofrontiers Institute’s Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology (IQ Biology) program, which offers a two-year fellowship, a diverse interdisciplinary experience, and a certificate upon completion of your PhD. Visit IQBiology.colorado.edu for more information.

Molecular Biophysics at the University of Colorado

The Molecular Biophysics Program at the University of Colorado, jointly sponsored by NIH and CU, is a collaborative effort involving students, postdocs and faculty from four departments on the Boulder campus. Participants share a common interest in biological systems, and seek to understand these systems in terms of physical and chemical principles. Visit biophysics.colorado.edu for more information.