Graduate Training in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The BMCB, Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Training Program presently has 43 Ph.D. students working toward the degree. Ten new students have been admitted for the 2008 Fall first-year class. These research interests range from biochemistry: x-ray crystallographic analysis of metal binding and nucleic acid binding proteins, heat shock protein function, enzymology of nucleotide synthesis, regulation of fatty acid/lipoic acid biosynthesis, and adiponectin signalling, to molecular biology: genome structure analysis, DMA repair and chromosome instability, RNA processing, turnover and transport, to cellular biology: regulation of cancer cell genesis and metastasis, organelle biogenesis and placement, cytoskeleton structure and function, to development: signaling pathways governing pattern formation, evolution of developmental programs, heart development. Students in the second year and beyond will be chosen based on merit for a maximum of two years of support by this training grant. All BMCB students will participate in weekly journal club and seminar programs;each year each student will give at least one presentation. A yearly retreat where each student either presents a poster or a talk is a long-standing BMCB tradition. First and second year students complete a set of courses that includes Nucleic Acids and Proteins and Enzymes. Students in the Biochemistry track take Biological Structure and those in the MCB track take Cellular Systems. A new track for students interested in Bioinformatics will include a course in computer-aided analysis of genomes. In anticipation that many of our graduates will become professors, teachers and/or laboratory heads, all students will be trained as teaching assistants in the undergraduate Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology classes at the University of Arizona for at least one semester. Students will attend yearly mandatory meetings to review program requirements for the upcoming year and will be monitored independently for progress through the milestones of the program. All students will have a faculty mentoring committee that will meet at least once a year.