Education

The Department of Biochemistry was founded over 40 years ago to develop world-class research programs on the structure and function of biomolecules, with the goals of understanding the molecular basis of disease and developing novel approaches for biomedical intervention. The mission of the Department was expanded in 1988 to include Cell Biology, the study of cellular and subcellular structure and function. The Department represents a nexus between basic science and biomedical research, and the research mission requires that there be close ties with both the physical and biomedical sciences at Stony Brook. As a result, the faculty has collaborations that stretch across the University and maintain facilities that are widely accessed as University resources. This bridge between the basic and biomedical sciences is reflected in the inclusion of the Department in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine.

The Department administers two Ph.D. programs: Biochemistry and Structural Biology (BSB) and Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB), which are supported by an NIH funded training grant. Both programs are interdepartmental and multiinstitutional, including faculty from Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. The quality of our faculty is reflected by the fact that our graduate programs are ranked in the top 50 (US News and World Report) and that our faculty are quite successful in obtaining external funding from NIH, NSF and other agencies (over $10 million in research expenditures per year).

The Department also actively participates in undergraduate education, through both the Biochemistry and Biology majors. Combined, Biochemistry and Biology represent the largest majors on campus, and the Biochemistry majors are often some of the best and brightest students on campus. The Department offers many research opportunities for undergraduates in faculty labs.