Course Work

All trainees complete the doctoral curriculum in one of the three participating departments of Molecular Biosciences, Chemistry, or Medicinal Chemistry. In addition, all trainees complete a CBI core curriculum that provides basic foundations in graduate-level chemistry and biology. Doctoral-dissertation research projects and further instruction will be offered in three training options.

• synthesis as applied to molecules of biological interest, including peptidomimetics, natural product synthesis, synthetic medicinal agents, and synthetic methodology;
• biophysical structural analysis of macromolecules, including X-ray, NMR, and EPR techniques, optical and atomic force microscopy, picosecond spectroscopy, fluorescence methods, and computational modeling; and
• enzyme mechanisms and biomolecular dynamics, including kinetic, isotopic and other probes of enzyme and receptor mechanisms and chemical models; single molecule fluorescence spectroscopy, gene action with emphasis on the techniques of molecular biology, mechanisms and regulation of gene expression; and the applications of these subjects to dynamical chemical biology.

To assure that every trainee has laboratory experience in more than one area of research, they each complete two six-week research rotations, at least one of which must be in a cross-disciplinary field. Trainees also organize and attend a seminar series with topics in chemical biology. External speakers are invited, present their current research results at an open seminar, and hold special discussions with the trainees during their visit to the campus. A Chemical Biology Annual Symposium gives all trainees an opportunity to present their own research results, usually in the form of oral presentations. This popular yearly event features a noted external speaker, a series of trainee presentations lasting most of a day, the keynote lecture, followed by dinner and a reception. It is this event that draws all of the trainees, their mentors, and other mentors in the program together.

As noted above all trainees complete basic courses in chemistry and biology and complete the Ph.D. course requirements for their home department. These requirements allow prerequisite courses for the Chemical Biology curriculum to be taken in a timely fashion. After entering the program, trainees complete a core curriculum that includes a course in scientific integrity and one course in either molecular modeling or bioinformatics. In addition the chemistry and medicinal chemistry students take an advanced course in biology, and the biology students take an advanced course in either chemistry or medicinal chemistry. This core curriculum makes a distinctive contribution to cross-disciplinary training, while not greatly increasing the classroom requirements.

The course requirements are described below. Most if not all of the students joining the program will have had a course in biochemistry. Students lacking background in this area will also have to take one of the introductory biochemistry courses, BIOL 600 or BIOL 658. All of the courses are three credit hours with the exception of MDCM 801 (one credit) and BIOL 600 (four credits).

Required Courses

MDCM 801: Issues in Scientific Integrity
BIOL 701: Bioinformatics, and/or
BIOL 952: Introduction to Molecular Modeling

Elective Courses

MOBI students choose one:
CHEM 737: Coordination and Organometallic Chemistry
CHEM 740: Principles of Organic Reactions
CHEM 750: Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy
CHEM 925: Bioanalysis
MDCM 790: Principles of Drug Design

CHEM and MDCM students choose one:

BIOL 688: Molecular Biology of Cancer
BIOL 672: Gene Expression
BIOL 752: Cell Biology
BIOL 918: Modern Biochemical and Biophysical Methods

Course Descriptions