About

A Message from the Chair

Tobin Sosnick, Chair

The study of biochemistry and biophysics at The University of Chicago has a long and distinguished history.  Maud Menten’s pioneering work conducted as a graduate student, led to the Michaelis-Menten formalism for enzyme kinetics.  Konrad Bloch carried out his Nobel-prize winning work on cholesterol biosynthesis, Sam Weiss discovered RNA polymerase, Gene Goldwasser purified erythropoietin or “EPO”, and Eugene Kennedy while a student in Albert Lehninger's group demonstrated that oxidative phosphorylation and fatty acid oxidation are localized to the mitochondria. Among our more recent faculty colleagues, the work of Ed Taylor established the paradigm for how the chemical energy of ATP hydrolysis is converted into a mechanical force in actomyosin, while Don Steiner made the seminal discovery that insulin is formed via the proteolytic processing of proinsulin, the first example of a prohormone.

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology continues this tradition of excellence in biochemistry and biophysics.  The breadth of our research mirrors the diversity of biological processes, focusing on the molecular basis of biological function at the Ångstrom thru micron length scales using the tools of structural biology, protein engineering, synthetic chemistry, computation and single-molecule biophysics.

As our interests continue to expand and adapt to new areas of investigation, we are looking for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to join us in our exciting pursuits. Our interdisciplinary and collaborative studies have been enhanced by our move to the Gordon Center For Integrative Science, which also houses research groups from Chemistry, Physics, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Ben May Institute for Cancer Research.

I invite you to learn more about the exciting work in our department.

Tobin R. Sosnick, PhD

Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
William B. Graham Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology