Mission Statement. Our central mission is to leverage the immense resources, outstanding faculty and superb graduate students of the University of Pennsylvania to promote and strengthen advanced training in structural biology and molecular biophysics. Through this vehicle we seek to train a cadre of supelative students that will subsequently provide national leadersthip in both academia and industry in this core area of biomedical research in the United States.
The Structural Biology & Molecular Biophysics (SBMB) training program is arguably the flagship predoctoral training program for quantitative biology at the University of Pennsylvania. The SBMB training program is designed to provide students with focused research training in structural and molecular biophysics integrated within a basic understanding of human biology and disease.
The training faculty consists of nearly three dozen world-renowned researchers in the many areas of structural biology and molecular biophysics. Students are recruited from the BMB and Chemistry Graduate Groups though outstanding students from other graduate groups working in structural biology or molecular biophysics are also eligible.
Students are usually appointed early in their dissertation research. More senior students, espcially those completing individual fellowships, are appointed from time to time. Appointments are annual and may be renewed once. Appointments begin in the fall. Applications are accepted in the late Spring. Students of trainers are given preference. Students are expected to participate fully in the SBMB training program, particularly the weekly meetings (see http://www.med.upenn.edu/bmbgrad/Program/SBMB_Program/2013-2014SBMBTrainingGrant.shtml).
For further information contact: PROGRAM DIRECTOR: PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR: ADVISORY COMMITTEE: |
| TRAINING FACULTY: | |
| Yair Argon, Ph.D. Pathology and Laboratory Medicine |
Functions of molecular chaperones in folding cell surface receptors and secreted proteins |
| Paul H. Axelsen, M.D. Pharmacology |
Biophysical studies of molecular recognition and rational drug design |
| Tobias Baumgart, Ph.D. Chemistry |
Thermodynamics and mechanics of membrane curvature sensing and generation |
| Ben E. Black, Ph.D. Biochemistry and Biophysics |
Chromosome segregation; chromatin structure; epigenetic centromere specification; hydrogen/deuterium exchange |
| David W. Christianson, Ph.D. Chemistry |
Protein crystallography; metalloenzymes; enzymes of terpenoid and steroid biosynthesis |
Gideon Dreyfuss, Ph.D. Roberto Dominguez, Ph.D. |
Nuclear transport, hnRNP complexes, RNA-binding proteins, spinal muscular atrophy, x-ray crystallography Structural biology & biophysics of proteins that regulate actin cytoskeleton and membrane dynamics |
| Roland L. Dunbrack, Ph.D. Fox Chase Cancer Center |
Protein structure prediction |
| P. Leslie Dutton, Ph.D. Biochemistry and Biophysics |
Oxido-reductase engineering; design and chemical synthesis of redox proteins |
| S. Walter Englander, Ph.D. Biochemistry and Biophysics |
Protein folding; structure, structure change, and dynamics;H-exchange; NMR; mass spectrometry |
| Kathryn M. Ferguson, Ph.D. Physiology |
Molecular recognition in cellular signaling and trafficking |
| Feng Gai, Ph.D. Chemistry |
Spectroscopic study of protein folding/misfolding |
| Benjamin Garcia, Ph.D. Biochemistry and Biophysics |
Mass spectrometry, protein sequencing, post-translational modification, proteomics, quantification, chromatin, kinetics, dynamics |
| Yale E. Goldman, M.D., Ph.D. Physiology |
Motor proteins and protein synthesis studied by spectroscopy and mechanics |
| Mark D. Goulian, Ph.D. Biology/Physics |
Two-component signaling, bacterial regulatory circuits |
| Paul A. Janmey, Ph.D. Physiology |
Cytoskeleton, phosphoinositide signalling, cell mechanics |
| Mark A. Lemmon, Ph.D. Biochemistry and Biophysics |
Mechanisms of growth factor receptor activation, downstream signaling, oncogenesis, therapeutic targeting |
| Ronen Marmorstein, Ph.D. Wistar Institute |
X-ray crystallography, epigenetics, tumor suppressors, oncoproteins, kinases, aging, structure-based inhibitor design |
| Michael Ostap, Ph.D. Physiology |
Molecular mechanisms of cell motility |
| Trevor M. Penning, Ph.D. Pharmacology |
Structure-function of aldo-keto reductases; role in steroid hormone action and chemical carcinogenesis |
| E. James Petersson, Ph.D. Chemistry |
Development of methods for protein labeling by semi-synthesis, application to the study of folding and proteolysis |
| Ravi Radhakrishnan, Ph.D. Bioengineering |
Computational structural biology and systems biology; cell membrane mediated trafficking; targeted drug delivery; cancer signaling |
| Ravinder Reddy, Ph.D. Radiology |
Sodium and oxygen-17 MR methods; multiple quantum and polarization transfer MR techniques |
| Heinrich Roder, Ph.D. Fox Chase Cancer Center |
NMR; protein folding mechanism; protein structure, dynamics and function |
| Jeffery G. Saven, Ph.D. Chemistry |
Theory, simulation and design of proteins and molecular systems |
| Kim A. Sharp, Ph.D. Biochemistry and Biophysics |
Theory of protein and nucleic acid structure and function |
| James Shorter, Ph.D. Biochemistry and Biophysics |
Regulation of beneficial or neuropathogenic prions and amyloids by protein-remodeling factors, molecular chaperones, and small molecules |
| Emmanuel Skordalakes, Ph.D. Wistar Institute |
Structure function of telomeric complexes; cancer and aging |
| David W. Speicher, Ph.D. Wistar Institute |
Cancer proteomics; structure-function of membrane proteins: structural mass spectrometry |
Alison M. Sweeney, Ph.D. Cecilia Tommos, Ph.D. |
Molecular evolution of protein photonic structures; molecular camouflage; protein biophysics
|
| Gregory D. Van Duyne, Ph.D. Biochemistry and Biophysics |
Structural biology; protein-protein interactions; x-ray crystallography |
| Sergei A. Vinogradov, Ph.D. Biochemistry and Biophysics |
Functional macromolecules, optical imaging probes, porphyrin chemistry, dendrimer chemistry, oxygen microscopy and tomography |
| A. Joshua Wand, Ph.D. Biochemistry and Biophysics |
Protein structure, thermodynamics and dynamics; molecular recognition and signal transduction; NMR spectroscopy |
| Felix W. Wehrli, Ph.D. Radiology |
MRI studies of architecture, physiology and function of tissues |