Home | Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics | Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Welcome to the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

As one of the first departments of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the nation, we are proud of our strong tradition of combining cutting-edge technology with impactful biology. We continue to leverage this interdisciplinary approach to yield break-through discoveries in biomedicine.

Our faculty of over 30 primary and secondary members cover a broad range of research areas, with particular strengths in structural biology, chemical biology, gene regulation and protein folding.

We are also the proud home of the Eldridge Reeves Johnson Research Foundation which offers advanced physical instrumentation and instruction to researchers across campus.

We are actively growing, with several recent hires, and our faculty are broadly engaged across campus with many joint appointments in other departments, institutes and centers.

We welcome you to learn more about our department in the following pages or contact us.

News & Publications

Shorter Lab in eLife
June 2020
Skd3 (human CLPB) is a potent mitochondrial protein disaggregase that is inactivated by 3-methylglutaconic aciduria-linked mutations
Collaborative paper between Murakami lab and Dominguez lab in Sci Adv
June 2020
Cryo-EM Structure of NPF-bound Human Arp2/3 Complex and Activation Mechanism
Lynch Lab in RNA
June 2020
Meta-Analysis of Transcriptomic Variation in T cell Populations Reveals both Variable and Consistent Signatures of Gene Expression and Splicing
Liu Lab in Proc Natl Acad Sci
April 2020
Coordination of mRNA and tRNA Methylations by TRMT10A

Seminars & Events

Faculty Spotlight

Kushol Gupta

Kushol Gupta is a Research Assistant Professor in the department, a member of the BMB graduate group, and directs the Johnson Foundation Structural Biology and Biophysics Core, a departmental resource that serves Penn and the greater region.

He is a structural biologist with expertise in both X-ray crystallography and solution biophysical methods, including small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering, light scattering, and analytical ultracentrifugation. His ongoing research focuses on retroviral integrases, their interaction with host factors, and a new class of drugs known as allosteric inhibitors of integrase (ALLINIs), which are potent antivirals against HIV. His research also includes other projects in the areas of phenylketonuria, RNA splicing, and site-specific recombination, highlighting the collaborative nature of research at Penn.