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.

The Titan Krios has arrived!
A great day for structural biology at Penn.

News & Publications

Black in Developmental Cell
October 2018
Ben Black and colleagues determine how centromeres are maintained through DNA replication
Kohli in Nature Biotechnology
October 2018
Rahul Kohli & colleagues develop a new method for sequencing modified DNA
Moiseenkova-Bell in Nature Communications
October 2018
Vera Moiseenkova-Bell and co-workers provide new structural insights on TRPV5 gating by endogenous modulators using cryo-EM
Guo of Shorter Lab Named 2018 STAT Wunderkind
October 2018
Congratulations to Lin Guo from the Shorter Lab for being named a STAT 2018 Wunderkind for her work on elucidating the protein folding that causes neurodegenerative diseases like ALS.

Seminars & Events

Friday Research Discussion
October 19, 3:30 pm | Rhoades Lab
IDP? Shoot it with a laser!
Raiziss Rounds
October 25, 12 noon | Gary Yellen, PhD
Metabolic dynamics in neurons as revealed with fluorescent biosensors
2018 Biochemistry & Biophysics/BMB Retreat
November 8 & 9
Skytop Lodge, Poconos

Faculty Spotlight

Sergei Vinogradov, PhD

Sergei Vinogradov's research is focused on the development of optical probes for biological microscopy and imaging. The laboratory has long-standing interest in metalloporphyrins, which can be used as sensors for oxygen, pH, metal ions and other environmental parameters of biological systems. Two-photon phosphorescence lifetime microscopy (2PLM) of oxygen, developed by the lab, is now broadly used in neuroscience and stem cell biology. Recently, the group theoretically predicted a new class of porphyrins with exceptionally high two-photon absorption cross-sections, and using them developed probes for 2PLM with 100 times higher performance. The current focus is on exploration of higher order optical non-linearity, such as in three-photon absorption, to gain deeper insight at the energy metabolism in the brain.