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.

Titan Krios...
Installation Phase One

News & Publications

Garcia, Black, and Englander labs in Structure
November 2018
The Garcia, Black and Englander labs combine forces to achieve a high-resolution view of histone tail dynamics during nucleosome assembly
Sellmyer received NIH award
October 2018
Mark Sellmyer received NIH Director's Early Independence Award for developing small molecule tools for molecular-imaging
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

Seminars & Events

Raiziss Rounds | David Bartel, PhD
Thursday, Nov 29, 2018 • 12:00 noon
MicroRNAs and other regulatory RNAs
Friday Research Discussion | Murakami Lab
Friday, Nov 30 • 3:30 pm
Structural studies of transcription and DNA repair by cryo-EM
Johnson Foundation Distinguished Lecture
Monday, Dec 10, 2018 | 4:00 pm
Reinhard Lührmann

Faculty Spotlight

Ronen Marmorstein, PhD

The Marmorstein laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of protein post- and co-translational modification with a particular focus on protein acetylation and phosphorylation and chromatin regulation. The laboratory uses a broad range of molecular, biochemical and biophysical research tools centered on macromolecular structure determination. The laboratory is particularly interested in gene regulatory proteins and their upstream signaling kinases that are aberrantly regulated in cancer and other age-related disorders, and the use of high-throughput small molecule screening and structure-based design strategies towards the development of protein-specific small-molecule probes to be used to further interrogate protein function and for development into therapeutic agents.