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Our mission is to leverage the immense resources, outstanding faculty, and superb graduate students of the University of Pennsylvania to promote advanced training in structural biology and molecular biophysics. We seek to train a cadre of superlative students that will subsequently provide national leadership 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 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, Chemistry, and Bioengineering Graduate Groups, though outstanding students from other graduate groups working in structural biology or molecular biophysics are also eligible.

Students are appointed to the SBMB program in their third year. Students of trainers are given preference. The program provides financial support, travel funds, and a variety of training activities. Students are expected to participate fully in the SBMB training program, particularly the monthly meetings.

Applications for the 2023-2024 year will open in late spring of 2023.  The program also has a full set of training activities starting Sept. 2023 for second-year graduate students working in structural biology or molecular biophysics who wish to be eligible for a 2024-2025 appointment.

Please follow the Training Program Schedule link for the schedules of meetings for both trainees and prospective trainees.

For further information, contact:

• PROGRAM DIRECTORS
  • Ben Black, Ph.D.
  • Elizabeth Rhoades, Ph.D. 
• PROGRAM COORDINATOR
  • Morgan Kelly