Biological

Biological chemistry is the chemistry of biological molecules. These can be proteins, nucleic acids, polysaccharides or any bioactive or biologically relevant small molecule (vitamins, cofactors, hormones, drugs, sugars, etc.). Our faculty and students study a wide variety of these molecules using a wide range of techniques. With almost 20 faculty in the biological area, the program includes a broad spectrum of research programs. Our interests include the mechanism and specificity of plant starch production, the process of membrane fusion and infection by the AIDS virus, eukaryotic transcription initiation, anticancer drug therapy, mass spectroscopy, ultra-fast laser spectroscopy applied to the study of biological photosensors and protein folding, protein design and color vision, protein crystallography and NMR spectroscopy.