Structural Biology & Biophysics Program @ Duke University

About the SBB program (also see The curriculum page...)

The Program in Structural Biology and Biophysics at Duke University is an interdisciplinary program offering a Certificate in Graduate Studies. The Ph.D. is awarded by one of the participating departments from which Program faculty are drawn. The first year of study is devoted to course work and rotations in three laboratories. At the end of the first year the student chooses a thesis advisor, topic, and a department from which to receive the Ph.D. degree.

Links to Faculty departments:

• Biochemistry
• Biology
• Cell Biology
• Chemistry
• Computer Science
• Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science
• Pharmacology and Cancer Biology
• Physics
• Statistical Science

The Program centers on those research endeavors that use physical measurements to study biological macromolecules and their interactions, where the details of molecular structure are critical to understanding the biological problem in question. The focus is on resolving molecular structures at atomic resolution; the breadth extends to detecting molecular events and describing structural relationships in a chemically meaningful way. Research problems that fit the paradigm include:

• 3-D structure determination by crystallography and NMR;
• Many problems approached by various diffraction and microscopy techniques;
• Molecular modeling and design studies which are tied to direct experimental tests;
• Many spectroscopic studies where construction of a molecular model is vital to planning further experiments; and
• Functional studies biochemistry, genetic mechanism, drug interaction, membrane system, etc. for which the details of molecular geometry are central to interpreting the experiments.