TRAINING PROGRAM IN BIOORGANIC CHEMISTRY

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The Bioorganic Training Grant, which is now submitted for renewal, has played an important role in science education at Brandeis. It gave rise to a group of graduate students with novel interests and novel capabilities. It was the goal of this program to train investigators who can work at the interphase of biology, biochemistry, and chemistry. We have been successful. It is apparent, from listening to rotation reports, that chemists can use, and understand techniques of molecular biology, and biologists can synthesize compounds. This combination of skills is in demand by the pharmaceutical industry, and should facilitate future health related research. The program started with zero students and now contains 18 students. Trainees are appointed on the basis of their strong academic record and evidence of their research ability. In the first year of graduate training they begin to participate in a program, which consists of a core curriculum of seven courses. Students take these courses in their first two years of the program. The core curriculum consists of two semesters of Advanced Biochemistry (Biochemistry 101A & 101B), one semester of Advanced Organic Synthesis (Chemistry 134), one semester of Molecular Biology (Biology 105), one semester of Mechanistic Organic Chemistry (selected from Chemistry 131, 133, or Biochemistry 202), one semester of an advance course in spectroscopy or crystallographic structure determination (selected from Chemistry 132, 229, or 235), and finally one elective, selected from offerings in the Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology or Neuroscience programs. First year students also undertake six, six-week rotations in different laboratories in the program. The students must complete half of their rotations on problems which focus on chemical synthesis. This can be accomplished by rotating in laboratories of faculty from the Chemistry Department or, where appropriate, in laboratories from the Biochemistry Department. A written report and oral presentation of the results are given at the end of each rotation. The purpose of the rotations is two-fold. First, is to give students exposure to many different faculty so as to facilitate their choice of mentor and to give them a broad experience with different approaches to scientific problems. Second, the rotations are a means of ensuring hands-on synthesis experience for all of our students early in the scientific careers. In addition students participate in seminars and journal clubs throughout their stay.