DOCTORAL STUDIES IN MOLECULAR BIOPHYSICS

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Continuation of support is requested for three NIGMS graduate traineeships in the Molecular Biophysics Program at Wesleyan University. Our program is an interdisciplinary, interdepartmental program in the Graduate Division of the University and encompasses also projects in biological chemistry, biochemistry and structural biology in which a quantitaive, structure-based mode of inquiry is involved. Students pursue doctoral studies via graduate courses, a weekly journal club, an annual retreat, workshops, group meetings, seminars, dissertation research and teaching apprenticeships. To provide breadth of training, we encourage collaborative projects among faculty research groups and interactions between experimentalists and theoreticians. Scientific ethics and the historical and intellectual foundations of life science research figure significantly in the curriculum. Both minority students and women are underrepresented in the field, so minority recruiting is emphasized in our program and we have a particular programmatic niche and record of achievement in training women scientists. Our current and proposed program involves nine faculty of the Departments of Chemistry, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, and Biology. Participating faculty have grants for their research from NIH and other extramural funding sources. Wesleyan University is a small, highly selective university emphasizing the liberal arts and sciences at the undergraduate level with BA/MA and Ph D programs in the sciences. An undergraduate 'Certificate in Molecular Biophysics' has been developed as a complement to our graduate program, serving our students who subsequently applicants to NIGMS graduate training programs elsewhere. With a grant from NSF and matching funds from the university, Wesleyan has recently acquired a 266 node PC Cluster for scientific research and a Center for Scientific Computing is currently being established at the University. Building on this, our new curricular initiatives in this fifth renewal period will be focused on enhanced quantitative training in bioinformatics and in macromolecular simulation and modeling. We propose to add new courses in Biomedicinal Chemistry, Chemical Biology, and History of Molecular Medicine.