Harvard Chemical Biology Graduate Program

描述（申请人提供）：化学生物学作为一个研究领域在过去的十年中得到了爆炸式的发展。它是国际公认的重点跨学科领域，是一代优秀本科生的顶尖研究方向。哈佛大学在化学生物学方面提供了非常广泛的培训机会。哈佛大学剑桥校区的教职员工，包括化学和化学生物学系（CCB）的教职员工，在有机化学和分子生命科学领域拥有世界一流的专业知识，而哈佛医学院（HMS）的教职员工在分子生命科学和生物医学问题之间的界面方面具有突出的优势。此外，哈佛大学和麻省理工学院的布罗德研究所在开发利用基因组信息的技术方面处于领先地位，包括化学技术。因此，哈佛大学的化学生物学社区强大、多样、影响深远，与医学、人类生物学和基因组学技术有着活跃的联系。该申请要求支持哈佛化学生物学项目（CBP），这是哈佛大学剑桥校区和哈佛医学院之间的一个成功的合作项目（现已进入第五个年头），为学生提供免费访问整个大学化学生物学研究的全方位机会。该项目在将化学与前沿生物学相结合的努力规模上是不同寻常的。课程强调使用化学方法来解决生物学问题。必修课程提供动力学和热力学的核心训练，以及生物背景下的化学结构和反应性。第一年课程作业和讨论的统一主题是化学工具和方法在解剖生物学途径中的作用。学生从一开始就接触到生物学问题，在课程作业以及与教师的互动中，鼓励学生识别可以使用化学方法解决的生物学问题，或者化学专业知识将提供关键见解的问题。拟议的研究计划为学生提供了与世界级生物学家和化学家互动的机会，并通过使用现有技术（其中大部分是现成的）或开发自己的创新方法，就如何解决吸引他们的问题发展自己的观点。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chemical biology has grown explosively as a research field in the last decade. It is internationally recognized as a key interdisciplinary field, and a top research direction for a generation of bright undergraduates. Harvard offers an extraordinary range of training opportunities in chemical biology. Faculty members at Harvard's Cambridge campus including those in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB) offer world- class expertise in the disciplines spanning organic chemistry and the molecular life sciences, while faculty members at the Harvard Medical School (HMS) offer outstanding strengths at the interface between the molecular life sciences and biomedical problems. In addition, the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT is a leader in the development of technology to exploit the uses of genomic information, including chemical technologies. The chemical biology community at Harvard is thus strong, diverse, and far-reaching, with vibrant links to medicine, human biology, and genomics technologies. This application requests support for the Harvard Chemical Biology Program (CBP), a successful collaborative program (now in its 5th year) between Harvard's Cambridge campus and the Harvard Medical School that offers students free access to the full range of opportunities in chemical biology research across the University. The Program is unusual in the scale of its effort to merge chemistry with cutting edge biology. The curriculum emphasizes the use of chemical approaches to address biological questions. Required courses provide core training in kinetics and thermodynamics as well as chemical structure and reactivity in the context of biology. A unifying theme of first year coursework and discussions is the role of chemical tools and approaches in dissecting biological pathways. Students are exposed to biological questions from the beginning, in coursework as well as in interactions with faculty, and are encouraged to identify biological problems that can be addressed using chemical approaches or where chemical expertise will give key insight. The proposed research program offers the opportunity for students to interact with world-class biologists and chemists, and to develop their own perspective on how to attack the problems that attract them - by using existing technologies (most of which are readily available) or by developing their own innovative approaches.