For 35 years, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology functioned as a division of Chemistry and/or Internal Medicine, but was organized as a Department of the College of Medicine in 1948. Today, the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is one of five basic science departments in the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine at The University of Iowa. Excellent research facilities and a research-oriented faculty allow our department to offer broadly based programs of undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate study.
The Biochemistry and Molecular Biology faculty is a community of 35 members: 21 primary and secondary faculty members, 3 lecturers, 3 adjunct appointees, and 11 faculty emeriti. The faculty supervise research in biochemistry, molecular, cellular, developmental, computational and structural biology, and model system genetics. Research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and other sources. Total research funding for primary members of the department exceeds $4 million per year.
The Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Undergraduate Program is focused on students as individuals. The program is designed to develop creative researchers, effective physicians and health professionals, and superb teachers. Students acquire a thorough and diverse background in contemporary biochemistry, utilize excellent research facilities, and are taught by a research-oriented faculty. All Bachelor of Science and honors students and many Bachelor of Arts students engage in one-on-one research with faculty members.
The Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Graduate Program is within the Carver College of Medicine. Although the department is primarily housed on a single floor within the Bowen Science Building, several laboratories are also located in the adjacent Medical Education and Biomedical Research Facility (MERF) and the Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building (PBDB) . Laboratories in both locations are spacious and interconnected allowing for frequent interactions and easy use of shared equipment. Bowen Science Building also houses the basic science departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Microbiology and Immunology, Neursocience and Pharmacology, and Molecular Physiology & Biophysics. Researchers in all departments benefit from shared core facilities.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Postdoctoral Fellows are an integral part of the research environment in the department. Each fellow plays an important role in our research mission. Fellows help supervise graduate and undergraduate students, present at the Annual Retreat and weekly workshop series, and meet with seminar speakers.