Faculty search underway: We are looking for talented researcher-educators to join our faculty.
The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is dedicated to the education of medical and graduate students in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Nutrition, research training in these areas, and discovery through cutting edge research in the broad discipline of biochemistry. Biochemistry research is globally directed toward understanding cellular processes at the molecular level, and has traditionally encompassed studies of biomolecules such as proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids. Biochemistry research at DrexelMed is in part driven by analytical technologies and instrumentation, such as protein production and purification, spectroscopy, structure analysis, mass spectrometry, and biosensor-based protein-protein interaction analysis. Molecular and cell biology are the major experimental approaches that complement biochemistry and enable the elucidation of cellular processes at the biochemical level.
Through major recruitment over the past 7 years, the Department is now comprised of 13 faculty including 2 full-time educators and 11 independent laboratory heads and almost $5m in total grant support per year. The research focus of the department is in two general areas, cancer biology and macromolecular structure-function. My vision was to develop two to three cohesive themes uniting the diverse interests of the four founding laboratories (Jorns, Jameson, Nickels and Clifford). The underlying principles in re-building the department plan have been: 1) there is tremendous power in applying diverse approaches to a scientific problem, specifically the application of different biochemical and structural analyses to questions relating to cellular processes; 2) research development should be focused on human disease; 3) knowledge about basic biochemical processes will lead to new therapies.
The major disease focus has been cancer. Cancer is a multi-faceted disease, and basic biochemical/molecular research on an extremely broad range of cellular processes has been extremely powerful in understanding cancer biology—from transformation, to metastasis, to response to treatment; hence cancer biology is a “big tent” under which many disparate areas of inquiry can be united and focused. The cancer biology research program has particular emphasis on control of cell proliferation (Clifford, Noguchi, Reginato), DNA replication (Noguchi, Nickels), transcription (Clifford, Bouchard), signal transduction (Clifford, Bouchard, Reginato, Vosseller), apoptosis (Bouchard, Reginato, Clifford), viral carcinogenesis (Bouchard, Clifford,) and DNA repair (Mazin, Clifford). A second research theme is directed toward understanding structure-function relationships in biological macromolecules. This includes studies of membrane proteins (Loll, Chaiken,White), receptor-ligand interactions (Chaiken, Loll, Jameson White), enzymology and drug design (Jorns, Loll, Mazin, Chaiken, Jameson, White), post-translational protein modifications (Vosseller, Clifford, Bouchard), and molecular-level studies of specific diseases, including HIV and hepatitis (Chaiken, Bouchard, Cocklin), diabetes (Jameson, Vosseller), sepsis (Loll), and neurodegenerative disease (Loll, Vosseller). Another initiative that has arisen from this approach is in the development of small molecule inhibitors (Loll, Jameson, Chaiken, Mazin), including development of new antibiotics (Loll, Jorns, Jameson).
Contact Information
Jane Azizkhan-Clifford, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
215-762-4446
jane.clifford@drexelmed.edu
Jenny Sherwood
Administrator
215-762-4591
jsherwood@drexelmed.edu
Barbara Engle
Administrative Coordinator
215-991-8272
bengle@drexelmed.edu
Lucia Boyer
Executive Assistant
215-762-4424
lboyer@drexelmed.edu
Kate Maum
Administrative Coordinator II
215-762-4815
kmaum@drexelmed.edu
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