About Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nevada, Reno

Nature of the Discipline

Biochemistry's Howard Building The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology integrates the molecular life sciences from the most basic biology-chemistry interface to molecular genetics and bioinformatics. The disciplines of the molecular biosciences involve the use of sophisticated analytical, biochemical, and genetic technologies to examine the activities of living systems, focusing on the structures and roles of macromolecules in complex biological systems.

Faculty members in biochemistry function as research project managers and principal investigators of their own individual programs whose success require them to be innovative and interactive with other scientists. The faculty member designs the individual research programs, and there is little to no administrative direction applied to their choices of research activities.

Biochemistry field trip in search of bark beetles Each faculty member is expected to direct an active research program or be involved in other scholastic activities involving the training of doctoral and masters-level graduate students as well as undergraduate students studying in genetics and biochemistry. In addition, each tenure-tract faculty member is expected to be effective in formal classroom teaching, to provide service to the department's research and academic functions, and to maintain research/teaching funding to sustain their laboratory programs.

Unique Features of the Department

Typical biochemistry lab The Department has a multiple mission that requires the balancing of service teaching in biochemistry with the needs of high-achieving undergraduate majors in biochemistry (265 students), a growing Ph.D. graduate program (25 students) in biochemistry, and of highly competitive research programs. The Department has administrative responsibility for the support and resource management for the interdepartmental Graduate Faculty of Biotechnology and Cell & Molecular Biology (6 students and 15 faculty members).

Mission

The mission of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is to provide strong educational programs for undergraduate, graduate and professional students, to conduct high quality research in biochemistry, molecular biology and biotechnology, and to effectively transmit scientific knowledge to the general public.

Vision

Biochemistry has taken the forefront in defining broadly based opportunities in biotechnology processes and applications that indicate the path for the biologically based future of the twenty-first century. This future will influence all phases of our lives from the The Howard Building's courtyard located just outside Biochemistry's offices quality of food and fiber to the preservation of natural resources and the medical biosciences. The molecular tools, which are being developed today, will lead to technologies to manage infectious diseases, cure metabolic and cellular dysfunction, and define the physical quality of life. This Department must provide a broad set of technical and conceptual capabilities that result in a cutting-edge perspective to discern the molecular events that underlie normal and aberrant life science functions in medicine, nutrition, agriculture, and environmental adaptation. In addition, the Department must be involved in the promoting life-long education and technology transfer necessary to disperse this information.

Facilities

Research at UNR's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology utilizes state-of-the-art approaches to recombinant DNA technology, gene transfer methodologies, chromosome analysis, microscopy, electrophysiology, biochemical isolation and analysis of proteins and nucleic acids and crystallography much of which is conducted at the Protein Core Facility .

Facilities are available for analysis of biological samples, including electron microscopy, confocal microscopy, optical biology, flow cytometry, and histology.
In addition, facilities for cell-oriented studies include monoclonal antibody production, construction of viral vectors, and transgenic mouse generation.
Manipulation of cells is central to many research programs and includes such techniques as micro-injection and patch clamping for neurophysiology and laser manipulation for cytogenetics.
Structural research on campus employs x-ray crystallography, mass spectrometry, and DNA and protein sequence analysis.
Also, oligonucleotide and peptide synthesis services are available on campus, as are facilities for micro-array analysis.
The Nevada Genomics Center offers one of the best DNA purification/quantitation services, along with sequencing reactions and analysis, fragment analysis, microarrays and PCR services.
The Center for Bioinformatics is the States' premier center of Bioinformatics.
Campus laboratories are linked to one another and to the worldwide research community by dual T1 fiber optic communications networks.
A supercomputer and SUN-UNIX workstation on campus are used for data analysis and molecular modeling.

Student working with wine grapes grown by the department The UNR's Life & Health Science library and the Savitt Medical library are an important educational resource for students and faculty. Strategically located in the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources and between the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology's Howard building and the College of Medicine, the UNR Science Libraries are two of the largest collections of science and medicine resources in Nevada. In addition, hundreds of scientific journals are available online to UNR graduate students and faculty.