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Fall 2025 Graduate Catalog 
    
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Fall 2025 Graduate Catalog

Biochemistry and Structural Biology, PhD

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Degree Awarded: Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Structural Biology
 
Chairperson, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology: Wali Karzai, 450 Life Sciences Building (631) 632-8550
Graduate Program Coordinator: Sharon Schmidt, 338 Life Sciences Building (631) 632-8613
Graduate Program Director: Michael Airola, 470 Life Sciences Building (631)-632-9141
 
The Biochemistry and Structural Biology Graduate Program stresses biochemical, structural, and computational approaches to solving complex biological problems. Training is offered in a broad range of research areas leading to the Ph.D. degree. Research in biochemistry and structural biology includes structure-function studies of proteins and nucleic acids, the molecular basis of gene expression, the chemical basis of enzyme action, as well as membrane and carbohydrate biochemistry. The aim of structural biology is to obtain high-resolution structures of biological macromolecules and molecular complexes through experimental techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and electron cryo-microscopy in order to provide a view of biology at the molecular and atomic levels. High-resolution structures combined with biochemical studies represent the blueprints for understanding enzyme catalysis, cell signaling and transport, gene expression and regulation, and numerous other cellular processes. Advances in instrumentation and computational analysis have laid the groundwork for structure determination of proteins discovered through genome sequencing efforts and have opened up structural studies on membrane proteins and large complexes of proteins and nucleic acids.

The program includes faculty from the Departments of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chemistry, Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Physiology and Biophysics, and the Pharmacological Sciences, as well as from Brookhaven National Laboratory.

For more information visit the BSB website.

Admission Requirements

Application Website

Graduate studies in Biochemistry and Structural Biology require the following in addition to the Graduate School admissions requirements:

  1. A Bachelor’s degree with the following minimal preparation: mathematics through one year of calculus; chemistry, including organic chemistry; general physics; and one year of biology.
  2. Letters from three previous instructors.
  3. Acceptance by the Graduate Program in Biochemistry and Structural Biology and by the Graduate School.

In special cases, students not meeting all of the requirements listed in item A above may be admitted, but deficiencies must be remedied.

Degree Requirements

Course Requirements

Qualifying and Thesis Proposal Examination

During their fourth semester, all students take a qualifying examination that is based primarily on their thesis proposal research.

Each student is required to prepare and defend a research proposal based on their own research. The student prepares a detailed write up of the background and logic of the proposal, and how the research will be carried out, which then forms the basis for an oral proposal examination. Questions during the exam can cover material from the core courses and test the student’s ability to integrate basic concepts and information. The qualifying examination and the thesis proposal examination together constitute the preliminary examination specified in the regulations of the Graduate School.

Advancement to Candidacy

When the above requirements have been satisfactorily completed, a recommendation for advancement to candidacy for the Ph.D. will be forwarded to the Graduate School.

Dissertation

During the second year, the student initiates a dissertation research project in the laboratory of a particular member of the program faculty. After the student has passed the proposal examination, a research committee is appointed to guide the dissertation research, and when the research nears completion, a dissertation examining committee is approved by the Dean of the Graduate School.

Dissertation Defense

The dissertation defense, which completes the requirements for the Ph.D., consists of a public seminar presentation of the dissertation work followed by an oral examination before the dissertation examining committee.

Teaching Experience

All students in molecular biology and biochemistry, whether or not they are supported by teaching assistantships, are required to gain experience in teaching by assisting in laboratory sections, leading discussion sections, or helping to formulate and grade examination papers. The teaching experience may be in either undergraduate or graduate courses, and generally extends over a period of two semesters.

Residence Requirement

The University requires at least two consecutive semesters of full-time graduate study. The demands of the course of study necessitate a longer period of residence.

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