Message From the Chair

Welcome to the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

The Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology has a rich history of excellence in research, education and service. Our faculty contributes to the education of medical, graduate and undergraduate students in the classroom and in the laboratory; carries out research at the forefront of biomedical science while training the next generation of research scientists; and serves the medical school, university, national and international scientific communities.

Our research programs cover diverse areas of basic and translational research including DNA replication enzymology; heterochromatin assembly; epigenetics; mechanisms and regulation of gene expression from DNA to RNA to protein; protein design and evolution; growth regulation by nutrients and hormones; lysosome biology; bacterial signal transduction; bacterial toxins and antitoxins, molecular mechanisms of disease ranging from neurodegenerative diseases, to infectious diseases, cancer and therapeutic target discovery. Faculty members are recognized nationally and internationally as experts in their fields and publish their research in top-tier scientific journals. As such, they are often called upon to serve on journal editorial boards and grant review panels.

Extramural research funding has been competitively awarded to our faculty from a range of federal, state and private agencies including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the New Jersey Stem Cell Commission, the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research, the Human Frontiers Science Program, the American Cancer Society, and Stand Up To Cancer, to name a few. The department also has faculty who direct NIH training grant awards devoted to increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities in biomedical science and training postdoctoral fellows.

In addition to research, there are many departmental accomplishments in education and community service. Faculty lead and/or participate in numerous teaching activities for medical and graduate students. Our faculty teach in core and non-core courses within the graduate programs of the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) and have been instrumental in the development of the Masters of Biomedical Sciences Program in SGS at RWJMS. The Department is also responsible for organizing and teaching within the GI, Metabolism, and Nutrition course in the curriculum for medical students, and for teaching in many other blocks within the first- and second-year medical school curriculum.

Please explore the research interests of our faculty, learn more about the graduate programs and training opportunities in which we participate, and contact us with any questions.

Céline Gélinas, Ph.D.Professor and Chair,
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Senior Associate Dean for Research,
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School