How are biological structures formed and maintained? How do these stuctures lead to biological function? These are central questions in biology that date back to the time of Aristotle and beyond. The modern research disciplines of Biochemistry and Biophysics address the same fundamental questions at a molecular level using the tools and principles of chemistry and physics. Research like that carried out in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics shows how the process of evolution operating within the constraints of physical and chemical laws has produced a diverse and beautiful array of structures at every level of biological organization from the whole organism down through the cell to the protein and DNA molecules themselves.

The Department has an exciting and vigorous research program in various areas of biochemistry and biophysics including protein and DNA structure determination, protein folding, protein recognition, enzyme function, protein design and engineering, gene regulation, cell signalling and energy transduction. This research is conducted by 30 primary faculty, 20 adjunct faculty, more than 50 postdoctoral fellows, 95 graduate students and many research technicians. The Department is also home to the Eldridge Reeves Johnson Research Foundation and each year awards the Johnson Foundation Prize for adventurous and innovative research in structural biology.

University of Pennsylvania

Jim Shorter is the recipient of a 2007 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award for his research in developing biochemical methods to combat diseases caused by nerve degeneration, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s Diseases.

William DeGrado receives the American Chemical Society's 2008 Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry, sponsored by Merck Research Laboratories.

The award recognizes and encourages "outstanding achievements in the chemistry, biochemistry, and biophysics of peptides