About the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is a department that 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.

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

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,
• proteostasis,
• 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, earning prestigious honors including member of the National Academy of Sciences, Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and of the American Academy of Microbiology, and President of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) among others.

Our faculty publish their research in top-tier scientific journals and serve on journal editorial boards and grant review panels from federal and other agencies. 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:

• National Institutes of Health (NIH),
• National Science Foundation,
• Department of Defense,
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• New Jersey Stem Cell Commission,
• New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research,
• Human Frontiers Science Program,
• American Cancer Society,
• and Stand Up To Cancer, to name a few.

Our faculty also directs 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 contributions to 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 the medical school. The department is 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,
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School