Biochemistry and Molecular Biology sits at the interface of the physical sciences (chemistry and physics), the biological sciences (medical and health sciences, evolutionary biology, microbiology, and physiology) and the computational sciences (computer science, mathematics, and statistics). Our department members make breakthrough discoveries in chromatin regulation, gene expression, cellular identity and development, cancer biology, imaging technologies, genome replication and stability, and Infectious and neurological diseases.
Department faculty members have been instrumental in developing and leading many interdisciplinary programs at CSU including the Cell and Molecular Biology graduate program, the Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Neuroscience program (graduate admission and BS degree), and the Chemical Biology graduate program.
Other university research facilities owe their origins to the Department of Biochemistry, including two Foundational Core Facilities: the Proteomics and Metabolomics Core housed in the Microbiology Building, which grew out of the Macromolecular Resource Facility started in MRB in 1990, and the Microscope Imaging Network, which developed from the Fluorescence Microscopy and Image Analysis Center, also started in 1990. Planet Protein, a unique protein purification core, is housed within the Department.
Breif History of our beginnings:
1966
Founded in 1966, with faculty from Chemistry and from the Chemistry and Endocrine Sections of the CSU Agricultural Experiment Station (what used to be a major funding agency for CSU research in many areas). The newly formed department offered both the MS and Ph.D. degrees, but all advisors needed to apply and be accepted as members of the graduate faculty.
1984
The undergraduate (B.S.) major was started in 1984 and currently has over 300 students.
1989
Completion of MRB and planning of move.
2018
Fall 2018 the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology received a prestigious accreditation by the nationally recognized American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB).
2019
Fall 2019 the launching of two new Professional Science Master’s programs Biological Data Analytics and Microscope Imaging Technology.
Department News
CSU biochemists, cancer biologists find key vulnerability in rare brain tumors
Proteins that regulate mitosis can play essential roles in determining whether cancer cells proliferate or die.
Emeritus professor elected Fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology
James Bamburg was elected Fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology, but his legacy doesn’t end with just his research.
Wolves to Rams offers one of a kind support to transfer students
Wolves to Rams is a program that focuses on supporting underrepresented transfer students from Front Range Community College to Colorado State University in STEM fields – the only one of its kind at the university.
Biochemists use enzymes to change how brain cells communicate with each other
A new study demonstrates the possibility of changing the identity of synapses between neurons through enzymatic means, with larger implications for studying diseases of the brain.
