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 researchers shed light on the mechanisms of cellular transport that prevent severe brain disease
New findings from the Markus Lab identify an important step in the process by which the molecular motor dynein is turned “on” so that it can transport various cellular cargoes to their destinations in cells.
CSU student helps secure new state law on water quality in mobile home parks
A Colorado State University student has played a key role in securing new regulations to protect water quality in mobile home parks – after learning that elevated levels of lead were found in the water at the mobile home park where they live.
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.
