Message from the Chair

Welcome to the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

We are one of the Basic Science departments of the College of Medicine. Our faculty are engaged in research in diverse areas including cancer, diabetes, cell signaling, cellular transport, What we all have in common is a desire to understand mechanisms of the processes that govern health and disease and to that end we use the methods of structural biology, metabolism, tracking of molecules through the cell, biophysics, and while some faculty focus on determining structure and function of a single molecule, some study molecular complexes,  some look at the biochemistry of whole cells and some determine the development of disease in whole animals.

The faculty teach Biochemistry and Molecular Biology to medical, dental and pharmacy students on their way to MD, DDS, and PharmD degrees. We have two graduate programs in the Department leading to  MS and PhD degrees. Our programs are designed so that most of the learning is done in research laboratories and graduate students are a vital and energetic part of the Department.

Most PhD students enter our program through the interdisciplinary common first year Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences. This program offers the incoming students a wide variety of faculty research laboratories for short research rotations to identify the best fit of faculty mentor and research topic. 

Our Department has a long history that was chronicled in 2001 by former Chair John R. ("Jack") Sokatch in a book titled "Indians, Homesteaders and Molecular Biologists". It is reprinted here with permission of the University of Oklahoma Press.

We look forward to opening a national search for a new Chair in the near future.