Our graduate students assume full partnership in research, and we challenge them to be the sum of our collective expertise. Our faculty and students work on projects without limitations or departmental boundaries.

PhD candidate Will Borschel submitted his research proposal to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and was awarded a $70,000 grant. Borschel credits his thesis committee with guiding him through the application process. “They weren’t just there for me when it was time to meet—they were always were there for me.”

This year’s student-organized Biochemistry Research Day featured keynote speaker John A. Tainer, PhD, professor of structural biology at The Scripps Research Institute.

Michael Garrick, PhD, professor of biochemistry, identified the first protein essential for normal intestinal iron absorption and the first mammalian iron transporter to be characterized at the molecular level. His work provides a major step forward in the understanding of iron metabolism.

Te-Chung Lee, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry, demonstrated for the first time, in an animal model, that injecting adult bone marrow stem cells into skeletal muscle can repair cardiac tissue, reversing heart failure. He and his team showed that this non-invasive procedure increased heart cells and reduced cardiac tissue injury.