Graduate studies in the Department of Biochemistry can lead to an M.P.S., M.S. or Ph.D. degree. Students may choose from research areas in plant molecular biology, physical biochemistry, biophysics, and cell regulatory systems. Financial aid is available on a competitive basis, primarily in the form of graduate teaching assistantships. Research assistantships and University fellowships are also available.

All of the faculty are actively involved in research that is supported at the federal level. Students admitted to the graduate program in Biochemistry may also carry out their research with faculty listed under Microbiology in this catalog, in a number of laboratories in other departments at the University, the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, the Maine Medical Research Institute in Portland, or through cooperative institutional arrangements and Associate faculty or staff.

The Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is awarded for significant and original contributions to basic knowledge through research. A Ph.D. degree in Functional Genomics may also be obtained through the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program. The curriculum plan is variable and will take into account each student’s goals for graduate study and the content and quality of his or her undergraduate preparation.

The Master’s program prepares students for further studies toward the Ph.D., or medical degrees, as well as for careers in academic or industrial research, or teaching. The M.P.S., Master of Professional Studies, is a non-thesis Master’s degree.

Prerequisite for admission to these programs is the completion of undergraduate work in chemistry, mathematics, and physics substantially equivalent to that required of undergraduate students at this institution whose major is Biochemistry.

Graduate Faculty

John T. Singer, Ph.D. (Georgia, 1983), Professor and Chair. Molecular genetics and microbial physiology.

Katherine J. Boettcher, Ph.D. (University of Southern California, 1994), Assistant Professor. Bacterial physiology and adaptation, invertebrate microbiology, marine microbiology.

Robert E. Cashon, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University, 1981), Assistant Professor. Protein structure-function relationships.

Dorothy E. Croall, Ph.D. (University of Rochester Medical School, 1979) Professor. Structure and regulation of Ca-dependent proteolytic systems in mammalian cells.

Daniel L. Distel, Ph.D. (Scripps Institute of Oceanography, UCSD, 1988), Associate Professor. Symbiotic relationships between bacteria and marine organisms.

Robert E. Gundersen, Ph.D. (University of Texas-Austin, 1983), Associate Professor. The Role of signal transduction during growth and development in eukaryotes.

Keith W. Hutchison, Ph.D. (Wisconsin-Madison, 1974) Professor. Regulation of gene expression during growth and maturation of conifers.

Carol H. Kim, Ph.D. (Cornell, 1992), Assistant Professor. Viral pathogens and vaccine development in a zebrafish model system.

Gary M. King, Ph.D. (Georgia 1978), Professor. Microbial ecology and biogeochemistry.

Charles E. Moody, Ph.D. (Rhode Island, 1976), Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator. Developmental and comparative immunology.

Bruce L. Nicholson, Ph.D. (Maryland, 1969), Professor of Microbiology. Animal viruses, particularly viruses of fish and other poikilothermic vertebrates.

Mary E. Rumpho, Ph.D. (Washington State, 1982), Professor. Mollusk and algal chloroplast symbiosis, physiological genomics of low oxygen stress in plants, anticancer metabolites from plants and mollusks.

Rebecca J. Van Beneden, Ph.D. (The Johns Hopkins University, 1983), Professor. Molecular oncology and aquatic toxicology; the role of cellular oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in response to environmental toxicants; regulation of gene expression; molecular mechanisms of tumorigenesis in non-mammalian models.

Michael E. Vayda, Ph.D. (Princeton, 1983), Professor. Molecular biology of stress and pathogen resistance in plants.