As we enter the post-genomic era, a major challenge facing scientists is to determine the functional implications of genomic information. With that challenge in mind, structural biologists are poised to lead the next phase of discovery by determining the structures of biomolecules and their complexes. As macromolecular structures are determined a more thorough understanding of structure/function relationships will be established.
The student in the structural biology track will obtain a solid foundation in macromolecular structure, biophysical methods, proteomics, and bioinformatics. Specific methods for structure elucidation include X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance, and mass spectrometry. Macromolecular structure/function relationships as they relate to disease processes and therapies will also be studied.