WFULOGO

Interdisciplinary Studies in

Structural and Computational Biophysics

The Graduate Training Program in Structural and Computational Biophysics (SCB) is designed to meet the need for next generation scientists and educators with broad, interdisciplinary training in the quantitative biological, biochemical, and biomedical sciences. Students who successfully complete the SCB Track and degree requirements will receive a certificate in Structural and Computational Biophysics, as well as the degree in the program in which they matriculate. The Track is implemented by collaboration among the programs of Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Molecular and Cellular Biosciences and Physics at Wake Forest University.

The SCB training program is designed to prepare students for careers in academic research, teaching, biotechnology, or the pharmaceutical industry. Students can obtain a PhD in Biology, Physics, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, or Chemistry, or a M.S. degree in Computer Science or Mathematics. We encourage applications from underrepresented minorities and students with disabilities. As part of the training program students receive customized coursework designed for researchers at the interface of Biophysics, Structural Biology, Mathematics, Biology, and Computer Science. Students also interact with a diverse and interdisciplinary team of investigators to carry out cutting edge research. Students are supported with stipends, tuition costs, and a laptop computer. Exceptionally qualified students have the opportunity to be supported through the NIH-T32 training grant.

Next SCB Discussion Group:

May 22 2017 Reed Lawson (Biochemistry)



SCB Events

SCB Events

Structural and Computational Biophysics sponsors regular events including the SCB Discussion Group, retreats, and symposia.

Interdisciplinary Graduate Track in Structural and Computational Biophysics (SCB)

Programs of Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Molecular and Cellular Biosciences and Physics

Director, Freddie R. Salsbury Jr (salsbufr@wfu.edu)

This document provides a general overview of the requirements for students participating in the SCB Track. For specific up-to date requirements, please see the Wake Forest University Graduate Bulletin.

Track Overview: The Interdisciplinary Graduate Track in Structural and Computational Biophysics (SCB) is designed to meet the need for scientists and educators with broad, interdisciplinary training in the quantitative biological, biochemical, and biomedical sciences. Students who successfully complete the SCB Track and degree requirements will receive a certificate in Structural and Computational Biophysics, as well as the degree in the program in which they matriculate. The Track is implemented by collaboration among the programs of Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Molecular and Cellular Biosciences and Physics at Wake Forest University.

Student Admission Requirements: Following matriculation and at least one semester of coursework in a participating program (currently, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Molecular and Cellular Biosciences and Physics), students can apply for admission to the SCB Graduate Track. Admission to the Track is initiated by meeting with the SCB program representative or with the track directory. The student will then submit a letter of intent and a Wake Forest University graduate transcript to their department representative who will present it to the SCB advisory committee. The letter of intent should express the student’s interest in the SCB program, a proposed plan of study, and how the SCB program meets the student’s career and academic goals. Following favorable evaluation, applicants may be recommended for admis- sion by the SCB advisory committee, with final approval determined by the Graduate School. atics, molecular and cellular biosciences or computer science).

    Students in the Interdisciplinary Graduate SCB Track must complete all graduate degree requirements in the individual program to which they were admitted. In addition, at least 15 hours of the student’s graduate coursework should consist of courses approved as part of the SCB Track (listed in this bulletin), including a general, introductory SCB course and two hours of journal club credit. At least one course must be at the 700 level. Students must take at least two graduate hours in each of the curriculum areas: chemistry/biochemistry, computer science/mathematics, and biophysics. All students in the SCB Track must complete and defend a PhD dissertation (or MS thesis for computer science or mathematics) that involves original, interdisciplinary research in the area of structural and computational biophysics or computational biology; broadly defined. The dissertation committee will consist of members from at least three participating SCB departments. All students must successfully complete a course in scientific ethics. Each semester, several seminars from the participating departments will be designated as SCB discussion group seminars. Students in the Track are required to attend these seminars.

We encourage applications from underrepresented minorities and students with disabilities.

SCB Certificate Training Faculty

Rebecca Alexander (Chemistry): Mechanisms of protein synthesis, aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases

Ed Allen (Mathematics): Combinatorial algorithms; computational algebraic modelling; computational systems biology

Uli Bierbach (Chemistry): Organic and inorganic synthesis of novel drugs and drug conjugates

Keith Bonin (Physics): Molecular motors; total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy

James F. Curran (Biology): Molecular Mechanisms of Protein Synthesis, Gene Regulation, Nucleic Acid Chemistry, Microbial Evolutionary Mechanisms

Larry Daniel (Biochemistry): Cell signaling in cancer, lipid-derived messengers, redox networks; modeling of signal transduction pathways

Jacquelyn Fetrow (Physics and Computer Science): Protein structure and function relationships; protein motions and dynamics; computational systems biology; biological network modeling.

Martin Guthold (Physics): Nanobiotechnology , atomic force microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, single molecule biophysics, fibrin fibers, blood clotting, aptamers

Adam Hall (Biomedical Engineering): Single-molecule techniques and electical deduction of disease-relevant nucleic acid structural elements.

Tom Hollis (Biochemistry): X-ray crystallography, DNA repair proteins, protein DNA interactions, processing nucleic acids to prevent autoimmune disease.

David John (Computer Science): Combinatorial algorithms; genetic algorithms; computational algebraic modeling; computational systems biology

Dany Kim-Shapiro (Physics): Spectroscopy, sickle cell hemoglobin, nitric oxide

Bruce King (Chemistry): Organic compounds as nitric oxide (NO) and nitroxyl (HNO) delivery agents, reagents to examine oxidative signaling pathways

Todd Lowther (Biochemistry): Macromolecular X-ray crystallography, enzymatic reduction of cysteine sulfinic acid and methionine sulfoxide, thioesterase and glyoxylate / hydroxypyruvate reductase structure / function

Doug Lyles(Biochemistry): Virus structure and assembly; biophysics and genetics of viral protein function; signaling pathways in virus-infected cells

Jed Macosko (Physics): Mechanics of protein machines and motors; atomic force microscopy (AFM), single molecule fluorescence microscopy and video-enhanced differential interference contrast light microscopy (VE-DIC)

Gloria Muday (Biology): Transport protein structure/function, plasma membrane protein targeting, phosphorylation-dependent signaling pathways

James Norris (Mathematics): Statistical Methodology, Ecological Statistics

Derek Parsonage (Biochemistry): Structure-function studies of the FAD-dependent streptococcal NADH peroxidase and NADH oxidase; site-directed mutagenesis

V. Paul Pauca (Computer Science): Image processing.

Fred Perrino (Biochemistry): DNA replication, DNA repair, mutagenesis, carcinogenesis, cancer therapeutics, deoxyribonucleases, TREX genes, DNA polymerases, alkylation DNA damage, mechanistic and structural studies

Leslie Poole (Biochemistry): Enzymological and biophysical studies of antioxidant enzyme systems; flavoprotein structure and function; redox active cysteinyl centers; biological cysteine sulfenic acid formation

Fred Salsbury (Physics): Molecular dynamics, protein dynamics and function, electrostatic and solvent models, structural modeling of proteins and protein-DNA complexes, electronic structure

Peter Santago (Computer Science): Pattern recognition, image and signal processing, machine learning, and high-performance cluster computing on various applications of pattern analysis.

Brian W. Tague (Biology): Molecular genetic techniques to study plant cell biology and development.

Stan J. Thomas (Computer Science): Database theory, extracting information from data, and computer science education.

William Turkett (Computer Science): Probabilistic reasoning, machine learning, bioinformatics, multiagent systems

SCB Curriculum Information

A complete description of all classes can be found in the current graduate bulletin.

SCB-specific courses.

SCB 701. Structural and Computational Biophysics Journal Club. (1) Seminal and current publications in structural and computational biophysics are read and discussed. P—Admission to the SCB graduate track or POI.

SCB 710. Research Topics in Structural and Computational Biophysics. (1) Lectures and discussions on research topics in the field of structural and computational biophysics and biology. Topics depend on the specialty of the instructors in a given semester. P— Admission to the SCB graduate track or POI.

Curriculum Area 1. Chemistry/Biochemistry

General prerequisites: Two semesters of undergraduate chemistry and one semester of undergraduate biochemistry or molecular biology; one semester of organic chemistry is considered ideal, but is not required for most courses. (If additional prerequisites are required, they are listed individually by course.)

CHM 641. Fundamentals of Physical Chemistry. (3 or 4)
BICM 716. Special Topics in Biochemistry: Macromolecular Xray Crystallography. (2)
    P—one semester graduate level biochemistry.
BIO 672. Molecular Biology. (3 or 4)
BIO/CHM 670. Biochemistry: Macromolecules and Metabolism. (3)
BIO/CHM 670L. Biochemistry Laboratory: Macromolecules and Metabolism. (1)
CHM 672. Biochemistry: Protein and Nucleic Acid Structure and Function. (3)
CHM 751. Biochemistry of Nucleic Acids. (3)
CHM 752. Protein Chemistry: Structures, Methods and Molecular Mechanisms. (3)
CHM 756. Biomolecular NMR. (1.5) P—POI.
CHM 757. Macromolecular Crystallography. (1.5) P—CHM 356A/656 highly recommended.
MCB 700. Analytical Skills (1) Taught every August.
MCB 701. Molecular and Cellular Biosciences A. (1) Taught every fall.
Curriculum Area 2. Physics

General prerequisites: Two semesters of undergraduate physics. (If additional prerequisites are required, they are listed individually by course.)

PHY 607. Biophysics. (3)
PHY 625. Biophysical Methods Laboratory. (1) C—PHY 607.
PHY 685. Bioinformatics. (3) P—Introductory courses in biology, chemistry, and molecular 
         biology or biochemistry or permission of instructor; also listed as CSC 685, though 
         requirements and prerequisites are different.
PHY 620. Physics of Biological Macromolecules. (3) P—PHY 651 or CHM 641, or POI.

Curriculum Area 3. Computer Science/Mathematics General computer science prerequisites: Programming in a high level language. (If additional prerequisites are required, they are listed individually by course.)

CSC 621. Database Management Systems. (3)
CSC 631. Object-oriented Software Engineering. (3)
CSC 646. Parallel Computation. (3)
CSC 652. Numerical Linear Algebra. (3)
CSC 655. Introduction to Numerical Methods. (3)
CSC 671. Artificial Intelligence. (3)
CSC 685. Bioinformatics. (3)
CSC 721. Theory of Algorithms. (3)
CSC 753. Nonlinear Optimization. (3) P—Computer Science 655.
CSC 754. Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations. (3) P—CSC 655 or 
MTH 655.
MTH 652. Partial Differential Equations. (3) P—MTH 251.
MTH 653. Mathematical Models. (3)
MTH 656. Statistical Methods. (3)
MTH 659. Multivariate Statistics. (3) P—MTH 656 and 602.
MTH 750. Dynamical Systems. (3) P—MTH 611.
MTH 761. Stochastic Processes. (3)

Our Graduates


Where Our Students Come From.
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T32-GM095440 Training Program in Structural and Computational Biophysics
Mission: To bridge the gap between biomedical sciences and more basic quantitative sciences

Our NIH T32 supported Structural and Computational Biophysics (SCB) training program is designed to bring students from diverse educational backgrounds to the point where they speak a common scientific language. The students first achieve a level of competency in their original discipline. This is provided by the discipline-specific coursework prescribed for each program. After this phase, students work to bridge the gap between the disciplines. The SCB Training Program has developed four mechanisms to achieve this instruction: advanced coursework in structural and computational biophysics, the SCB Discussion Group, Center for Structural Biology Seminar Series, and SCB Training Program retreats. All four of these mechanisms bring together students from the biomedical programs and Chemistry and Physics with the goal of developing interdisciplinary training.


Curriculum organization for students in the SCB Training Program.

2015 SCB retreat at Biotech Place.

The members of the core training faculty belong to the departments of Biochemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Molecular Medicine, and Physics. Additional associated training faculty come from the departments of Biology, Computer Science, and Mathematics. Many of the faculty have significant research interactions with each other and work to answer questions in the areas of molecular signaling, redox biology, and DNA damage and repair.


Click on faculty photos above for link to research websites.

Students supported by the T32 Training Grant.

Bus Schedule and Map

Application

Application Process (Graduate School applicants): For those applying for acceptance into graduate school, application is made to the home program (Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Molecular and Cellular Biosciences or Physics. You are encouraged to express, at the time of application, your interest in being considered for the"SCB Track" at the beginning of your "Statement of Interest".

Submit the WFU graduate school application through the Graduate School website.

Formal Admission to the SCB Track: Students are considered for admission to the Interdisciplinary SCB Graduate Track after the first semester following their admission to the graduate program in the department to which they initially applied. Admission to the Track is initiated by meeting with the SCB department representative. The student will then submit a letter of intent and a Wake Forest University graduate transcript to their department representative, who will submit it to the SCB Advisory Committee. The letter of intent should express the student's interest in the SCB program, a proposed plan of study, and how the SCB program meets the student's career and academic goals. Admission is recommended by the SCB Advisory Committee; final admission to the SCB Track is determined by the Graduate School.

We encourage applications from underrepresented minorities and students with disabilities.

Download Application Form

Contact Information:
(please direct your inquiries to the individual listed below affiliated with the department of primary research interest)

Director: Fred Salsbury (Physics), 336-758-4975 336-758-4975

Departmental Representatives on the SCB Advisory Board:

Uli Bierbach (Chemistry), 336-758-3507 336-758-3507

Daniel Kim-Shapiro (Physics), 336-758-4993 336-758-4993

Gloria Muday (Biology), 336-758-5316 336-758-5316

James Norris (Mathematics), 336-758-4888 336-758-4888

Leslie Poole (Biochemistry), 336-716-6711 336-716-6711

William Turkett (Computer Science), 336-758-4427 336-758-4427

Mailing Address for: Salsbury, Allen, Bierbach, Kim-Shapiro, Muday and Turkett:
Wake Forest University
Reynolda Station
Winston-Salem NC 27109

Mailing Address for Poole:
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Medical Center Blvd
Winston-Salem NC 27157