About BMG

Welcome to the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. The current department was formed in 2003 from the merger of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Department of Molecular Genetics. We are located in the Molecular Biology Research Building on the University of Illinois College of Medicine campus on the near west side of Chicago, next to Little Italy and a few miles from the Loop and Lake Michigan.

We are a diverse basic science department, with faculty utilizing multidisciplinary cutting edge molecular and genetic approaches to address a wide range of fundamental questions in biomedical science. Research interests span from structural biology, drug development and biotech, to signaling, developmental, cell and cancer biology. New faculty recruits are studying stem cells, epigenetics and cell fate determination and regulation of membrane protein turnover. Faculty have also initiated new projects to address gaps in our knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 disease.

BMG faculty are highly committed to the education of undergraduate, graduate and medical students, as well as postdoctoral fellows, and serve in several key educational leadership roles. New PhD students join our labs primarily from the multidisciplinary GEMS (Graduate Education in bioMedical Sciences) umbrella program, which enables first year PhD students to find a PhD mentor by conducting research rotations throughout the College of Medicine. Consistent with the diversity of scientific investigation ongoing in BMG labs, our faculty are members of five different GEMS Research Concentrations. Prospective students interested in the research conducted by our faculty labs should apply to the GEMS program. Our faculty members also train MD/PhD students through Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), and train undergraduate students through UIC Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) program. Trainees from the department have gone on to successful careers in academia and industry, as well as medicine, science writing and patent law. At its core, the department values diversity and inclusion in all forms, and the power that multiple, different perspectives bring to the process of problem solving.