The biophysics program, now in its second year, offers undergraduates a curriculum that integrates molecular biology and physics, without giving either discipline superficial treatment, says program director Edward Cox, Edwin Grant Conklin Professor of Biology. Sequencing the genomes of dozens of bacteria and yeasts will also have been accomplished, says Cox. The challenge then will be to ensure that biologists can use the new information to understand the behavior of organisms, such as cell function and life cycles.
Most molecular biologists lack physics and math beyond the introductory calculus level.
And physicists seldom take biology beyond high school. This must change if both are to contribute to molecular, cellular and developmental biology in the postgenomics world. Biologists need math skills Cellular biologists of the future, Cox says, will need to test their ideas using the quantitative, mathematical skills traditionally used by physicists. Another third of the grant will bolster a summer research program for students from small colleges around the nation. The rest of the grant will be used to expand a nine-year program of outreach to N.J. high school science teachers and for additional equipment purchases.