Training is offered in a broad range of research areas leading to the Ph.D. degree.
Research in biochemistry and structural biology includes the biosynthesis of proteins and nucleic acids, the molecular basis of gene expression, the chemical basis of enzyme action, as well as membrane and carbohydrate biochemistry. High resolution structures represent the blueprints for understanding enzyme catalysis, cell signaling and transport, gene expression and regulation, and numerous other cellular processes. Advances in instrumentation and computational analysis have laid the groundwork for structure determination of proteins discovered through genome sequencing efforts and have opened up structural studies on membrane proteins and large complexes of proteins and nucleic acids. The program includes faculty from the Departments of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chemistry, Physiology and Biophysics and the Pharmacological Sciences, as well as from Brookhaven National Laboratory. With close ties to the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook takes advantage of the high-energy beam lines for diffraction studies.