Skip to main content

Biophysics

Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program

About

Structural Biology 300x138 300x138

The Biophysics Program is an interdisciplinary degree-granting program that has faculty in 13 departments over three schools or colleges across the Grounds of the University of Virginia. The faculty and their trainees conduct research in a wide range of areas relevant to basic biological phenomena as well as human health, while sharing common ground in the use of quantitative approaches that emphasize chemistry, computation, mathematics and physics.

Program Faculty 

Molecular Biosensors; Spatiotemporal Regulation of Biological Signaling; Protein Engineering for Imaging, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics

Biophysics of membrane pore formation; research and therapeutic applications of lipid nanoparticles.

Drug Development Targeting Transcription Drivers in Cancer; Structure/Function Studies of Transcription Factor Drivers in Cancer

Molecular Mechanisms for Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling

Biophysical Chemistry: Membrane protein structure, function, and dynamics

Uncovering the molecular etiology of neurodegenerative diseases

The design of self-assembling nanomaterials

Cytoskeletal architecture, dynamics and roles in cellular physiology and disease; High-resolution live cell and tissue imaging

Structure and Function of Macromolecular Complexes Using Electron Microscopy

Super-resolution fluorescence imaging of bacterial cells

Chromosome organization; Nucleosome structure; Histone marks; Structural cell biology

Mechanisms of Genetic and Metabolic Adaptation in the Malaria Parasite, Plasmodium falciparum

Translating our discoveries in the microcirculation to tangible benefits in patients.

Mechanisms by which cells direct and regulate protein targeting to the ER and mitochondria, and how molecular control of cell dormancy impacts health and disease.

Architecture and function of biological membranes

Composition, Biophysics and Physiology of Cellular Membranes

Systems biology, infectious disease, cancer, toxicology, metabolic engineering

Tissue Engineering and Regeneration, Computational Systems Biology, Vascular Growth and Remodeling, Stem Cell Therapies

Delineate the physiological importance and structure-function relationship of ER-associated degradation in humans.

Chromosome segregation and aneuploidy in meiosis and mitosis

Roles of complex signaling networks involved in the regulation of cardiovascular function and disease

Proteoform Systems Biology: proteogenomic approaches to uncover the role of proteomic variation in human disease

Identify the calcium signaling abnormalities that lead to vascular dysfunction and blood pressure elevation in cardiovascular disorders

Mechanisms of chromosome segregation in Mitosis and generation of Chromosomal Instability in tumors

Molecular and bioelectric devices; tissue regeneration.

Biomembrane Structure and Function; Cell Entry of Enveloped Viruses; Neurosecretion by Exocytosis; Structure of Bacterial Pathogen Membrane Proteins; Lipid-Protein Interactions

Membrane-transport physiology and biophysics

Analytical Neurochemistry; Dopamine and Serotonin Neurotransmission in Drosophila; Mechanisms of rapid adenosine signaling in rodents

The formation, function, coordination, and pathology of multinucleated cell types that make up the placenta and musculoskeletal system.

Molecular Imaging; Cancer Immunology; Vaccines.

Transport of biopolymers across biological membranes with a particular interest in polysaccharide and protein translocation.