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Biotechnology

Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program

About

students at biotech seminar

Research in Biotechnology at UVA brings together researchers from all biomedical, engineering, and chemical sciences at UVA to promote state-of-the-art collaborative science.  From this innovative science comes conceptual breakthroughs and new products.In 2000, we established a Biotechnology Training Program (BTP) at UVA with the goal of providing fertile ground for the development of future leaders in science and technology.  It is one of only 19 BTPs nationwide.  Our graduates are scientific leaders at major biotechnology companies, federal agencies, and foundations, and lead independent research labs at universities, or are postdoctoral scientists at institutions nationwide.

The BTP offers many enhancements.  The 2 – 3 month company externship training is transformative.  Some students alter career plans towards academia or industrial research.  Others affirm prior career directions or receive unexpected offers of employment.  All make important contributions, some publish articles, and invariably the collaboration enhances thesis projects.  Venues are worldwide, from Boston to San Francisco to Australia, England, Holland, Finland, Germany, Spain and Sweden.

We also offer company tours – including Merck, Pfizer, BD;  panel discussions with industrial leaders – including BTP alumni; as well as seminars and biannual symposia that gather recognized innovators under the umbrella of a broad scientific theme.

Our outstanding mentors from across the sciences at UVA are award-winning leaders in their fields, with success in nurturing the best from our students.  Many hold patents, and several have started companies.  This is an exciting time for our students to be at the frontlines of science and technology.

Faculty

Neurobiology of the cardiovascular and respiratory system, Central mechanisms linking cardiorespiratory function with affective state and emotion

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.

Engineering biomaterials as cellular microenvironments

Computational Biology; Machine Learning; Statistical Modeling; Single Cell Biology; Spatial Biology; Liquid Biopsy

Immuno-Oncology, T cell therapy, TCR Discovery, Next generation cell therapy

Uncovering the molecular etiology of neurodegenerative diseases

Systems Genetics of Skeletal Development and Maintenance

Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology. Medical Automation Research. Neurotransmitters, cell surface receptors and intracellular second messengers.

Bacterial attachment and biofilms, microbial transport in porous media

Basement Membrane Structure and Metalloproteinases

Blinding disease age-related macular degeneration, utilizing the tools of immunology, molecular biology, and engineering.

Circadian entrainment for the treatment of metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases

Post Transcriptional Gene Regulation and the Molecular Biology of Human Retroviruses

Molecular mechanisms controlling insulin signaling and fat synthesis.

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

Advancement in the design of imaging agents; molecular imaging and radiological sciences.

Regulation of Polarized Morphogenesis

Neural tissue engineering, biomaterials, drug delivery, redox regulation of stem cell fate, engineering cell-interactive microenvironments

Bioanalytical Chemistry on Microchips

Restoration of Homeostasis in Disease

Cardiovascular Biology

Chemical biology of sphingosine 1-phosphate

Pharmacology

Immune System Regulation of Cardiometabolic Disease

Molecular pathogenesis and genomic analysis of human cancers

Regulation and function of tyrosine phosphorylation in complex networks

Understanding the neural code underlying motivated behaviors like feeding, drinking, and social interaction, with a focus on how malfunction in associated brain areas are involved in diseases like addiction and eating disorders

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

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

Bioanalytical tools for inflammatory disease

Novel therapeutic approaches to brain cancers and to other neurologic diseases

Human Immunodeficiency Virus Gene Expression; Human Endogenous Viruses; SARS-CoV-2 Protein Trafficking; Post-transcriptional Gene Regulation

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

Biomedical Engineering

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

Auditory Neurobiology

Molecular and bioelectric devices; tissue regeneration.

Prokaryotic immune systems, bacteriophage virology, programmed cell death, pore-forming proteins, evolution of immunity, cGAS-STING, protein engineering

B cell Analysis and Engineering

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

Molecular Imaging; Cancer Immunology; Vaccines.

Development and regulation of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and blood vessels as they relate to retinal diseases.

Bioinformatics methodology development; Epigenetics and chromatin biology; Transcriptional regulation; Cancer genomics and epigenomics; Statistical methods for biomedical data integration; Advanced machine learning; Theoretical and computational biophysics

Pathogenesis of infectious diseases and the development of new therapies and vaccines for infectious diseases and cancers.

Integrating high-throughput proteomic, chemical, genetic and computational tools for target identification and drug discovery in cancer biology

Single Cell Analysis