Facilities of the Department/Special Facilities: The Program has excellent research facilities including 33,000 square feet of new laboratory space. All major equipment necessary for modern biochemical and molecular biological research is available. In addition, a number of core facilities including DNA synthesis and sequencing, protein synthesis and sequencing, molecular graphics, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, veterinary services, and transgenic mice facilities are available. An up-to-date library with modern computer-assisted search programs are found within the Department and at the Calder Library of the School of Medicine, as well as at the Richter Library on the Coral Gables campus of the University. Search programs can be accessed from terminals found throughout the Department.

Career Opportunities: A new era in biological research began in the late 1970's with the advent of recombinant DNA technology. The result has been an explosion of new job opportunities in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology. Our graduate program will prepare the student for research challenges in the next century. Our goal is to produce graduates who are thoroughly versed in modern biochemistry and molecular genetics and who have a flexibility of approach that will allow them a wide choice of directions in which to take their careers including universities, government laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms or other research institutions. Academic appointments in all disciplines have been quite competitive in recent years, but scientists who took positions in the 1960's will be retiring in the 1990's, and the number of new positions in Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is expected to increase significantly.