CBI Webmaster

HSC Webmaster
Disclaimer | Privacy Statement

The Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Program at the University of Utah is an inter-disciplinary PhD program that provides cross-training for students with traditional backgrounds in the chemical or biological sciences. Modern biomedical research is highly interdisciplinary. The CBI program allows PhD students the flexibility to learn techniques outside of their core expertise, and develop collaborations between training faculty.

Academic Departments for Training Faculty: Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Oncological Sciences, Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry.

Training Disciplines: Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Simulation, Chemical Biology, Medicinal Chemistry, and Structural Biology.

Components of the Training Program.

• First Year Curriculum: Students entering through the Biological Chemistry Program take core courses, do four laboratory rotations, and take a journal club/grant writing course. Students entering through individual departments have similar didactic core courses
• Cross-Training: The formal cross training for CBI trainees occurs through formal coursework in the second year, and laboratory rotations outside the Ph.D advisor's department. Trainees take additional courses in the 2nd year to broaden their didactic experience. For example, chemistry Ph.D. students may take courses in cell biology or immunology if their CBI project involves in vivo screening of potential enzyme inhibitors. Students studying transcription factors might take additional chemistry courses to learn inhibitor synthesis.
• Brown bag research in progress: Current and past CBI trainees participate in monthly research presentations.
• CBI seminars: One external seminar speaker a month is partially sponsored by the CBI program. The CBI trainees invite one external speaker per year in conjunction with the CBI retreat.
• CBI retreat: An annual retreat is organized by the CBI trainees. The retreat consists of talks and poster presentations by the trainees along with an invited external speaker. All current and past trainees and their mentors attend.
• Minority recruiting and support: The training program is implementing a novel mentoring program for minority undergraduates. Minority undergraduates, or high school students in biological chemistry will be paired with and mentored by a CBI trainee. There are currently many undergraduates interested in research at the University; partnerships with CBI trainees are coordinated with Rosemary Gray (Biology). Qualified minority students will work under the supervision of the trainee. This will provide a mentoring experience for the trainee and help recruit minority undergraduates into Ph.D. programs at Utah, or other programs in the country.