Featured are six individuals chosen for the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics' Summer Undergraduate Group Experience (SURGE) program. Gavin Ghafoori (Dr. Hema Adhikari's Lab), Alec Garasimowicz (Dr. Andrea Soranno's Lab), Maxine Akunnakwe and Baika Erdenepurev (Dr. Natalie Niemi's Lab), and Kylie Villadolid (Dr. Eric Galburt's Lab) showcase their remarkable lab research during the annual SURGE poster session. These photos encapsulate the culmination of their dedicated 8-week journey of lab experience and study.
On May 20th, 2024, the BMB Department held its retreat at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. Several members of the department gave presentations on what they are working on in their lab.
August 31st, 2022 - The departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and Cell Biology & Physiology had lunch and played a softball game together.
On March 5th the Department held a half day retreat at the Eric P. Newman Center located on the WU Medical Campus. All of the labs in the department introduced their lab members and questions their lab is working on in their lab.
On September 20, 2019, the department held a special seminar to recognize the recipient of the 2018 Elliot Elson Fellowship.
On July 19, 2019, the department held a special seminar to recognize the recipient of the 2019 MilliporeSigma Fellowship.
On June 7, 2019, Dr. Josh Rackers was awarded the 2019 Ceil M. DeGutis Prize in Chemical Biology/Medicinal Chemistry.
On February 22nd, 2019, the department held a special seminar to recognize the recipients of the 2017 Elliot Elson Fellowship, Min Kyung Shinn and Drake Jensen.
The 2018 BMB Holiday Party was held on December 8th, 2018 at Saratoga Lanes in Maplewood, MO.
On Friday, October 19th, 2018, a symposium in remembrance of Dr. John Majors was held in the Moore Auditorium, followed by a reception.
On Sunday, June 3rd the department held a faculty reception to congratulate Drs. Jim Janetka and Eric Galburt being awarded tenure in March, 2018. The reception was held at the Moonrise Hotel in the Delmar Loop.
On April 20, 2018, the department hosted its very first international potluck. We have many people bring in their favorite home cooked dishes from all over the world. Everything was very delicious!
On May 22nd, 2018, Ms. Melissa Budelier and Ms. Lucy Li were awarded the 2018 Ceil M. DeGutis Prize in Chemical Biology/Medicinal Chemistry.
The 24th Annual Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology (BBSB) Graduate Student Retreat, held on October 20th and 21st, 2017 at the Cedar Creek.
The BMB Holiday Party was held on December 16th, 2017 at the McDonnell Center at the St. Louis Zoo.
On May 5th, 2017, Whitney Grither was awarded the 2017 Ceil M. DeGutis Prize in Chemical Biology/Medicinal Chemistry.
On April 21st, 2017, we held our 3rd Annual Chili Cook-off. This year included a few non-traditional food options. The Burgers Lab won this year. Congratulations!
Carl and Gerty Cori Lecture on February 28, 2017 in Connor Auditorium, Farrell Learning and Teaching Center.
The BMB Holiday Party was held on January 8th, 2017 at the McDonnell Center at the St. Louis Zoo.
The SLU/WU Retreat was held on October 7, 2016 at the Danforth Plant Science Center.
On August 25, 2016, the Biochemistry Department and the Graduate Programs in Biochemistry and Computational & Molecular Biophysics hosted a welcome BBQ for the new incoming students. The BBQ was held in Forest Park with food catered from Vernon’s BBQ.
On April 22nd, the admin office had their team building. We ate lunch at Antonino's on the Hill. Afterwards we toured the Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate factory.
On February 19, 2016, we held our Annual Chili Cook-off. The competition was intense and the chili was good! The Lohman lab is this year’s winner. Congratulations!
On December 7th, we held our Holiday Party in the King Center located within the Bernard Becker library. Fun, food, Santa and trivia! Trivia winners this year are: Eric Galburt, Ana Ruiz-Manzano, Jay Rammohan & Eric and Kimberly Tomko.
Our BCM and CMBP Retreat was held on October 23rd and 24th at Cedar Creek Conference Center. Our keynote speakers were: Drs. Alexander Barnes-Assistant Professor-Chemistry and Peng Yu-Assistant Professor-Cell Biology and Physiology. Dr. Barnes’ talk was entitled: “Using Microwaves to Boost NMR Signals and Determine Bimolecular Structure and Dynamics”. Dr. Yu’s talk was entitled ”Structure and Mechanism of Ligand-Activated Potassium Channels”.
Peter Burgers’ lab hosted our Halloween Party on October 30th. Had lots of pizza, fun and costumes! Chris Ho was voted best costume. For photos...
On April 20, 2012 the admin staff went to Blueberry Hill in the Del Mar loop for lunch. Lunch was followed by bowling at the Pin-up Bowl.
On June 15, 2012, the BMB Department held its First Annual Ice Cream and Champagne Party. It was also the kick-off for the Summer version of BMB Science Fridays. Robert Zeigler from Barak Cohen’s lab was the speaker.
Our welcome BBQ was held at Tower Grove Park on August 21, 2012. Faculty, staff, postdocs, students attended. Great food, company and frisbee.
The BMB department hosted the Symposium on Understanding Molecular Machines at the Single Molecule Level on September 20, 2012. The event was held in Cori Auditorium in the McDonnell Sciences Building. Invited speakers were: Steven Block, Taekjip Ha, Scott Blanchard and Sunney Xie.
On October 26, 2012 the admin staff went to Milo’s on the Hill for lunch and games of bocce ball. We held bocce competitions between 5 pairs of admin staff. The competition was fierce between the semi-final team of Paula and Anna against Darrell and Andy. The game was close but in the final rounds Darrell and Andy pulled ahead.
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The 19th Annual BCM/CMBP Retreat was held on October 26th and 27th at Cedar Creek Conference Center, New Haven, MO. Keynote speakers were Wei Cheng - University of Michigan-”Optical Tweezers, Helicases and Beyond” and Enrique de la Cruz - Yale University-”How Cells Use Chemistry and Physics to Break the Bones that Power Their Movement”. Best Student Talk: Megan Epperson, Daved Fremont Lab. Best Student Poster: Emma Morrison, Katie Henzler-Wildman Lab Runner Up: Tom Kraft, Paul Hruz Lab Best Postdoc Poster: Binh Nguyen, Tim Lohman Lab Runner Up: Brett Olsen, Dan Ory Lab
The admin holiday party was held on December 13th. We had lunch, exchanged white elephant gifts and played pictionary.
Our Holiday Party was held on December 10th in the King Center. Congratulations to Lei Zhao and Jayma Mikes for five years of service to the BMB department. Special thanks to Paul Buske for creating the trivia questions and MC’ing. The winners of the trivia contest were the “Snowflakes”.
Admin Team Building was held on April 19, 2013 in the afternoon. We decided to try a new location and ventured into Maplewood to Schafly Bottleworks for lunch and to the Saratoga Lanes for bowling. The bowling alley did not have electronic scoring or video to let us know which pins were left standing. Lucky for us, Andy had a class in how to score bowling manually. The course did not cover how to tell how many pins were left standing. The scores were all very close. We had a great time!
The Academy of Science-St. Louis recognized Katherine Henzler-Wildman as having an extraordinary caliber of expertise and innovation in the challenging field of integral membrane proteins at their annual dinner on April 24, 2013. The dinner was held at the Chase Park Plaza.
On June 9, 2015, Robin Shields-Cutler was awarded the 2015 Ceil M. DeGutis Prize in Chemical Biology/Medicinal Chemistry. Robin presented his research at the DeGutis Presentation on June 9th entitled: How the human urinary metabolome supercharges antimicrobial defenses. Robin graduated this Spring from the Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis graduate program.
On May 29th, we held our first "Welcome to Summer Happy Hour and Hawaiian Shirt Contest". Winners were Josh Brettmann and Tom Ellenberger. They each received a box of Otter pops.
On June 5th we honored Carl Frieden for all his accomplishments and service to our department, Washington University and the scientific community. (Photos by Bob Boston and Melissa Torres.)
The 1st Annual BMB Chili Cook-off was held on February 27, 2015. Contestants were: 1st Year Students, Admin Office, Bowman lab, Burgers lab, Ellenberger lab, Havranek lab and the Henzler-Wildman lab. The Ellenberger lab was voted best chili.
This year the 2014 Silbert summer fellowship award was given to Diane Aum and James Zou. On February 25th, the department hosted a luncheon with the Silbert fellows, their research mentors: Drs. Marco Colonna and Albert Kim, Dr. Silbert’s wife, Dr. Shirley Silbert, Drs. Koong-Nah Chung, John Cooper, and Linda Pike and Roselyn Robinson.
The admin holiday party was held on December 19th. We had lunch and had great fun exchanging white elephant gifts. Afterwards we divided into two teams and played Pictionary. Team Better was victorious. Photos by Nick, Anna and Ginny.
Our holiday party was held on December 15th in the King Center. Santa made an appearance. Back by popular demand was holiday trivia hosted by Nick Caito. The winning table was Carl Frieden, Tim Lohman and Alex Kozlov. Photos by Linda Ketchens.
James A. Spudich was selected as the 2013 Carl and Gerty Cori speaker. We also had a special guest John Exton who had just published "The Crucible of Science" the story of the Cori Laboratory. The lecture was held on May 8th with a reception that followed.
Dr. Joan Steitz was selected as this year’s Carl and Gerty Cori Lecturer. She is the Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Chemistry and an HHMI Investigator at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Steitz’ lecture was entitled “Noncoding RNAs: with a viral twist”. The lecture with a reception that followed was held in the Eric P. Newman Education Center on November 18th. Photos by Linda Ketchens.
Elliot Elson is among the 2013 class of new members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A reception was held in his honor on April 25, 2013 in the BMB seminar room.
Sigma Fellows Kirk Hou (2009), Jay Rammohan (2010), John Robinson (2011) and Mariah Lawler (2012) were recently honored at a luncheon that included Rakesh Sachdev, Sigma- Aldrich President and CEO, a number of other Sigma officials, Dean Larry Shapiro and a number of WUSM faculty. Sigma-Aldrich gives a generous donation annually to support graduate education in memory of Dr. Gery Cori.
Our welcome BBQ was held at Tower Grove Park on August 29, 2013. Faculty, staff, postdocs, students attended. Great food, company and frisbee.
A scientific gathering was held to celebrate Elliot Elson’s scientific accomplishments and his birthday. A reception was held on September 22nd in the King Center. The symposium was held in Cori Auditorium on September 23rd. (Special thanks to Tony Pryse and Jeff Reidler for the photos.)
On October 31st, Robb Welty from Kathleen Hall's lab gave a seminar entitled "Local and Global Folding of a 58mer RNA Revealed by Fluorescent Base Substitutions". After the seminar BMB families, faculty, postdocs, students and staff enjoyed ice cream sundaes.
On October 17th and 18th, we had our retreat at Cedar Creek Conference Center in New Haven, MO. Keynote speakers were Jan Bieschke and Timothy Wencewicz from Washington University in St. Louis. Talk Winner: Jayan Rammohan. Poster Winners: Students: Josh Brettmann (winner) and John Robinson (runner up). Postdocs: Josh Sokoloski (winner) and Saurabh Pratap Singh (runner up). Special thanks to Anne Georges (Robinson) for the photos.
The 20th Annual BCM/CMBP Retreat was held on October 25th and 26th at Cedar Creek Conference Center, New Haven, MO. Keynote speakers were Gaya Amarasinghe - Washington University School of Medicine-”Self/non-self Recognition of RNA: Lesson from Structure” and Hani Zaher - Washington University in St. Louis-”Mechanism and Implications of Proofreading on the Ribosome”. Best Student Talk: Yang Li (Cui lab) Best Student Poster: Mark Zaydman (Cui lab) Runner Up: Joseph Stodola (Burgers lab) Best Postdoc Poster: Sunjoo Lee (Nichols lab) Runner Up: Chris Brosey (Ellenberger lab)
Admin staff had their Fall Teambuilding on October 24th. Lunch was held at the Hard Rock Cafe and a scavenger hunt in Union Station. Nick created the scavenger hunt which was VERY challenging! Congrats to the top team of Darrell Baldwin, Jayma Mikes and Melissa Torres! Photos by Nick, Anna and Lucki. 
On October 25, 2013, the admin staff went to the Boathouse in Forest Park for lunch and to the Tropicana lanes for some pin action. As each game progressed the friendly competition got more intense. Darrell, Nick and Andy were the high scorers.
The admin holiday party was held on December 13th. We had lunch and had great fun exchanging white elephant gifts.
On August 21st we had our Welcome BBQ in Tower Grove Park near the WUSM campus. Faculty, postdocs, students and staff attended the BBQ.
Our Holiday Party was held on December 2nd in the King Center. This year we had a family party which included a duplos/legos table, family movies and a special visit from Santa.
Elliot was installed as Honorary University Professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University in December. An “International Symposium on Molecular Detection and Food Safety” was held to mark the event (first photo: Elliot with XJTU Vice President TJ Lu). Elliot’s son, Julian, a joint mechanical engineering and public health masters student, was in attendance representing the food safety company CibaPure that Julian founded. Srikanth Singamaneni and Guy Genin were in attendance, along with about 5000 terra cotta warriors and military beasts (second photo). (Special thanks to Guy Genin for the photos.)
Sigma Fellows Jay Rammohan (2010) (not present), John Robinson (2011), Mariah Lawler (2012), Josh Rackers (2013), Melanie Sparks (2013) and Ted Christensen (2014) were recently honored at a luncheon that included: Rakesh Sachdev, CEO, and George Miller from Sigma-Aldrich; Dean Larry Shapiro and a number of WUSM faculty. Sigma-Aldrich gives a generous donation annually to support graduate education in memory of Dr. Gerty Cori. Photos by Melissa Torres.