The UW Department of Chemistry has an outstanding group of researchers who utilize interdisciplinary approaches combining tools and principles from physics and chemistry for the study of biological systems. The innovative tools applied include spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, nanoscale optical microscopy, advanced biochemical assays, computation, and theory. Faculty in the Department of Chemistry actively use these tools to study a range of questions spanning protein and RNA structure-function relationships, enzyme mechanism, biomineralization, ion channel dynamics, the organization of macromolecular complexes, lipid demixing, nuclear chromatin organization, cellular or tissue organization, and the origin of life. The University of Washington is home to one of the largest biomedical research communities anywhere in the United States, and chemistry groups collaborate extensively with colleagues in the sciences, engineering, and medicine.
Research Strengths
- Biophotonics (Chiu, Fu, Vaughan)
- Cellular/Nuclear Organization (Chatterjee, Fu, Keller, Vaughan, Zalatan)
- Molecular Biophysics (Bush, Chatterjee, Drobny, Rajakovich, Riley, Stoll, Tureček, Varani)
- Membrane Biophysics (Drobny, Fu, Keller)
Highlighted Resources
- Molecular Biophysics Training Program
- Optical and Electron Microscopy Centers
- NMR Facilities
- UW Proteomics Resource
See also: Chemical Biology