Chemical Biology

Chemical biology is an emerging area at the boundary between chemistry and biology. The editors of Nature Chemical Biology state that chemical biology "focuses on understanding biological systems at the molecular level and using these mechanistic insights to expand chemistry and biology in new directions."   Chemical biology encompasses well-established divisions of chemistry such as bioorganic, biophysical, bioanalytical, bioinorganic and biochemistry and is supported and further enhanced by the highly interdisciplinary and collaborative research environment in the life sciences at MSU.

We feel that a burgeoning area of research of such import is an ideal theme around which to focus graduate education. The research expertise and the instrumentation for chemical biology at Montana State University are outstanding.  By fostering an environment that stimulates substantive communication between chemists and biologists, MSU has created a catalyst for new research opportunities and discoveries that will greatly enhance our knowledge of living systems. *Citation for Nature Chemical Biology's definition of chemical biology: Editorial, no authors assigned. "A community of chemists and biologists" Nature Chemical Biology, 2005, 1, 3.