Molecular biophysics is an interdisciplinary area of research situated at the intersection of molecular biology, chemistry, chemical biology, physical chemistry, and molecular physics. Molecular biophysics, as a field of endeavor, is distinguished by analytical and quantitative research inquiry of biomolecular and macromolecular systems, using diverse molecular spectroscopic methods, structure determination, functional bioenergetics, statistical thermodynamics, and molecular dynamics. Topics of active research interest at Wesleyan include protein structure and folding, molecular models of enzyme mechanisms, protein-DNA and protein-RNA interactions, biofilm formation, molecular pores and other membrane proteins. As a consequence of recent advances stemming from the human genome project, the field of structural bioinformatics finds an increasingly important emphasis in our program. A parent organization for this field of research is the U.S.-based Biophysical Society, with some 7,000 members, and sister societies worldwide.
Admission to the Minor
As Molecular Biophysics is an interdisciplinary minor, it is strongly recommended that undergraduate students gain foundational knowledge by majoring in one of these three areas: Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Chemistry, or Physics.