Overview
The Biophysics Graduate Group is an independent PhD program at UC Berkeley. The program trains graduate students for careers at the interface of the biological and physical sciences.
Approximately 60 faculty members, spanning over a dozen departments and groups at UC Berkeley, are affiliated with the Biophysics Group. Students can also work with faculty who are outside of the group.
Many of the tools and methods that drive progress in the biosciences are drawn from the physical and computational sciences. Current trends require that the next generation of scientists acquire expertise in both the biological and physical sciences, with research experience that overlaps traditional academic boundaries. The Biophysics Graduate Group strives to offer that experience to its PhD students.
Research within the group is conducted in the broad areas of structural biophysics and protein dynamics; systems neuroscience; molecular microscopy and optical probes; cell signaling and cellular physiology; computational biology and genomics; brain imaging and bioelectronics; and comparative biomechanics.
The Biophysics Graduate Group is a member of the QB3-Berkeley Program in Quantitative Biosciences and is also part of the Division of Biological Sciences.
Undergraduate Program
There is no undergraduate program in Biophysics.
Graduate Program
Biophysics: PhD
Courses
Biophysics
BIOPHY H196 Honors Research in Biophysics 4 Units
Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017
Supervised independent honors research on topics specific to biophysics, followed by brief written report and presentation at year-end student research colloquium.
Honors Research in Biophysics: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Upper division standing; minimum GPA 3.2; consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit up to a total of 12 units.Course may be repeated for a maximum of 12 units.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Biophysics/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
BIOPHY 292 Research 3 - 12 Units
Terms offered: Fall 2018, Summer 2018 10 Week Session, Spring 2018
Individual research under the supervision of a faculty member.
Research: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-12 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 10 weeks - 3-12 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Biophysics/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
BIOPHY 293A Research Seminar: Faculty Evening Research Presentations (FERPS) and Student Evening Research Presentations (SERPS) 2 Units
Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Fall 2016
Seminar on presentation and evaluation of results in area of student's individual research interests.
Research Seminar: Faculty Evening Research Presentations (FERPS) and Student Evening Research Presentations (SERPS): Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 292
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Biophysics/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only. This is part one of a year long series course. A provisional grade of IP (in progress) will be applied and later replaced with the final grade after completing part two of the series.
BIOPHY 293B Research Seminar: Faculty Evening Research Presentations (FERPS) and Student Evening Research Presentations (SERPS) 2 Units
Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Seminar on presentation and evaluation of results in area of student's individual research interests.
Research Seminar: Faculty Evening Research Presentations (FERPS) and Student Evening Research Presentations (SERPS): Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 293A, and 292
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Biophysics/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only. This is part two of a year long series course. Upon completion, the final grade will be applied to both parts of the series.
Faculty and Instructors
+ Indicates this faculty member is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award.
Faculty
Hillel Adesnik, Assistant Professor.
Research Profile
Adam Arkin, Professor. Systems modeling.
Research Profile
Eric Betzig, Professor. Physics, molecular and cell biology.
Steve Brohawn, Assistant Professor of Neurobiology. Molecular and cell biology.
Research Profile
Carlos J. Bustamante, Professor. Nanoscience, structural characterization of nucleo-protein assemblies, single molecule fluorescence microscopy, DNA-binding molecular motors, the scanning force microscope, prokaryotes.
Research Profile
Jamie Cate, Professor. Molecular basis for protein synthesis by the ribosome, RNA, antibiotics, a thermophilic bacterium, escherichia coli.
Research Profile
Yang Dan, Professor.
Research Profile
Xavier Darzacq, Assistant Professor.
Research Profile
Karen Davies, Assistant Adjunct Professor. Protein structure, bioenergentic membranes, cellualr organisation, electron cryo tomography.
Research Profile
Abby Dernburg, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology. Genomics, chromosome remodeling and reorganization during meiosis, Down syndrome, DNA.
Research Profile
Michael Deweese, Associate Professor. Machine learning, computation, systems neuroscience, auditory cortex, neural coding.
Research Profile
Jennifer A. Doudna, Professor. RNA machines, hepatitis C virus, RNA interference, ribosomes.
Research Profile
David G. Drubin, Professor. Cellular morphogenesis, plasma membrane dynamics, microtubule cytoskeletons, cytoskeletal proteins, morphological development.
Research Profile
Michael B. Eisen, Professor. Genomics, genome sequencing, bioinformatics, animal development.
Research Profile
+ Dan Feldman, Professor of Neurobiology. Neurobiology, learning, neurophysiology, sensory biology.
Research Profile
Marla B. Feller, Professor. Neurophysiology, developmental neuroscience.
Research Profile
Graham R. Fleming, Professor. Chemistry, proteins, chemical and biological dynamics in the condensed phase, ultrafast spectroscopy, body dynamics, liquids, solutions, glasses, photosynthetic proteins, role of solvents in chemical reactions, complex electric fields, electron transfer.
Research Profile
Daniel Fletcher, Professor. Bioengineering, optical and force microscopy, microfabrication, biophysics, mechanical properties of cells.
Research Profile
+ Robert J. Full, Professor. Energetics, comparative biomechanics, arthropod, adhesion, comparative physiology, locomotion, neuromechanics, biomimicry, biological inspiration, reptile, gecko, amphibian, robots, artificial muscles.
Research Profile
Jack L. Gallant, Professor. Vision science, form vision, attention, fMRI, computational neuroscience, natural scene perception, brain encoding, brain decoding.
Research Profile
Hernan G. Garcia, Assistant Professor.
Research Profile
+ Phillip Lewis Geissler, Professor. Statistical mechanics, theoretical chemistry, microscopic behavior of complex biological and material systems, biomolecular structure and dynamics, nonlinear vibrational spectroscopy.
Research Profile
Jay T. Groves, Professor. Chemistry, physical chemistry of cell membranes, molecular organization in cell membranes, receptor-ligand binding, spatial rearrangement of receptors, ligands.
Research Profile
Oskar Hallatschek, Assistant Professor.
Research Profile
Teresa Head-Gordon, Professor. Computational chemistry, biophysics, bioengineering, biomolecules, materials, computational science.
Research Profile
James Hurley, Professor. Structural biology and biophysics of membrane remodeling in autophagy, membrane traffic, and HIV biogenesis.
Research Profile
Nicholas Ingolia, Assistant Professor. Ribosome Profiling, translation, genomics.
Research Profile
Ehud Y. Isacoff, Professor. Ion channel function, synaptic plasticity, neural excitability, synaptic transmission, the synapse.
Research Profile
Na Ji, Associate Professor. Physics, molecular and cell biology.
Sung-Hou Kim, Professor. Computational genomics, Structural Biology, drug discovery, disease genomics.
Research Profile
Robert Thomas Knight, Professor. Cognitive neuroscience, language, physiology, memory, attention, psychology, working memory, neuropsychology, human prefrontal cortex, neural mechanisms of cognitive processing, sensory gating, sustained attention, ad novelty detection.
Research Profile
Mimi A. R. Koehl, Professor. Biomechanics, insects, invertebrate functional morphology, fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, marine animals, filtration, gliding vertebrates.
Research Profile
Richard H. Kramer, Professor. Cells, synaptic transmission, chemical signaling between neurons, ion channels, electrical signals, chemical reagents, synapses.
Research Profile
Sanjay Kumar, Professor. Biomaterials, molecular and cellular bioengineering, stem cells, cancer biology, translational medicine.
Research Profile
John Kuriyan, Professor. Structural and functional studies of signal transduction, DNA replication, cancer therapies, phosphorylation.
Research Profile
Markita Landry, Assistant Professor.
Research Profile
Luke Lee, Professor. Biophotonics, biophysics, bionanoscience, molecular imaging, single cell analysis, bio-nano interfaces, integrated microfluidic devices (iMD) for diagnostics and preventive personalized medicine.
Research Profile
Polina Lishko, Assistant Professor. Reproductive and Developmental Biology, ion channels, Physiology of Fertilization and Early Embryo Development.
Research Profile
Kranthi K. Mandadapu, Assistant Professor. Statistical Mechanics, Continuum Mechanics — Polycrystalline Materials, Biological Membranes, Bacterial Motility.
Research Profile
Michael A. Marletta, Professor. Chemical biology, molecular biology, structure/function relationships in proteins, catalytic and biological properties of enzymes, cellular signaling, nitric oxide synthase, soluble guanylate cyclase, gas sensing, cellulose degradation, polysaccharide monooxygenases.
Research Profile
Susan Marqusee, Professor. Amino acids, determinants of protein structure and folding, biophysical, structural and computational techniques, translocation, protein synthesis.
Research Profile
Andreas Martin, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology. Proteasome.
Research Profile
Barbara J. Meyer, Professor. Developmental biology, gene expression, genetic determination of sex, regulatory genes, chromosome dynamics, X-chromosome.
Research Profile
Evan W. Miller, Assistant Professor.
Research Profile
Mohammad Mofrad, Professor. Nuclear pore complex and nucleocytoplasmic transport, mechanobiology of disease, cellular mechanotransduction, integrin-mediated focal adhesions.
Research Profile
Eva Nogales, Professor. Biochemistry, complex biological assemblies, structure and regulation of the cytoskeleton, microtubule dynamics, human transcriptional initiation machinery, biophysics.
Research Profile
George Oster, Professor. Computational biology, developmental biology, mathematical modeling of molecular and cellular systems, protein motors, cell motility, spatial pattern formation in eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, neural pattern formation.
Research Profile
Daniel S. Rokhsar, Professor. Biology, collective phenomena and ordering in condensed matter and biological systems, theoretical modeling, computational modeling, behavior of quantum fluids, cold atomic gases, high temperature superconductors, Fermi and Bose systems.
Research Profile
David Savage, Assistant Professor. Synthetic biology and metabolism.
Research Profile
Lydia Sohn, Professor. Micro-nano engineering.
Research Profile
Aaron Streets, Assistant Professor. Bioengineering.
Research Profile
Frederic Theunissen, Professor. Behavior, cognition, brain, psychology, birdsong, vocal learning, audition, neurophysiology, speech perception, computational neuroscience, theoretical neuroscience.
Research Profile
David E. Wemmer, Professor. Nuclear magnetic resonance, nucleic acids, biophysical chemistry: proteins, NMR spectroscopy, magnetic resonance methods, structure of proteins and DNA, conformational fluctuations, biopolymers.
Research Profile
Evan Williams, Professor. Spectroscopy, molecular structure and dynamics, analytical chemistry, biophysical chemistry, structure and reactivity of biomolecules and biomolecule/water interactions, mass spectrometry, separations, protein conformation, protein and DNA sequencing.
Research Profile
Ke Xu, Assistant Professor. Biophysical chemistry, cell biology at the nanoscale, super-resolution microscopy, single-molecule spectroscopy.
Research Profile
Ahmet Yildiz, Associate Professor. Single molecule biophysics, molecular motors, telomeres.
Research Profile
Roberto Zoncu, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry. Biophysics and Structural Biology, MCB.
Research Profile
Contact Information
Biophysics Graduate Group
574 Stanley Hall
Phone: 510-642-0379
Fax: 510-666-3399
Program Chair
James Hurley (Molecular and Cell Biology)
Phone: 510-643-9483
Head Graduate Adviser
Susan Marqusee, MD, PhD (Molecular and Cell Biology)
Phone: 510-642-7678
Graduate Program Coordinator
Kate Chase
574 Stanley Hall, MC 3220
Phone: 510-642-0379