Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology was founded in 1935 as a constituent department of the former Medical College of National Central University, with profound historical accumulation. The renowned biochemist Professor Ji Zheng was the founder of this discipline. Subsequently, the department was successively affiliated with the Medical College of Nanjing University, the Fifth Military Medical University, the Sixth Military Medical College, and Nanjing Railway Medical College.Through the unremitting efforts of several generations of educators including Zhaozong Du, Yong Wei, Sentang Zou and Xinrong Li, a solid foundation has been laid for the development of biochemistry and molecular biology education. Among the department's academic achievements, the Medical Biochemistry course was awarded the Second Prize for Outstanding Courses in Regular Institutions of Higher Education of Jiangsu Province in 1999, and the Advanced Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Technology course was selected as an Outstanding Postgraduate Course of Jiangsu Province in 2010.

To date, the department has developed two core pillars of teaching and research, namely: (1) Biochemistryand (2) Synthetic Biology. The biochemistry discipline focuses on elucidating the structure and function of biological macromolecules, the molecular basis underlying the metabolism of biological macromolecules, and the transmission of genetic information. Synthetic biology is an important extension of the biochemistry discipline, which further integrates engineering research concepts. In terms of teaching, centered on the two pillars of biochemistry and synthetic biology, the department offers corresponding courses for different academic levels and majors, including undergraduates and postgraduates. Over the past decade, the department has cultivated a cohort of young talents at the master, doctoral and postdoctoral levels.

The department boasts a dynamic faculty team dominated by young and middle-agedteachers. Currently, the department has 17 faculty members, including 7 professors, 8 associate professors, 1 lecturer, and 1 laboratory technical staff. Prof. Dayong Wang has been selected as a "Chinese Most Cited Researcher" in the biology discipline by Elsevier. In recent years, relying on the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education and the Innovation Platform for Postgraduate Education in Nucleic Acid and Protein Research, the department has achieved substantial progress in scientific research. Over the past five years, the department has published more than 150 papers indexed in the Science Citation Index (SCI), and published 2 Chinese monographs and 5 English monographs in related fields. Faculty members have participated in 2 National Major Basic Research Program projects and presided over more than 10 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The department has received one First Prize of Natural Science Award from the Ministry of Education, one First Prize of Tianjin Science and Technology Progress Award, one Second Prize of Science and Technology Award from the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, and one Third Prize of Environmental Protection Science and Technology Award from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

In scientific research, the department focuses on the following two research directions:

(1) Molecular mechanisms underlying the occurrence and development of diseases: Specifically, the department focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms of the occurrence and development of metabolism-related diseases, infection-related diseases and neurodevelopment-related diseases, with particular emphasis on the association between metabolism and disease pathogenesis.

(2) Theory and applications of synthetic biology.