Biochemistry Department Jacobs School of Medicine University at Buffalo

09/08/2026

Great news! 📣
Under the direction of Dr. Sarah Bowman, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the National Crystallization Center (NCC) at the University at Buffalo a five-year, $5.5 million award so that it can continue to advance pioneering research in the field of structural biology at the University at Buffalo Hauptman-Woodward Research Institute! Congratulations!

Great news! 📣

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the National Crystallization Center (NCC) at the University at Buffalo a five-year, $5.5 million award so that it can continue to advance pioneering research in the field of structural biology at the University at Buffalo Hauptman-Woodward Research Institute.

The NCC specializes in protein crystallization, which is crucial to determining protein structure and function and developing new therapies. Over the past five years, NCC advances have led to determining the structures of a possible treatment for ni****ne addiction, inhibitors of the SARS-CoV2 virus, and possible inhibitors of a protein involved in drug-resistant metastatic cancers. ⚛️

Since 2021, the NCC has worked with approximately 475 users from 238 different academic research groups from 133 different institutions.

“At the NCC, we are really focused on helping users with finding the best conditions to grow their crystals and then to help them with optimization,” says NCC director Sarah E. J. Bowman, PhD, associate professor of Biochemistry Department Jacobs School of Medicine University at Buffalo at the Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences - University at Buffalo. “With the new grant we will continue to educate people and to continue to spread this knowledge.”

Read all the details! http://ms.spr.ly/6181aXlqT

05/28/2026

Earlier this month we held our Annual Student Research Day and Commencement Awards. We'd like to congratulate the following students on their achievements:
Undergraduate Awards
Hailey Leyberman: 2026 Biochemistry John Moran Memorial Award
Arielle Arbel: 2026 Biochemistry Outstanding Senior Award
Yichu Huang: 2026 Biochemistry Rising Star in Biomedical Research Award
Matthew Leyberman: 2026 Deborah, Christopher and Adam White Memorial Award
Graduate Awards:
David Homer: 2026 Office of Biomedical education Master's Research Award
Janie McGlohon: 2026 Biochemistry Graduate Student Research Achievement Award
Research Day Awards:
Adeeb Saleh: 2026 Elizabeth Olmsted Ross Award Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation
Arielle Arbel: 2026 Elizabeth Olmsted Ross Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation
Jennifer Sosa: 2026 Elizabeth Olmsted Ross Award Outstanding Graduate Poster Presentation
Ashley McDougall: 2026 Elizabeth Olmsted Ross Award Outstanding Graduate Oral Presentation
Ben Bahun: 2026 Elizabeth Olmsted Ross Runner Up Award Outstanding Graduate Oral Presentation

Great job!

03/13/2026

With great sadness we are sharing that one our most esteemed and longest tenured faculty, Dr. Alexander (Alastair) Brownie, has passed away at the age of 95. Dr. Brownie joined UB in 1963 after graduating from Edinburgh University (Ph.D. '55), serving as a research associate for six years at Dundee University and attending a NIH-sponsored Steroid Training Program at the University of Utah. He was an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Stockton Kimball Research awardee, a Dean's award recipient and was the first recipient of a 10-year NIH Merit Award at UB for his research on hypertension. Additionally, he was a Siegel Distinguished Teaching awardee and was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society.

But his greatest accomplishment was the education of thousands of medical and dental students at the Jacobs School of Medicine during his 60 plus years teaching and is one our most memorable professors. He loved teaching (and continued to do so through the end of 2025), interacting with students and his commitment was so deep that in 1997 during a leave from UB, he would commute from Scotland to teach Endocrinology & Metabolism before eventually deciding to return to the US (and UB) permanently.

Dr. Brownie chaired the Biochemistry department from 1977-1989 and recruited several faculty including Drs. Daniel Kosman, Murray Ettinger, Gail Willsky, Mary Taub and Mark O'Brian.

Dr. Brownie and his wife W***y started the international meeting on the adrenal cortex in 1984 with support from the NIH that has ran every two years and just had their 19th conference in 2024!

Above all, Dr. Brownie absolutely adored his family-his wife of 42 years W***y, and their son Alec. He loved cooking for them and made some amazing meals over the years!

More information regarding honoring Dr. Brownie's service and commitment to UB and the medical school will be forthcoming.

02/02/2026

It’s official! Join us in congratulating Dr. Mark O’Brian on his retirement! We will be seeing him this spring for some teaching, but after that look out world!

Thank you for all your years of service to UB, the University is a better place for it. Congratulations and enjoy!

12/18/2025

Some of the most stolen items in our holiday swap (in no particular order):
-Josh Allen bobblehead
-Peach tea
-Bills Little People
-Wine
-Sharpie marker set
-Dracula garlic peeler
We always enjoy spending time together celebrating the holidays, we hope you enjoy yours as well!

11/07/2025

Congratulations Aisha-what an amazing accomplishment!

Junior Aisha Makama will use the public service award to pursue her passion to develop STEM education in Africa.

11/05/2025

Michael Buck, PhD, professor of biochemistry in the Jacobs School, recently received NIH funding to explore how molecular readers of DNA access and activate seemingly hidden genes.

11/03/2025

If you know us, you know we absolutely “slay” at Halloween!
The winners of “Mummify Your PI”: Estrada Lab
Costume Contest Winners: Surtees Lab
Start thinking about next year’s costumes!

09/12/2025

Dr. Christine Schaner Tooley has been awarded a T32 training grant from the National Institutes of Health as co-PI with Dr. Melissa McCartney in Phamacology and Toxicology to train more cellular, biochemical and molecular scientists!

Congratulations to Dr. Schaner Tooley!

The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has been awarded a T32 training grant from the National Institutes of Health to train more cellular, biochemical and molecular scientists.

05/28/2025

Join us in congratulating Samantha Schwarz in the Popescu Lab for receiving a Ruth L. Kirschstein F31 National Research Service Award from NINDS!

Samantha Schwarz, a doctoral candidate in the neuroscience program at the Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences - University at Buffalo, has been awarded a highly competitive, two-year fellowship from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke - NINDS!

The $71,430 Ruth L. Kirschstein F31 National Research Service Award for Individual Predoctoral Students supports training for a promising researcher in a health-related area.

Schwarz works in the lab of Gabriela K. Popescu, PhD, professor of biochemistry, who says that F31s are highly regarded awards within the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

➡️ Learn about Schwarz’s grant — “Mechanism of Altered Synaptic Signaling by Disease Related GRIN1 Variants” — and find out why she and Popescu have a fruitful mentee-mentor relationship: http://ms.spr.ly/6189SwS45