Education & Training
The Biological Chemistry and Organic Chemistry Graduate Programs provide state-of-the-art training in biochemistry, synthetic organic chemistry, and molecular biology to prepare students to make significant research contributions at this interface of chemistry and biology.
Postdoctoral Scholars
Our Postdoctoral Scholarship program is committed to equipping you with the skills and knowledge needed to become a leader in scientific discovery.
UT Southwestern-Postbaccalaureate to Ph.D. Program
The UT Southwestern-Postbaccalaureate to Ph.D. (PB2PHD) Program is intended to serve recent college graduates interested in pursuing graduate research training in the biomedical sciences.
The PB2PHD Program provides scholars with a year-long, faculty-mentored research experience and an academic and professional development plan to strengthen their skills and increase their competitiveness for graduate admission.
Sara and Frank McKnight Fellowships
In 2001, donations from various sources helped establish an endowment in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Frank McKnight, the parents of Steven McKnight, Ph.D., former Chair of the Department of Biochemistry.
This endowment provides support for research conducted by young scientists within the Department of Biochemistry, including support for an independent postdoctoral fellow.
This Sara and Frank McKnight Fellowship Program is modeled after an independent fellows program at the Department of Embryology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington where Dr. McKnight was able to receive the opportunity for early independence in the late 1970s.
- Past McKnight Postdoctoral Fellows
- Jared Rutter, Ph.D. – Now a Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Utah
- Charles Dann, Ph.D. – Now an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Indiana University
- Trey (John) Fondon, Ph.D. – Now an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington
- Benjamin Tu, Ph.D. – Now an Associate Professor of Biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center
- Ryan Potts, Ph.D. – Was an Assistant Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology at UT Southwestern Medical Center
- Helen Lai, Ph.D. – Now an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at UT Southwestern Medical Center
- Randal Halfmann, Ph.D. – Now an Assistant Investigator at Stowers Institute for Medical Research
- William Israelsen, Ph.D. – Now the VP of Operations at Skroot Laboratory Inc.
- Current McKnight Student Fellows
- Mary Burns – Currently works in the lab of Dr. Jennifer Kohler (2024)
- Khoa Tran – Currently works in the lab of Dr. Joe Ready (2024)
- Former McKnight Student Fellows
- Andrew Morrow (Dr. Myles Smith – Dec. 2022 - Nov. 2024)
- Robyn Murphy (Dr. Yunsun Nam – Dec. 2022 - Nov. 2024)
- Thu Nguyen (Dr. Deepak Nijhawan – September 1, 2020)
- Cooper Vincent (Dr. Uttam Tambar – September 1, 2020)
- James Henry McGinnis III (Dr. David McFadden – December 1, 2018 - November 30, 2020)
- Tabitha Chung-Yan Ting (Dr. Deepak Nijhawan – December 1, 2018 - November 30, 2020)
- Vaishnavi Nair (Dr. Uttam Tambar – December 1, 2017 - November 30, 2019)
- Han Wu (Dr. Jennifer Kohler – December 1, 2017 - November 30, 2019)
Molecule of the Year Award
The Molecule of the Year Award recognizes extraordinary discoveries by our biochemistry students and postdoctoral scholars.
Past Recipients
| Year | Recipients | Molecule | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Drs. Renzhe Li and Chang Liu | Pentafluorosulfanyl (SF5) | The development of bench-stable pentafluorosulfanyl (SF5) group transfer reagents and methodologies for late-stage SF5 installation |
| 2024 | Yufen Xiao | DMG-PEG19MA36 | Brush-shaped Polymer Lipids to improve the safety and efficacy of lipid nanoparticles |
| 2024 | Mary Burns | Ac4HTz-GlcNAc | Using tetrazine ligation chemistry to study glycosylation in cells |
| 2023 | Michael McConville | ETV6 | Discovering how point mutations in ETV6 create an XPO1-dependent nuclear export signal to cause protein mislocalization |
| 2022 | Jake Aquilina | Myrioneurinol | Myrioneuron alkaloids are polycyclic natural products with a range of bioactivities, including antimalarial, antiviral, and cytotoxic properties |
| 2021 | Jet Tsien and Yangyang Yang, Ph.D. | Bpin BCP | This bench-stable solid compound represents a general precursor to modularly access more sophisticated BCPs. |
| 2020 | Aloysus Lawong and Suraksha Gahalawat, Ph.D. | ALCHM3 | A novel tetrazole with antimalarial activity targeting heme polymerization. |
| 2019 | Juan Manuel Povedano Selfa, Ph.D. and Rameshu Rallabandi, Ph.D. | SNARTUB | For nucleophilic aromatic substitution with tubulin as the target of neuroendocrine cancer cells killing. |
| 2018 | Yu-San Yang | Pbp1 | For discovering that yeast ataxin-2 ortholog Pbp1 acts as a molecular redox sensor to regulate the TORC1 complex in response to the activity state of mitochondria. |
| 2017 | Yulani Zhen, Ph.D. | ADP-Ribose | For the discovery of the role of PARP modification in breast cancer sensitivity to chemotherapy. |