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education and training
Undergraduate programs in BMB
What makes them distinct? What makes them complete?
BY PETER J. KENNELLY
A campus tour
An enthusiastic young undergraduate is leading a group
of high school students and their parents on a tour of
Generic State University.
As they walk across the quadrangle, the undergraduate
confidently points out building after building as his
audience inquires: Where is the psychology department
located? Is that the biology building? Where’s English?
Where’s biology? Where’s engineering? Where is the
department of molecular biology?
“I don’t think we have one,” the undergraduate replies.
“Where do students go if they are interested in studying
enzymes, lipid metabolism or gene regulation?”
“I’m not sure. Some major in biology. You can major in
biochemistry through the chemistry department, but you
still have to take P-Chem …”
A heterogeneous array of program models
For the bulk of the 20th century, colleges and universities
were organized on modular principles. Every subject area
taught was the responsibility of an autonomous academic
department possessing its own faculty, staff, unit leader
and space. Large departments often merited their own
buildings, with the collateral benefit of enshrining their
disciplines in bricks and mortar for generations to come.
As new disciplines emerged — aeronautical engineering,
psychology, computer science — during the steady
expansion of the 1950s, colleges and universities added
new departmental modules. Eventually, however, spiraling
fiscal constraints rendered expansion by addition increasingly
impractical, driving institutions to seek ways of
covering new areas by rearranging or repurposing assets
within the existing unit structure. As relative latecomers on
the scene, biochemistry and molecular biology programs
followed a variety of paradigms.
Many schools, especially the larger research universities,
established classic autonomous departments. Other
colleges and universities elected to add BMB to the portfolio
of existing departments, with biochemistry frequently
falling under the purview of the chemistry department and
molecular biology under that of the department of biology.
In some cases, the title of the department was
expanded to acknowledge the addition; in others, it was
not. Another popular option, especially among smaller colleges
and universities, was to assign responsibility for the
BMB major to a consortium of two or more departments
that usually includes both chemistry and biology.
Does heterogeneity matter?
Do these various models affect the quality of BMB education
nationwide? Does adding two or three BMB courses
to the basic chemistry or biology curriculum offer the
same learning opportunities as an integrated BMB curriculum
designed from the ground up?
Some of these structures expose students to a diverse
community of BMB faculty members. Others, however,
make-do with one or two token biochemists or even some
part-time instructors.
While many faculty members and instructors working
as outliers within biology, chemistry or other departments
are remarkable educators, it is difficult to believe
that programs trying to get by with limited personnel and
resources can maintain consistently high levels of quality
as readily as dedicated units that award BMB top priority
and access to the physical and human infrastructure
generally associated with an autonomous department.
This is not to say that departmental structure somehow
guarantees quality instruction.
Heterogeneity lies in the definition of the degree itself.
While many schools award a Bachelor of Science in
biochemistry and molecular biology, others award degrees
in biochemistry alone or molecular biology alone. How do
they differ? Are the core concepts and expected competencies
associated with a B.S. in molecular biology or
biochemistry consistent across colleges and universities?
Should we care?
The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology Education and Professional Development
Committee is committed to advancing the quality of
our discipline. Undergraduate BMB programs allow for
the imaginations of aspiring biochemists and molecular
biologists to become either further inspired or to grow
stale. Students either lay a foundation of analytical
32 ASBMB Today September 2011