The Biochemistry Group at Sussex occupies a strong position among UK Biochemistry departments. It forms the core of a much larger biochemistry community, centred in the School of Biological Sciences, which includes not only many staff with biochemical interests in both the Biology and the Chemistry Groups, but also most members of three research centres on the campus: the MRC CellMutation Unit, the Nitrogen Fixation Laboratory and the Trafford Centre for MedicalResearch. In addition there are up to 20 research faculty, 30-40 DPhil students and 10 MSc students working each year in the Graduate Centre associated with the Group.
There are extensive links among research workers within the School of Biological Sciences and elsewhere on campus, and the biochemists have particularly strong connections with genetics (prokaryotic and eukaryotic), neurobiology and plant physiology. One biochemistry faculty member is a part of the Sussex Centre for Neuroscience. Collaboration with industry, medical and agricultural institutes, hospitals and universities extend around the world. Research interests span the whole range of biochemistry, from the borders of chemistry to those of biology, and the Biochemistry Group is noted for its work in biochemical endocrinology, molecular genetics, metalloenzymes, the biochemistry of gene expression, metabolic regulation, energy transduction and membrane function.
The Group is very well equipped and has excellent ancillary facilities. It is also particularly well supported by a large variety of external grant- awarding bodies. Research grant income as a fraction of funding council income regularly puts the Group among the top five, and sometimes the top three, of all biochemistry departments in the UK. Most of that income comes from the research councils and the rest from sources such as the Wellcome Trust, the Cancer Research Campaign, the British Diabetic Association and several biotechnology, pharmaceutical and other industrial companies.
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