New Biochemistry Building, Department of Biochemistry

General information

The Department of Biochemistry in the Science Area at Oxford University, England, is one of the largest such departments in Europe. It is currently made up of three main buildings

The New Biochemistry building
The Rex Richards building (housing the NMR facility in the basement)
The Rodney Porter building (Glycobiology)

Until 2006, two other buildings housing genetics (the Walter Bodmer building) and biochemistry (the Rudolph Peters building) also existed. However, these have since been demolished. Until 2008 biochemistry was also occupying the Donald Woods building and the Hans Krebs building, that was deserted after completion of the first part of new biochemistry building in autumn 2008. The New Biochemistry building houses a substantial amount of contemporary art. The head of department is Professor Mark Sansom.

The Biochemistry Department is part of the University of Oxford's Medical Sciences Division, the largest of the University's four academic divisions and ranked third in the world for Biomedicine.
According to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, 75% of research activity within the Department is rated world-class quality in terms of significance, rigour and originality, making it the highest rated Life Sciences Department within a UK university.

The Department moved into the purpose-built new biochemistry building during the Autumn of 2008 which was designed to promote interaction and collaboration as well as provide state-of-the-art facilities for all staff. There are about 52 independent Principal Investigators, one hundred postdoctoral research workers and one hundred and fifty postgraduate students.

Members of other departments also contribute to teaching, including lecturers in physiology, pathology, pharmacology, clinical biochemistry and zoology. Although large, the Department is not impersonal and has a friendly atmosphere.