About

Message from the Director

headshot: Kevin Gardner
Kevin Gardner, Director of the ASRC Structural Biology Initiative

Structural biology brings together biologists, chemists, and physicists to tackle many of life’s central questions. How do cells respond to their surroundings? How do they make copies of themselves? What determines the balance between health and disease?

By probing the structures and functions of the molecules in the cell that are involved in these processes, structural biologists advance our understanding of how these workhorses of the cell function normally, how they can be targeted by novel therapeutics, and how they can be adapted to new biotech applications.

When I joined CUNY in 2014 to found the ASRC’s Structural Biology Initiative, I committed to create an environment for structural biology researchers to make the next wave of these discoveries and train future leaders in this field. Since then, we’ve hired outstanding faculty and staff, recruited excellent students and postdocs to our labs, established state-of-the-art core facilities (complementing those available next door at our partner New York Structural Biology Center), and hosted seminars and conferences to catalyze scientific interchange and discussion.

Together, my colleagues and I accelerate research and learning in this exciting field for researchers and students within and far beyond CUNY. These include experts as well as students who are getting their initial exposure to the fields that are the foundation of this work

We look forward to your participation. Please contact me if I can provide any further information to help you do so.

Kevin Gardner
Director, ASRC Structural Biology Initiative
Einstein Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The City College of New York and The Graduate Center