Welcome Message

Welcome to the Department of Biology at New York University. We are located at NYU’s main campus in Washington Square at the heart of Greenwich Village in downtown Manhattan.

Our Department is an exceptionally collegial, vital, and interactive community of scientists, with unusually strong interactions between and amongst faculty and students. We train and educate the next generation of students and post-doctoral scientists in all aspects of career development with regard to research, teaching and service to the community at the highest levels of excellence.

Our faculty’s research programs cover a breadth of biological systems (from microbes, to plants to animals) using a variety of disciplines including Genomics & Systems Biology, Developmental Genetics, Evolutionary Genetics, Cell & Molecular Biology. An overriding theme of our department is to understand biological regulatory mechanisms and their evolution within and across species.

We currently have areas of research and educational concentration in the following topics:

Genomics & Systems Biology || Developmental Genetics || Molecular Evolution || Molecular Genetics || Microbiology & Immunology || Neurobiology || Cancer & Cell Biology || Plant Biology

The Department has grown significantly with the hiring of 10 new faculty in Genomics & Systems Biology the past 4 years, with an additional 6 recruits to follow.  A highlight of our new growth and development is the construction of the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, which draws on the complementary strengths of faculty in at NYU Biology and NYU’s Courant Institute of Math & Computer Science.  The mission of our Center is to investigate biological regulatory mechanisms and their evolution at the level of systems and networks. The intellectual platform onto which this vision rests is to reconcile the level of molecular conservation at the genome & systems level with the dramatic diversity of life.

Our research facilities include newly constructed “open-plan” “Loft” laboratories to house the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology (Brown 7 & 8) and the Center for Developmental Genetics (Brown 10). The design of these “open plan” laboratory spaces, typify the spirit of collaboration and interactions so exceptional within our Department.

The Biology Department at NYU also hosts strong collaborative research and educational programs with other NYU departments and with research partners in New York cultural & educational institutions. Collaborative science and programs cross NYU divisions include: The Courant Institute of Math and Computer Sciences, NYU Medical School/Skirball Institute, NYU Chemistry, The Center for Neural Sciences, and Anthropology. We have also formed highly successful and interactive consortia with other New York institutions specializing in Genomics and Evolution including The American Museum of Natural History, The New York Botanical Garden and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories.

In all of these activities, we feel that our spirit of collegiality and level of scientific energy in the NYU Biology Department is the reflection of the energy that is at heart of the culture and the people of New York.

We welcome you to visit our site.

Gloria Coruzzi, Chair