First Year Experience in Biochemistry

Our FYE1 and FYE2 courses are taught in the New Classroom Building. An undergraduate Peer Mentor is assigned to each first year Biochemistry student, to help with navigating the first year of studies. Our Peer Mentors attend FYE classes and hold office hours to assist all students in bettering themselves academically. 

First Year Experience 1 course (FYE1)

Biochemistry Academic Advisor, Jen Stewart, teaches our Biochem First Year Experience course (BCHM 1014). Jen has been an advisor at VT for nearly 10 years and looks forward to teaching the FYE class each fall semester. She enjoys getting to know the first-year students, helping them learn about Virginia Tech, the biochemistry major, and themselves.

Introduction to Biochemistry Research Skills

Dr. Anne Brown teaches Intro to Biochemical Research Skills, a course designed to provide a course-embedded undergraduate research experience (CURE) to freshmen students. Students work in small groups to use computational techniques like molecular docking and molecular visualization to understand the structure and function of important proteins in our society, like an opioid receptor, an antibiotic resistance protein, and an Alzheimer’s drug target. In addition to learning fundamental knowledge of protein biochemistry, students learn how to effectively function as a research group, how to design an experiment, and how to report results and communicate their science. We use research as a theme throughout the course because the tenets of research (and the professional and workforce skills associated) are useful for ANY career path of our majors.