Biochemistry research at the University of Maryland, College Park emphasizes fundamental approaches to molecular aspects of how biological systems work. Biophysical chemistry is a particular strength, including advanced optical spectroscopy (Muñoz), NMR (Fushman), fluorescence (Kahn, Beckett), and X-ray crystallography (LaRonde-LeBlanc) Several groups work on the molecular machines involved in protein folding (Lorimer), transcription and regulation (Kahn, Beckett), and recombination (Julin). Chemical biology and bioorganic chemistry benefit from the environment of a chemistry department, with active research in enzymology (Gerratana, Rokita), nucleic acid biochemistry (Rokita, Kahn), synthetic biology (Cropp), and proteomics (Fenselau). Most projects are carried out by one or a few graduate students, undergraduates, and postdocs, so there is constant contact among faculty and students. Biochemistry groups benefit from connections with many other programs on campus, including Biophysics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Bioengineering.