The substantial growth of biophysics as an active field of research in the Houston area can be traced back to the expansion of biochemistry in this academic community. Although biochemistry was an active discipline in the Houston area prior to 1970, several developments took place at that time which led to substantial increase in the size and competence of the biochemical community. These developments included (i) establishment of the Biochemistry Department of Rice University in 1972, with support from Rice University and from the National Institutes of Health via a Health Science Advancement Award; (ii) the appointment in 1971 of Professor Salih Wakil as chair of Biochemistry at Baylor College of Medicine with the subsequent expansion of that department; and (iii) the formation of the University of Texas Health Science Center with its associated Biochemistry Department in 1971. Subsequently, the University of Houston recruited J.A. McCammon, who led the rapid growth of computational biology at that institution culminating in the establishment of the Center for Molecular Design.

An important consequence of these developments was that the number of faculty with biophysical training increased substantially and this growth in biophysical competence has continued. The recognition that there was a wealth of biophysical expertise in the community led to the formation, in 1987, of the Houston Area Molecular Biophysics Program (HAMBP) with ten faculty members representing the four institutions mentioned above. This program was awarded a NIH training grant that became effective in October of 1988; this grant provided stipends, tuitions and fees for students.  Since then, there has been additional growth in biophysics in Houston; as the Gulf Coast Consortia was formed in 2001, HAMBP added two additional institutions to our ranks:  University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston.

As will be apparent from the biographical sketches and description of their research interests, all of these individuals have the resources, training and research interests to function as outstanding training faculty for this program and, between them, reflect the many enhancements which have occurred in the biophysical sciences in Houston.

These include both the addition of highly qualified individuals to the faculty of the individual institutions and, most notably, the availability of other complementary collaborative programs such as the Keck Center for Computa­tional and Structural Biology, the John S. Dunn, Sr. GCC for Magnetic Resonance and the Gulf Coast Consortium for Protein Crystallography.   The contributions of the Keck Foundation have been of particular significance as they have provided more than two million dollars for the acquisition of instrumentation in the areas of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, x-ray crystallography and computing. These acquisitions have had a significant impact on the quality of the resources available to the trainees of this program. The program now described is an extension of our previous program and serves as the focal point for bio­physical research and training in the Houston area. The fact that we are able to enhance our faculty with individ­uals as qualified as those listed, and the breadth and vigor of inter-laboratory interaction to be documented shortly make it clear that this training program fulfills a very real need in Houston. No training program operates in iso­lation and independently of the broader scientific community and the developments that derive from this program automatically impact the students, postgraduate researchers and faculty in all the institutions.

History of HAMBP

The substantial growth of biophysics as an active field of research in the Houston area can be traced back to the expansion of biochemistry in this academic community. Although biochemistry was an active discipline in the Houston area prior to 1970 several developments took place at that time which led to substantial increase in the size and competence of the biochemical community. These developments included (i) establishment of the Biochemistry Department of Rice University in 1972, with support from Rice University and from the National Institutes of Health via a Health Science Advancement Award; (ii) the appointment in 1971 of Professor Salih Wakil as chair of Biochemistry at Baylor College of Medicine with the subsequent expansion of that department; and (iii) the formation of the University of Texas Health Science Center with its associated Biochemistry Department in 1971. Subsequently the University of Houston recruited J.A. McCammon which led to the rapid growth of computational biology at that institution culminating in the establishment of the Center for Molecular Design.

An important consequence of these developments was that the number of faculty with biophysical training increased substantially and this growth in biophysical competence has continued. The recognition that there was a wealth of biophysical expertise in the community led to the formation, in 1987, of the Houston Area Molecular Biophysics Program (HAMBP) with ten faculty representing the four institutions mentioned above. This program was awarded a NIH training grant which became effective in October of 1988; this grant provided stipends for 5 trainees. Since then there has been additional growth in biophysics in Houston with the consequence that additional faculty were added leading to a total faculty of 19. Six faculty are from Rice University, 6 from Baylor College of Medicine, 4 from the University of Houston and 3 from the University of Texas.

As will be apparent from the biographical sketches and description of their research interests. All of these individuals have the resources, training and research interests to function as outstanding training faculty for this program and between them reflect the many enhancements which have occurred in the biophysical sciences in Houston.

These include both the addition of highly qualified individuals to the faculty of the individual institutions and the availability of complementary programs such as the Keck Center for Computational Biology (Rice University & Baylor College of Medicine) and the Keck Laboratory for X-ray crystallography (University of Houston). The contributions of the Keck Foundation have been of particular significance having provided more than two million dollars for the acquisition of instrumentation in the areas of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, x-ray crystallography and computing. These acquisitions have had a significant impact on the quality of the resources available to the trainees of this program. The program now described is an extension of our previous program and serves as the focal point for biophysical research and training in the Houston area. The fact that we are able to enhance our faculty with individuals as qualified as those listed, and the breadth and vigor of inter-laboratory interaction to be documented shortly make it clear that this training program fulfills a very real need in Houston. No training program operates in isolation and independently of the broader scientific community and the developments that derive from this program automatically impact the students, postgraduate researchers and faculty in all the institutions.