Department of Biochemistry

New Biochemistry Department Chair

Eric J. Sundberg, PhD, has been appointed Chair of the Department of Biochemistry in the School of Medicine. He will be joining us by September 1, 2019.

Dr. Sundberg currently serves as Professor of Medicine and Co-Director of the Basic Science Division in the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. After graduating with bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry and economics from the University of Rochester, Dr. Sundberg earned his PhD in biological sciences at Northwestern University. He joined the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute as a postdoctoral fellow in 1999 and transitioned to a research faculty member there in 2002. In 2004, he started his independent research program at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute before returning to Maryland in 2011 as an associate professor.

Throughout his career, Dr. Sundberg’s work has focused on the structural biology of infection and immunity, and his research leverages expertise in structural biology, molecular biophysics and protein engineering to define the molecular bases of infectious diseases and to develop novel protein therapeutics.