The Ohio State Biochemistry Program was first formed in 1983 to combine the graduate faculty resources of the Department of Biochemistry (College of Biological Sciences), the Department of Physiological Chemistry (College of Medicine), and the Department of Chemistry (College of Mathematical & Physical Sciences), at the direction of the Provost. In 1988, the program was re-organized according to a set of principles set forth by the Dean of the Graduate School, and a Charter based on those principles was ratified in 1990. The reorganization opened the program to biochemists from across the university. In 1996, an Ohio Board of Regents review of all biomedical programs in the state affirmed OSBP as the sole mechanism for integration of biochemical graduate training at OSU, effectively merging the departmental graduate programs from the Department of Biochemistry and Department of Medical Biochemistry into OSBP. In 1998, an administrative reorganization of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs shifted the oversight of the program from the Graduate School to the Council of Life Sciences Deans, and the program operated this way for over a decade.
In 2009, the program faculty altered the charter to shift greater responsibility to the Department of Biochemistry, the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry, and the Department of Chemistry in appointing the director and managing the program. In 2010, the Colleges of Biological Sciences and Mathematical & Physical Sciences were integrated into the re-unified College of Arts & Sciences, and in 2012, the Department of Biochemistry and the Department of Chemistry merged into a single department. At the same time, in 2008, the Graduate School’s doctoral program assessment resulted in the formation of a Task Force on the Life Sciences, and their 2009 report recommended the formation of the Life Sciences Network as an umbrella administrative structure for the interdisciplinary graduate programs through the Graduate School. The LSN was implemented in the fall of 2011. In 2015, the administration of the program was returned to the Graduate School directly. Also, Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry merged with Pharmacology to form the Department of Biological Chemistry & Pharmacology.
Today, OSBP is administered through the Graduate School. It is cooperatively managed by its faculty, with the Director of the program selected by the Chairs of the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the Department of Biological Chemistry & Pharmacology, and those two departments contribute faculty to all of the standing departments that run the program.
Program directors for OSBP have included:
- Charles Bell, Biological Chemistry & Pharmacology, 2020-present
- Jane E. Jackman, Chemistry & Biochemistry, 2017-2020
- Thomas J. Magliery, Chemistry & Biochemistry, 2013-2017
- Michael Ibba, Microbiology, 2012-2013
- Jill Rafael-Fortney, Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry, 2009-2012
- Ross Dalbey, Chemistry, 2004-2009
- Donald Dean, Biochemistry, 2001-2004
- Russ Hille, Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry, 1998-2001
- Robert Brueggemeier, Pharmacy, 1994-1998
- Ron W. Trewyn, 1989-1991, 1993-1994