Objectives

The Molecular Microbiology Graduate Program emphasizes an integrated approach to the study of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. A universal major focus of the research of many faculty members of the Molecular Microbiology Graduate Program is the study of medically relevant bacteria and viruses and the ways these pathogens interact with respective hosts to cause disease. For many research programs, interdisciplinary approaches are employed to analyze various interesting aspects of the biology of these important pathogens. Overall, this Program is dedicated to providing a superior level of training in biomedical research strategies and technologies related to the major principles of molecular microbiology.

The major emphases of studies in the Molecular Microbiology Graduate Program include:

• Bacterial Pathogenesis: Analysis of virulence and colonization factors, bacterial toxins, interactions of pathogens and their products with eukaryotic host cells, contemporary vaccine strategies, bacterial gene regulation, bacterial export and secretion, and genetic regulation of virulence gene expression.
• Virology: Viral replication and persistence, viral pathogenesis, neurovirology, host resistance to viral infection, viral vaccines, eukaryotic gene regulation, signal transduction pathways, and cellular and molecular mechanisms of human oncogenesis.
• Cellular and Molecular Immunology: Mechanisms of immune cell activation by microbes and their products, host responses to pathogen infection, role of commensal bacteria in modulation of immune responses and infection, mechanisms of inflammation, tumor immunology, mechanisms of innate immune responses, and functions of T-cell subsets.