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Microbiology & Immunology
Microbiology and immunology research and training in the MCDB Department focuses on the study of mechanisms of regulation of gene expression and function in microorganisms including bacteria and ciliates, cultured animal cells, and animal models of infectious disease. Host interactions with microbial and viral pathogens, the molecular bases of pathogenesis, and mechanisms of innate and adaptive immunity that confer protection from infectious disease are some of the areas of investigation by MCDB faculty and their students and postgraduate fellows. Interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches spanning biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, genomics and bioinformatics are utilized in studies of microbiological processes and structures with potential applications that include disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
Faculty
James Cooper
Molecular cell biology of plant-microbe symbiosis, structure and function of plant cell walls, bioinformatics of tandem repeat proteins.
Anthony De Tomaso
Molecular mechanisms of self/non-self recognition in non-vertebrates; characterization of stem cells and development processes underlying regeneration and aging.
David Low
Cellular communication between bacteria, including mechanisms and biology of contact-dependent growth inhibition; epigenetic gene regulatory mechanisms.
Michael J. Mahan
Microbial pathogenesis; innate and adaptive immune responses to infection; vaccine development.
Jamey Marth
Nanomedicine in Biomedical Discovery, Diagnosis, and Therapeutics that Target the Molecular and Cellular Origins of Disease.
Daniel E. Morse
Bio-inspired catalytic nanofabrication, tunable photonic materials and dynamic self-assembly. Applications to semiconductors, high-power batteries, electro-optics, IR and solar energy.
Eduardo Orias
Tetrahymena genetics and genomics; genetic, physical and sequence mapping of the germline and expressed genomes of the unicellular eukaryote, Tetrahymena thermophila.
Charles E. Samuel
Antiviral innate immunity and interferon action, with focus on the roles of double-stranded RNA in translational control by the PKR kinase and A-to-I RNA editing by the ADAR1 deaminase.