Overview

Graduate work in the Infectious Disease Concentration Area includes research at the molecular and cellular level in bacteriology, parasitology, and virology, as well as investigations of the host immune response to these agents. Programs focus on etiology, pathogenesis, diagnostic development, vaccine development, and antimicrobial therapies. Programs also focus on gene regulation and host-pathogen interactions that influence pathogenesis. Research approaches employ a wide variety of molecular, biochemical, pharmacological, and microscopic techniques, utilizing cell culture and whole organisms. Students selecting Infectious Disease will focus on one or more of these areas.

A highly individualized curriculum of study is designed to meet the needs and interests of the student while satisfying selected requirements by the faculty. These include graduate level cell biology and biochemistry, as well as graduate level courses relating to the specific discipline chosen (bacteriology, parasitology, or virology). Additional courses may be chosen by the student and his/her advisor from a large number of college and university offerings.

Students entering the Ph.D. program having completed courses equivalent to the required courses may, with the consent of their thesis committee, petition the concentration area Graduate Committee to waive these requirements.

COURSES REQUIRED FOR THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES CONCENTRATION

CBS 810 Seminar in Infectious Diseases (1 credit; minimum 3 credits total for doctoral students; minimum 2 credits total for master’s students)

 ELECTIVE COURSES

Elective courses are selected by the student and mentor, and must be approved by the student’s graduate advisory committee. Possible elective course include, but are not limited to, the following:

BIOCHEMISTRY

BCH 701 Macromolecular Structure; Fall (3 credits)

BCH 703 Macromolecular Synthesis and Regulation; Fall (3 credits)

MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY

MB 714 Microbial Metabolic Regulation; Fall (3 credits)

MB 718 Introductory Virology; Fall alternate odd years (3 credits)

MB/IMM 751 Immunology; Spring (3 credits)

IMM/TOX 705 Immunotoxicology; Spring (2 credits)

IMM/CBS 755 Immunoparasitology; Spring alternate years (2 credits)

IMM/PO 757 Comparative Immunology; Spring alternate odd years (3 credits)

IMM/CBS/MB 783 Adv. Immunology; Fall alternate years (3 credits)

IMM/CBS 816 Adv. Topics in Immunology; Fall and Spring (1 credits)

COMPARATIVE BIOMDEICAL SCIENCES

CBS 770 Cell Biology; Spring (3 credits)

CBS 771 Cancer Biology; Fall (4 credits)

CBS 774 Epidemiol. of Inf. Dis. of International Importance; Fall alternate years

MOLECULAR AND CELL BIOLOGY

GN 701 Molecular Genetics; Fall (3 credits)

GN 702 Cellular and Developmental Genetics; Spring (3 credits)

GN 750 Developmental Genetics; Spring alternate years (3 credits)

GN/ST 756 Computations Molecular Evolution; Fall alternate years (3 credits)

GN/MB 758 Microbial Genetics & Genomics; Spring (3 credits)

GN/BCH 761 Adv. Molecular Biology of the Cell; Spring alternate years (3 credits)

GN/BCH 768 Nucleic Acids: Structure and Function; Spring alternate years (3 credits)

GN 810-xxx Special Topics in Genetics; Fall and Spring (1-6 credits)

BCH 705 Molecular Biology of the Cell; Spring (3 credits)

STATISTICS

ST 501 Fundamentals of Statistical Inference I; Fall & Summer (3 credits)

ST 701 Statistical Theory I; Fall (3 credits)

TECHNIQUES

BIT 815 Advanced Topics In Biotechnology; Summer (1-6 credits)

Participating Faculty

Name	Email	Primary Concentration	Other Concentrations	Research Emphasis
Adam Birkenheuer	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Immunology	General Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease
Amit Sharma	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Immunology	The central theme of my research program is to study permissive and restrictive virus-host interactions that govern cross-species viral transmission and exploit such interactions for treatment and prevention research.
Barbara Qurollo	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases		Dr. Qurollo's research efforts are focused on vector-borne disease in wildlife and companion animals and improved methods of detecting disease across wildlife, pets, domesticated animals and humans.
Ben Callahan	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Population Medicine	Microbiome methods in health and disease
Casey Theriot	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases		Study the interactions between the gut microbiota, host, and pathogen C. difficile
Craig Harms	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases		Spontaneous Animal Disease Models
Ed Breitschwerdt	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Immunology	Our transnational research is focused on generating improvements in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of vector borne zoonotic infectious diseases, with a particular focus on the genus Bartonella.
Elisa Crisci	[email protected]	Population Health and Pathobiology	Infectious Disease	Crisci lab studies the interactions between respiratory viruses and innate immunity
Frank Scholle	[email protected]	Infectious Disease	Immunology	Viral Immunology
Glen Almond	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Population Medicine and Global Health	Porcine production and infectious diseases.
Isabel Gimeno	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Population Medicine, Immunology	Tumor viral diseases in poultry and development of the chicken immune system
James Bonner	[email protected]	Cell Biology	Toxicology	Our goal is to explore and investigate mechanisms of environmental lung diseases (asthma, fibrosis, cancer) caused by emerging toxicants that pose a threat to human health and the environment.
Jeff Yoder	[email protected]	Immunology	Infectious Disease, Cell Biology	We study the evolution of immune receptors and PFAS immunotoxicology.
Jody Gookin	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Cell Biology	Host-pathogen Interactions in the Gut
Juliana Bonin Ferreira	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Population Medicine
Katarsyna Dembek	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases		Endocrine dysfunctions in foals with septicemia with the long-term goal of identifying potential novel therapeutics for horses and other species.
Lauren Schnabel	[email protected]	Cell Biology	Immunology, Infectious Disease	The Schnabel Laboratory focuses on the use of regenerative and biologic therapies for the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries.
Ricardo Maggi	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Population and Global Health	Molecular microbiology of vector borne diseases and intracellular pathogens in animals and humans.
Manuel Kleiner	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases		We study interactions between the intestinal microbiota and different dietary components using high-resolution mass spectrometry based approaches.
Matthew Koci	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Immunology	Matt Koci's research program focuses on host-microbe interactions and understanding how the host recognizes, responds to, eliminates, and ultimately develops resistance to pathogens.
Megan Jacob	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases		Antimicrobial resistance and public health microbiology
Josh Fletcher	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases		The Fletcher lab uses classic bacterial genetics in combination with multi-omics approaches to analyze in vitro and in vivo models of the bacterial pathogenesis and interactions with the microbiota. We study how nutrient acquisition/utilization and microbial interactions influence bacterial physiology in the context of health and disease.
Michael Rahe	[email protected]	Immunology		Michael Rahe's research focuses on the pathology and adaptive immune response to viral infections of livestock.
Michael Sikes	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Immunology	Lymphocyte development and differentiation
Petra Bizikova	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Immunology	Autoimmune and allergic skin disease of small animals
Ravi Kulkarni	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Immunology	The Kulkarni laboratory focuses on studying ‘host-microbe interaction’ with a focus in the areas of immunology, microbiology, Probiotics and vaccines that are crafted into on three major research programs: improving gut health, viral immunology, and Precision Health Technologies.
Rocio Crespo	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Immunology, Population Medicine	Conducting applied research on poultry health and production
Sid Thakur	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Population Medicine	Antimicrobial resistance and One Health
Tal Ben-Horin	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Pathology	Research in my lab focuses on the ecology and epidemiology of infectious diseases in coastal marine ecosystems.
Tobias Kaeser	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Immunology	The Kaeser lab studies the adaptive immune response in pigs and uses it as a biomedical animal model for chlamydia infections and food allergy
Xinxia Peng	[email protected]	Infectious Diseases	Immunology	systems analysis of host-microbiome-pathogen interactions
Yogesh Saini	[email protected]	Immunology	Cell Biology, Infectious Disease, Pathology, Pharmacology	Effect of environmental toxins on the lungs and liver