Training Faculty for Microbiology (MIC)

Program Directors: Thomas M. Moran, Ph.D, Domenico Tortorella, Ph.D..
Steering Committee: Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, Ph.D, Mary Klotman, M.D., Thomas Moran, Ph.D., Peter Palese, Ph.D., Lu-Hai Wang, Ph.D.

This program provides research training in areas such as antivirals, autoimmune disease, bacterial genetics, environmental microbiology, gene therapy, immunology, molecular virology, oncogenesis (cellular/viral), nucleic acid technology, signal transduction, and vaccine development.

Training Faculty

• Christopher F. Basler, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Molecular determinants of virulence of emerging viruses, including Ebola virus, Nipah virus and pandemic influenza virus
  
• Andrea D. Branch, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research; Clinical Research
  Research: Molecular biology, pathogenesis, and treatment of the hepatitis C virus (HCV); development and application of novel bioinformatics tools for detecting cryptic genes and regulatory elements, with a special emphasis on infectious RNAs
  
• Benjamin K. Chen, M.D.,Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: HIV-1, virus-host interactions, assembly, membrane protein interactions, RNA-Gag interactions, functional cloning, mouse model for lentiviral infection
  
• Shu-Hsia Chen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Gene and Cell Medicine
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Cancer Immunology, immune modulated cancer therapy
  
• Simon Daefler, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Cell and system biology of host-pathogen interactions in infections with intracellular bacterial pathogens
  
• Matthew Evans, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Host cell entry focusing on hepatitis C virus and other viruses.
  
• Ana Fernandez-Sesma, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research; Translational Research
  Research: Mechanisms of evasion of immunity by dengue and influenza viruses; human immunology in viral infections. Generation of recombinant viruses.
  
• Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Microbiology
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Molecular Biology of RNA viruses
  
• Gabriele L. Gusella, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine (Nephrology)
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Molecular mechanisms of renal cystogenesis
  
• Mary E. Klotman, M.D., Professor, Department of Medicine
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research; Clinical Research
  Research: Molecular pathogenesis and therapy of HIV
  
• Carolina Lopez, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Host-pathogen interactions; viral immunology
  
• Lloyd F. Mayer, M.D., Professor, Center for Immunobiology
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research; Clinical Research
  Research: Regulation of mucosal immune responses; antigen presentation by intestinal epithelial cells
  
• Thomas M. Moran, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Microbiology
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Immune response to virus infection Viruses used: -Influenza, Newcastle Disease, and Sendai Models used: -mouse (in vivo, in-vitro, and ex-vivo) -human (in-vitro) cells isolated from human donors Cell types currently studied: -PBMCs, Monocytes, Dendritic cells, (cDCs & mDCs) Topics of interest: Effect of cytokine release on: -inflammation -trafficking Study of In VItro Immune response of cells isolated from pregnant donors to various laboratory viruses
  
• Peter Palese, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Microbiology
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Host-virus interactions; vaccines and antivirals; virulence factors of RNA viruses
  
• Megan Shaw, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Requirement of host factors for virus replication and pathogenesis
  
• Viviana Simon, M.D., PH.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: HIV pathogenesis and host-virus interactions
  
• Benjamin tenOever, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Host-pathogen interactions; virus-induced cell signaling
  
• Adrian T. Ting, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research; Translational Research
  Research: Antiviral immune response; signal transduction in cell survival and cell death; molecular mechanisms of inflammation
  
• Domenico Tortorella, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Viral subversion of the adaptive branch of the immune system
  
• Lu-Hai Wang, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Microbiology
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Oncogenes; cell transformation and signal transduction of receptor tyrosine kinases; molecular basis for oncogenesis and targets for cancer therapy
  
• Thomas Weber, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Gene and Cell Medicine
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research
  Research: Adeno-associated virus biology and Gene Therapy
  
• James G. Wetmur, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Microbiology
  Type(s) of Research: Basic Science Research; Clinical Research
  Research: Molecular epidemiology; technology development for genomics and proteomics