About Us | Microbiology and Immunology

The special character of our department is reflected in our ability to ask and answer questions of biological & clinical relevance, the ease with which issues are addressed across disciplinary lines, and the enthusiasm with which we approach research, education, and training.

Research programs in our department form a continuum of studies ranging from immunology to DNA sequence organization; from bioinformatics to epidemiology; from pathogenic mechanisms to vaccine development. Our faculty are unified through interests in the host-microbe interface and the desire to understand the complex nature of normal and disease processes in both humans and model organisms. Molecular biology is the common language that unites our various studies. Students and postdoctoral fellows in our department are trained in this atmosphere, and become extremely competent and comfortable using the paradigms of molecular biology and genetics to probe significant biological issues relevant to prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and viruses. The research interests of the Department overlap significantly with other programs on campus, and many members of our faculty are affiliated with these programs.

We have important and close interactions with:

These various levels of integration provide an extraordinarily stimulating environment for the predoctoral students, and postdoctoral fellows.

We are at an exciting point in the fields of Microbiology and Immunology. We have powerful research tools provided by modern molecular biology, cell biology, biochemistry, genomics, and bioinformatics. As a result, we have a broad biological scope in which to operate and the ability to intensively investigate and solve many fundamental problems in the biomedical sciences.

Our Department

Bacteriology first emerged in the curriculum of Carolina’s nascent School of Medicine in 1896, when a course in pathology, which included an introduction to medical bacteriology, was introduced. In 1923, Dr. Daniel A. MacPherson joined the faculty as an instructor in bacteriology, with the charge to establish bacteriology as a separate department. This was accomplished in 1929, and inaugurated as the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology. In the 1980s the name was changed again to the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

In its over 90-year history, the Department has focused on a commitment to excellence in the teaching and training of scientists and medical practitioners. In 1984, the Department received its first NIH T32 award to develop and enhance research training opportunities for our students. Department faculty now participate in T32s with training emphasis on Virology, Microbial Pathogenesis, Sexually Transmitted Pathogens, Immunology, and Cancer. Of the doctoral candidates and postdocs who have received training from these grants, 80% continue in active, independent research careers, either in academia or industry. Because of our faculty affiliations throughout the Medical School, other schools within Health Affairs and across the campus, there are numerous opportunities for collaborations that result in joint publications between labs. As a department within the Medical School, there are opportunities to interact with physicians and to work on research projects that have the possibility of making a direct impact on human health and the practice of medicine.

Faculty laboratories are organized under one of three departmental research programs: Immunology, Microbial Interactions, and Virology. Each laboratory is headed by an independent faculty member pursuing his or her own research interests in collaboration with postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. While the laboratories are categorized under these topical research areas, there is considerable overlap of interest amongst the faculty and their individual research initiatives. This cross-fertilization of concepts, techniques, and ideas is supplemented by a regular Seminar Series as well as a Student Seminar Series in which graduate students present the results of their research efforts to faculty and other graduate students.

The goal of our graduate training program is to familiarize students with experimental approaches and methodologies of not only their chosen field of interest, but also the broad cross section of molecular biology, virology, cell biology, biochemistry, genetics, microbiology and immunology that is represented in the Department as a whole.