Improving public health through better understanding of infectious diseases
The study of infectious diseases focuses on interactions between infectious agents, their hosts and the environment that may lead to disease in humans. We create opportunities for students to gain new and advanced knowledge about infectious disease agents and how they interact with host cells, human populations and the environment.
Students learn how to design and implement independent investigations using interdisciplinary approaches. The goal is to promote public health through better understanding of infectious diseases and human immunology based on the interaction of basic and translational research that contributes to the development of new diagnostics, treatment, prevention, and the control of human infectious diseases.
This wet lab infectious disease research program focuses on immune response, vaccine development and microbiome research. We emphasize integrated multidisciplinary training and multiple areas of inquiry, including the biology of host-pathogen interactions, the ecology of disease agents, molecular and cellular aspects of pathogenesis, and surveillance and epidemiological analysis, as well as vaccine and disease prevention and control.
In this multidisciplinary program, we train students to understand the interactions between infectious diseases, their hosts and the environment that may lead to the spread of disease. Topics include the biology of host-pathogen interactions, host immune response to infection, the evolution and transmission of infectious agents, and laboratory methods of infectious disease surveillance.