Department of Microbiology

Infectious diseases remain an important cause of human morbidity and mortality and with the increase in global migration of humans and animals, emerging infectious diseases constitute a growing public health threat. The mission of the Microbiology department is to carry out high quality research on the biology, transmission, immunology and pathogenesis of viruses, bacteria and parasites that cause disease.

The Microbiology Department provides the academic home for a highly interactive group of investigators whose research covers all of these areas, with particular emphasis on problems relevant to human health and disease, as well as emerging infectious diseases. Research in the department includes HIV/AIDS, insect- and rodent-borne viruses, herpes viruses, papillomaviruses, airway and gut microbes and the human microbiome. Our faculty also study many areas of immunology, particularly as it relates to infection, including T cell biology, the regulation of innate and adaptive immunity, tumor immunology and vaccine development.

In addition to our research, our mission is to train and educate graduate and medical students in microbiology. Our faculty train students pursuing their doctorate degree in various biomedical graduate studies (BGS) graduate programs, including the Microbiology, Virology and Parasitology (MVP) program in the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Group, Genomics and Computational Biology Graduate Group and the Immunology Graduate Group. There are also a large number of postdoctoral fellows in training in the department for careers in microbiology.

Department of Microbiology
Perelman School of Medicine at
the University of Pennsylvania
225 Johnson Pavilion
3610 Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6076
215-898-3888
FAX 215-898-9557
micro@mail.med.upenn.edu

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