Microbes, Immunity and Inflammation | Biomedical and Molecular Sciences | School of Medicine

Research in this field focuses on fundamental questions at the cellular and molecular level involving viral and bacterial organisms and the immune system. Research areas include pathogenic and nonpathogenic organisms, inflammatory responses associated with infection, allergies, asthma, inflammatory bowel diseases, cancer and cardiovascular disease, and advances in therapeutic strategies including drug and vaccine development.

Faculty

B. Banfield: Molecular characterization/analysis of viral proteins important in signal transduction in herpes simplex virus, varicella-zoster virus and pseudorabies virus

S. Basta: Virus-host interactions, focusing on the immunobiology of antigen presenting cells

M. G. Blennerhassett: Effects of inflammation on the nerve-smooth muscle relationship of the intestine

I. Brockhausen: Biochemical mechanisms underlying diseases such as inflammation, infections and cancer.

E. B. Carstens: (Retired - no longer accepting new students) Cellular and molecular biology of baculovirus replication, including function and interaction of virus and host cell proteins in virus replication

C. Colpitts: Virus-host interactions and innate immune evasion by positive-sense RNA viruses

A. Daugulis: Cell culture engineering, protein expression, partitioning bioreactors for biosynthesis and bioremediation, bioprocess development, modeling and simulation of bioreactors

A. Ellis: Allergic diseases

K. Gee: Cytokine expression and function regulation during infection and inflammation

N. Ghasemlou: Immune response to nervous system injury and disease

K. F. Jarrell: The unique flagella of methanogenic archaea, from physiological, ultrastructural and genetic aspects

C. Lohans: Antibiotic resistance, focusing on beta-lactam antibiotics and beta-lactamases

A. Majury: Respiratory viral infections, pandemic influenza, environmental microbiology, epidemiology, zoonotic diseases and public health

N. L. Martin: Understanding how Salmonella typhimurium, a common cause of food poisoning, senses and adapts to changes in environments relevant to infection

J. Martinez-Cajas: Optimization of HIV treatment and better, earlier detection of HIV infection and resistance

E. O. Petrof: Probiotics, microbial-epithelial cell interactions in the gut, and the effects of intestinal bacteria on inflammation

R. K. Poole: Bacterial multidrug efflux pumps and their role in antibiotic and biocide resistance and treatment failure. Role of iron transport in the pathogenesis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

L. Raptis: Signal transduction in cell transformation and adipocytic differentiation

M. Szewczuk: Role of Toll-like receptors in inflammation and infection

V. Walker: Stress genes and the molecular basis of resistance

W. Wobeser: HIV and epidemiologic studies of Tuberculosis