Primary Faculty and their Research Programs
*Members of the Graduate Faculty are available as mentors to graduate students.
Host-mycoplasma interplay; Mechanisms of cytadherence; Invasion; Intracellular persistence; Molecular basis of virulence; Toxin-mediated cytopathology; Gene regulation
Host-pathogen interactions; Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, CD8+ T cell responses; apoptosis; phagocytosis, gastrointestinal infection
Cytokine and Toll-like receptor signaling; immunity to infection; Francisella tularensis; interleukin-4
Host antiviral defense mechanism: innate immune antiviral and inflammatory response against respiratory RNA viruses like human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza A virus and parainfluenza viruses; virus based anti-cancer therapeutics.
*Subramanian Dhandayuthapani, Ph.D.
Molecular basis of host-pathogen interaction; stress signaling and regulation of gene expression in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycoplasma genitalium
Bacterial host-pathogen interaction in vivo; inflammation; cytokine response; Yersinia; asthma, inflammatory T-cell responses
Control of filamentous growth and virulence in the major fungal pathogen Candida albicans; identification and characterization of novel C. albicans virulence factors; transcriptional regulation; C. albicans genomics
Pending Info
Bacterial genetics; virulence mechanisms in periodontal pathogens; transcriptional regulation; function of microbial surface layer proteins
Immunobiology; Autoimmune disease; Two-way communication between the immune system and autoimmune target tissues; Immune and muscle responses in Myasthenia Gravis
Pending Info
Use of comparative genomics to identify differences between invasive and non-invasive clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae; Identification of novel virulence determinants and assessment of their vaccine potential
Pending Info
Medical mycology; molecular mechanisms of fungal pathogenesis, mating and development in Cryptococcus neoformans, Candida albicans biofilms molecular biology, animal models of invasive aspergillosis
Poxvirus pathogenesis and immune modulation; virus-host interactions; protein structure-function
Molecular basis of Chlamydia-host interactions; Chlamydiae pneumoniae in atherosclerosis; Proteomics analysis of chlamydial hypothetical proteins; Vaccine development