Microbiology (PhD)

The Graduate Program in Microbiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is a Ph.D. program that prepares students to contribute to an understanding of microbial species, including archaea, bacteria, fungi, helminths, protozoa, and viruses, and their positive and negative roles in the health of humans. Despite progress and breakthroughs in public health, vaccination, therapeutics, and antibiotics, there are many ongoing and emerging challenges in the prevention and treatment of infectious disease.

As we continue to learn about the complex populations of organisms that surround us and colonize us rigorous training of future young investigators in microbiology will continue to be essential to human health. The principle aim of the Graduate Program in Microbiology is to help produce the next generation of microbiologists to address unsolved and arising questions in basic and translational microbiology research.

The Graduate Program in Microbiology provides advanced training and education for students with the desire and ability to thrive in a stimulating, research-oriented graduate program leading to careers in science in the academic, governmental, or private sectors. Close individual attention is given by the faculty to the needs and training of each graduate student.

The Microbiology Program faculty includes members of the Departments of Immunology and Microbiology, Medicine, Neurology, Pediatrics, and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. Faculty research interests include molecular mechanisms of bacterial and viral pathogenesis, the molecular biology of microbial gene expression, pathogen-host interactions, innate and adaptive immune responses to infection, mechanisms of immune evasion, the role of the microbiome in health and disease, structural biology, and development of novel therapeutics and vaccines.