Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Box G-B6, Providence, RI 02912
Phone: (401) 863-9585

The Department of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology (MMI) supports undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral education by providing an exciting and modern research environment focused on understanding infectious disease. The department's overall mission is to maintain an active and integrated research program for studying the interactions between pathogenic microorganisms and their hosts. We foster collaborative studies within the department as well as with faculty in other departments, both on campus and hospital-based. We provide instruction and a nurturing environment for undergraduate, graduate, and medical students in the areas of microbiology and immunology. MMI's instruction includes lecture courses, seminar courses, and laboratory research (both undergraduate independent study and graduate thesis). Specialty areas of our faculty's research include; molecular virology and parasitology, bacterial pathogenesis, innate and adaptive immune responses to pathogens, cancer immunity, and signal transduction. State-of-the art core facilities in genetics, genomics, proteomics, flow cytometry, and structural biology are all utilized extensively by faculty and students in MMI.

Courses - 2007-08

BIOL 0180 - The Biology of Aids
BIOL 0510 - Introductory Microbiology
BIOL 0530 - Principles of Immunology
BIOL 1520 - Innate Immunity
BIOL 1550 - Biology of Emerging
Microbial Disease

BIOL 1560 - Virology
BIOL 1570 - Signal Transduction
BIOL (MED I) - Medical Microbiology
BIOL 1600 - Development of Vaccines to Infectious Diseases
BIOL 2640B - Microbial Pathogenesis

Faculty - Who We Are and What We Do

Richard Bennett, PhD, Assistant Professor. The biology of the human pathogen Candida albicans.

Christine Biron, PhD, Professor. Viral immunity; innate cellular and cytokine responses.

Richard Bungiro, PhD, Lecturer.

Laurent Brossay, PhD, Associate Professor. NK receptors on NK and NK T cells.

Andrew G. Campbell, PhD, Associate Professor. Roles of RNases in protozoal and viral replication, and nucleic acid metabolism.

Wen-Ming Chu, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor. Signal transduction networks in host-pathogen interactions and apoptosis.

Thais P. Salazar-Mather, PhD, Assistant Professor. Cytokine/chemokine-mediated mechanisms of inflammatory cell trafficking for localized antiviral defenses.

Peter R. Shank, PhD, Professor. Retroviruses; HIV; AIDS-lymphomas.

Recent Student Projects

  • CD4-Independent mechanisms of HIV-1 infection in B-cells and Glial cells.
  • Examining the role of the Argo protein in the lifecycle of the JC virus.
  • Pursuite of meiosis in Candida albicans.
  • Malaria in an invasive lizard host.
  • The role of autophagy in dendritic cell induction of adaptiive T-cell responses to Toxoplasma gondii.
  • Investigating the immuno-regulatory role of natural killer T-cells during the adaptive immune response to MCMV.
  • Ku 70 and Ku 80 are required for activation of macrophages and dendritic cells by immunostimulary CPG DNA.
  • Investigate how complement and T-cells enteract to enhance the immune response.
  • Regulation of localized inflammatory responses through CD-8 T-lymphocyte and chemokine interactions.
  • Impact of autophagy on innate recognition of toxoplasma gondii in Primia macrophages.
  • Mechanisms that influence proper left-right asymmetry in the brain and heart from within the Dorsal forerunner cells.
  • Characterization of T-lymphocyte regulatio of chemokine bioavailability during murine cytomegalovirus infection.