The Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences offers a variety of graduate degree programs. For the highly qualified student, a Ph.D. program in Microbiology is available. Also available is a thesis program leading to the M.S. as well as a non-thesis option, the Master of Professional Studies, designed for professionals who wish to upgrade their knowledge or skills.

Prerequisites for admission include a bachelor’s degree in microbiology or other biological science with undergraduate work in organic chemistry, biochemistry, mathematics, and physics.

Curricula are planned to suit the interests and needs of the individual student and to provide a strong background in microbiology and molecular biology.

Teaching and research assistantships are available in various fields of microbiology.

The Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences is housed in Hitchner Hall which is well equipped to do modern research in biochemistry, bacteriology, animal virology, molecular biology, and immunology. Equipment available for research includes preparative and analytical ultracentrifuges, liquid scintillation radioisotope counters, high speed refrigerated centrifuges, biohazard chambers, tissue culture facilities, flow cytometers, electrophoresis equipment, a gas chromatograph, phase, confocal, and fluorescent microscopes, and transmission and scanning electron microscopes. Hitcher Hall has an excellent zebrafish facility on site.  Additional facilities are available on campus for holding and breeding small animals.

The microbiology program offers diversified training at the graduate level through interdisciplinary and interdepartmental course offerings and research opportunities in cooperation with the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the School of Biology and Ecology and the School of Marine Sciences.

Graduate Faculty

Robert E. Gundersen, Ph.D. (University of Texas-Austin, 1983), Chair and Associate Professor. The role of signal transduction during growth and development in eukaryotes.

Dorothy E. Croall, Ph.D. (University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 1979) Professor. Biochemistry of proteins and enzymes with focus on calcium dependent proteases (calpains) and their diverse biological roles.

Julie A. Gosse, Ph.D. (Cornell, 2005), Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator.  Biochemical, molecular, and cellular toxicology to aid in human environmental health risk assessment.

Keith W. Hutchison, Ph.D. (Wisconsin-Madison, 1974) Professor. Genome reprogramming and gene expression in early vertebrate development.

Carol H. Kim, Ph.D. (Cornell, 1992), Professor. Viral pathogens and vaccine development in a zebrafish model system.

Melissa S. Maginnis, Ph.D. (Vanderbilt, 2007) Assistant Professor. Virus-host cell interactions that regulate JC Polyomavirus infection and pathogenesis.

Roger Sher, Ph.D. (California-Davis, 2000), Assistant Professor,   Genetics and neuromuscular degenerative diseases

John T. Singer, Ph.D. (Georgia, 1983), Professor. Molecular genetics and microbial physiology.

Rebecca J. Van Beneden, Ph.D. (The Johns Hopkins University, 1983), Professor. Molecular oncology and aquatic toxicology; the role of cellular oncogenes and tumor suppression genes in response to environmental toxicants; regulation of gene expression; molecular mechanisms of tumorigenesis in non-mammalian models.

Robert T. Wheeler, PhD (Stanford, 2000), Associate Professor. Genetics, genomics, biochemistry and cell biology of fungal pathogens with mammalian hosts.

Vivian C. Wu, Ph.D. (Kansas State, 2002), Cooperating Assistant Professor.  Food microbiology, development of rapid methods and automation.