Trainers
The doctoral program in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology originated in 1893 as the first medical science degree granting program at Columbia University. It continues to provides predoctoral trainees with a unique opportunity to obtain individualized training across a broad spectrum of cutting-edge research in microbiology and immunology, including immune system regulation, immune determinants of host-pathogen interactions, microbial growth and survival, and molecular determinants of microbial pathogenesis. The excellent institutional support of our doctoral program includes internationally renowned research faculty that act as graduate trainers, such as Dr. Sankar Ghosh, Chair of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Dr. David Ho, Director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, Dr. Megan Sykes, Director of the Columbia Center for Translational Immunology, Dr. Ricardo Dalla-Favera, Director of the Institute for Cancer Genetics, and Dr. Steven Reiner, Professor of Microbiology & Immunology and Pediatrics. These trainers, together with other superb recruits, add to our existing strengths in microbiology and immunology to create an exceptional training faculty based in – but not limited to – the Department of Microbiology & Immunology.
The following faculty members act as graduate trainers for the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. The research interests of our trainers spans a broad spectrum of basic and applied research including transplantation tolerance, dendritic cell differentation, somatic hypermutation, immunological dysregulation leading to lymphomas, microbial cell division and exit from dormancy, malaria parasite chemotherapy and drug resistance, and disease-causing DNA damage and its repair pathways. Our trainers' outstanding research productivity is evidenced by their publication of over 60 articles in Cell, Science, Nature or Immunity journals since January 2011.
