Students interested in the Molecular Pathology and Immunology Program enter the program after they participate in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (IGP) in the Biomedical Sciences. Molecular pathology and immunology occupies a unique niche among the biomedical sciences in that it bridges the basic science and translational disciplines. It seeks to determine the mechanism and etiology of disease, to study the agents and conditions that cause disease, and to elucidate the steps in the transformation of a normal tissue or process into an abnormal one, with an emphasis on inflammation and immunology. Students of pathology and immunology are ideally positioned to influence the conceptual and methodologic transfer of advances in the basic biological sciences to the alleviation of disease and the maintenance of health.
The program in molecular pathology and immunology leading to the Ph.D. degree is designed to prepare students for careers in biomedical sciences. The program focuses on research, but students from the program find positions in many biomedical science fields.
The research interests of the faculty include vascular biology and biochemistry, tumor biology, the immune response, inflammation and repair, the biology of the extracellular matrix in response to disease processes, the pathogenesis of infectious agents, and the regulation of gene expression in disease. The department is fully equipped with modern research training facilities and provides close faculty mentoring through a high faculty-to-student ratio.