Microbial Pathogenesis

The ability of viruses, bacteria, and eukaryotic microbes to cause disease is a function of specific interactions between pathogenic microbes and their host organisms. MVM faculty and their laboratories focusing on microbial pathogenesis study an array of mechanisms that determine host pathogen interactions at the molecular level.  These involve:

• Host responses to microbial infections
• Mechanisms of host resistance to pathogen infection
• Microbial interactions with the host innate and acquired immune systems
• Evasion of host immune surveillance
• Mechanisms of microbial persistence
• Evolution of microbes
• Generation of resistance to antimicrobials
• Development of animal models of microbial disease
• Viral-bacterial co-infections