Welcome to The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Graduate Program in Microbiology & Molecular Genetics. In the setting of the Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest and most dynamic research center, our Program draws its faculty from The University of Texas at Houston Medical School, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and The Texas A&M University Institute for Biosciences and Technology.

Our program faculty are internationally recognized leaders in their respective fields. We share a high degree of commitment to graduate education and have diverse research interests. Each of the laboratories is well-funded with research grants and equipped with everything necessary to offer state-of-the-art training opportunities. Our students are assured financial aid in the form of Graduate Research Assistantships. We strive to provide courses that convey both the fundamentals and latest developments in the broadly defined areas of microbiology and molecular genetics. Beyond the classroom, we have numerous forums to keep abreast of the latest discoveries and to stimulate scientific discourse among students and faculty. These include weekly seminars by visiting scientists, student and faculty colloquia, and a variety of departmental and student journal clubs. All of these factors have led to a consistently high ranking among microbiology and molecular genetics graduate programs and departments.

In the past two decades the biological sciences have undergone a revolution of unprecedented scale. This revolution, fueled in large part through studies in microbiology, is fast reshaping the way in which scientists are approaching the myriad of biomedical and environmental issues confronting our society today. Our program faculty explore questions relevant to the following areas of modern microbiology:

FUNDAMENTAL LIFE PROCESSES
Many genes and their activities are conserved among bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes. Our faculty exploit the many practical advantages of microbes to perform detailed mechanistic studies of a wide array of fundamental biological phenomena. These include gene expression, cell division, membrane biogenesis, macromolecular transport, multicellular development, and cellular differentiation. At the very core of research activities in our program is the characterization of signal transduction pathways and regulatory networks linking cellular or extracellular signals to behavioral responses via modulation of transcriptional or posttranscriptional events.

MICROBIAL PATHOGENESIS
Understanding virulence mechanisms is a major arm of medical research. Our faculty apply modern molecular genetic and biochemical technologies to understand the basis for infectious disease. Emphasis is placed on identifying and characterizing regulatory networks controlling virulence gene expression, mechanisms for dissemination of antibiotic resistance, virulence factor structure and function, and the pathogen - host cell interaction.

MICROBIAL GENOMICS
The availability of entire microbial genome sequences is supporting basic and applied research in exciting new directions. In the last several years, the complete DNA sequences of more than 150 microorganisms have been determined, and efforts on over 400 more are ongoing. This vast amount of new information will impact future research on microbes as well as higher organisms. Our faculty are actively exploring new ways to generate, access, and exploit the genome in studies of microbial virulence mechanisms and other fundamental biological processes.

Download the description of the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics program from Peterson's guide.

UT-Houston Medical School • Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
6431 Fannin Street • Houston, Texas 77030 or P.O. Box 20708 • Houston, Texas 77225
Phone: 713-500-5500 • Fax: 713-500-5499 • Email: microbiology@uth.tmc.edu

last updated May 10, 2004 by webmaster