The Department and the Medical School
The Department of Microbiology and Immunology has two major missions: research and teaching. Our teaching mission involves training Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows as well as providing courses in immunology and microbiology to medical students. There are usually 30 students in our graduate program. The first year class includes: Samuel Amoah, Chelsie Armbruster, and Kristie Connolly. There are currently fifteen members of the departmental faculty with research interests in the cellular, biochemical and molecular aspects of bacterial and viral pathogenesis and immunology, and cancer therapy.
The Department of Microbiology and Immunology is extremely well-equipped to conduct a wide range of research activities. In addition to shared equipment facilities within the department, faculty and students have access to equipment facilities in the Molecular Genetics Program and the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University.
The Graduate Program
The graduate program in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology provides a well-integrated curriculum designed to train students to become independent researchers in the cellular, biochemical and molecular aspects of immunology, virology, and bacteriology. The research experience of students is the main focus of the graduate training. To accomplish this, the great majority of the coursework is completed within the first academic year, enabling students to begin their dissertation projects in the subsequent summer.
Upon beginning the Ph.D. program, students participate in an orientation program that has the following objectives: 1) to insure that incoming students understand the expectations of the graduate program, 2) to develop study skills; 3) to develop expertise in effective written communication; 4) to learn how to review the scientific literature; and 5) to develop time and stress management skills. We believe that this program provides students with an outstanding foundation upon which to begin their graduate studies.
The core curriculum in the first year includes a full-year course in molecular biology, covering both eukaryotic and prokaryotic fields; a one-semester course in protein and enzyme structure and courses in bacteriology, immunology and virology.
The educational experience of students is rounded out by participation in Advanced Topics, a literature-based, discussion-oriented course in which students present and critique current research articles. In addition, students attend the weekly departmental seminar series, research conferences on immunology, bacterial pathogenesis, and virology, and a biyearly graduate student tutorial program.
The most important element in our graduate program is training students how to effectively design and conduct a research project that leads to publication in the scientific literature. It does not matter how much research you do if no one else knows about it. The quality of a person's track record of publication constitutes the main criterion by which success is measured in a research career. As evidenced by the strong publication record of our students and the quality of their subsequent career development, our program has been very successful in developing these skills in students. In large part, our success has been dependent upon the strong mentoring skills of the faculty.
Another important aspect of our graduate training is to help our students secure the best possible position at the next step in their careers, which is usually a postdoctoral fellowship. The choice of postdoctoral position is a critically important element for success, since it is usually from a postdoctoral fellowship position that our graduates seek positions as independent investigators either in the academic sector or the commercial sector. Help and advice in choosing good postdoctoral positions is a very high priority for every faculty member who serves as a mentor for our students.