Research and education in the Allergy,
Immunology and Infectious Diseases (AIID) concentration in the PhD Program in
Integrated Biomedical Sciences is focused on interdisciplinary approaches to
the study of how microbes interact with the host to cause disease and how the
immune system responds to allergens, infection and neoplasms. Students in the
program are currently pursuing research projects in areas including emerging
infectious diseases, bacterial pathogenesis, cancer immunotherapy, microbial
drug resistance, malaria, Lyme disease, Clostridium difficile
infections, regulation of immunity and inflammation, oncogenic viruses and
respiratory viruses in acute and chronic diseases. The mission of our program
is to promote and foster outstanding research by facilitating increasing
collaboration between researchers within the Morsani College of Medicine and
beyond, thus improving the health and life of patients.
Courses
The curriculum for the PhD in Medical Sciences can be found in the Graduate Catalog. A sample of courses offered within the Allergy, Immunology, and Infectious Diseases concentration is listed below.
- Foundations in Medical Microbiology and Immunology
- Molecular and Cellular Immunology
- Structural Biology
- Methods in Molecular Medicine
- Advances in Virology
- Vaccines and Applied Immunology
- Microbial Pathogenesis and Host-Parasite Interactions
- Supervised Teaching
- Medical Parasitology and Mycology
Graduate Catalog
Faculty & Research
Current research interests include:
- Immune
Regulation
- HIV
- Viral
Infections
- Environmental
Pollution and Lung Disease
- Arthritis
& Inflammation
- Emerging
Infectious Diseases
- Lyme
disease
- Clostridium
difficile infections
- Biofilm
formation by Bartonella henselae
- Neuroimmunology
Learn more about our faculty and their research interests here.
Affiliated Institutes & Facilities
USF Health Byrd Alzheimer's Institute
Florida Infectious Disease Center
Diabetes Center
Concentration Spotlights
In the News
Awards
PhD student Helena Hernandez-Cuervo was awarded the Best Poster in the Field of Student Basic Sciences, Doctoral Student Research at USF Health Research Day 2020.
2019 - Udoka Okaro graduated and received a Chemical & Biological Defense Fellowship funded through the NRC Research Associate Program. She will be conducting research at the US Army Medical Research Institute in Maryland.
2019 - Ishani Wickramage was selected to participate in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Travel Award for Scientists from Low & Low-Middle Income Countries at the American Society for Microbiology Meeting in San Francisco in June.
2019 - Caroline Simmons received the USF Federal Credit Union Infectious Disease Research Award at USF Health Research Day.
Recent Publications
- Mohapatra SS, Mohapatra S, McGill AR, Green R. Molecular mechanism-driven new biomarkers and therapies for atopic dermatitis. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2020 Jul;146(1):72-73. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2020.04.039. Epub 2020 May 13. PMID: 32416110. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32416110/
Patil SS, Hernández-Cuervo H, Fukumoto J, Narala VR, Saji S, Borra
M, Alleyn M, Lin M, Soundararajan R, Lockey R, Kolliputi N, Galam L.
Alda-1 attenuates hyperoxia-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in lung vascular endothelial cells. Aging (Albany NY). 2019 Jun 17;11(12):3909-3918.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31209184.
- Fukumoto J, Sidramagowda Patil S, Krishnamurthy S, Saji S, John I, Narala
VR, Hernández-Cuervo H, Alleyn M, Breitzig MT, Galam L,
Soundararajan R, Chaudhari UK, Hansen BC, Lockey RF, Kolliputi N. Altered expression of p63 isoforms and expansion of p63- and club cell secretory protein-positive epithelial cells in the lung as novel features of aging.
Am J Physiol
Cell Physiol. 2019 Apr 1;316(4):C492-C508. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30649915
More Information
For information about the PhD Program in Integrated
Biomedical Sciences, contact 813-974-2836 or biomedphd@usf.edu.
Apply Now
Please note, students do not apply directly to a concentration. Interested students should submit an application for the PhD in Medical Sciences. Concentrations are typically selected during the first year of study.
