T32 Immunity and Infection

The Training Program in Immunity and Infection (TPII) has been training predoctoral students in the areas of immunology and microbial pathogenesis for the last 20 years. The University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) has unusual depth and strength in the areas of microbiology, immunology, infectious diseases and microbial genomics with well over 100 faculty members in these areas. The training faculty for this program are drawn from the Department of Microbiology & Immunology, the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis in the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, and three internationally renowned research institutes, the Center for Vaccine Development, the Institute of Human Virology, and the Institute for Genome Sciences. The training faculty are highly interactive with numerous research collaborations and team-taught courses.

Trainees are drawn from the existing interdepartmental Molecular Microbiology & Immunology graduate program, which is a strong and established graduate doctoral program that includes a common core curriculum, elective courses, journal clubs, seminars, annual symposia and graduate research presentation days. Additional academic work is combined with rigorous laboratory training through laboratory rotations and dissertation research under the direction of the training grant faculty whose documented expertise provides inter- and multidisciplinary training opportunities. Predoctoral students are selected from an increasingly qualified applicant pool, as well as from the UMSOM MD/PhD Program. The program has been highly successful with previous trainees going on to further training and/or careers in academia, government or industry. We have taken advantage of our location in the research-rich Baltimore-Washington area and provide research internship opportunities for our trainees in multiple government agencies such as NIH, FDA, and USDA, as well as in local biotech companies. We also provide opportunities for our trainees to gain additional teaching experience in local colleges and community colleges that will make them more competitive for future academic careers. With this rich training environment, the Training Program in Immunity and Infection is the cornerstone of predoctoral trainee support at UMSOM in microbiology, immunology, infectious diseases and microbial genomics.

To be appointed to the Training Program in Immunity and Infection (TPII), students must be US citizens or permanent residents. Students are selected by the TPII Advisory Committee based on merit and are typically appointed for two years. For information about the TPII, please contact:

Dr. James Kaper, Director
jkaper@som.umaryland.edu

Dr. Nicholas Carbonetti, Co-director
ncarbonetti@som.umaryland.edu

Karen Tracy, Administrator
kftracy@som.umaryland.edu.