The Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine department provides a flexible, rigorous training program to prepare students to become independent research scientists in the areas of molecular virology, molecular parasitology and immunology of infectious diseases.

Doctoral Degree

The doctoral program takes an interdisciplinary approach. It incorporates faculty from not only GW, but from other renowned academic institutions such as Children’s National Medical Center, the Institute for Genomic Research and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Students have access to extensive research facilities at GW, the Children's Research Institute, NIH and other organizations. GW’s Gelman Library and Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library are also available to students, along with numerous others in the Washington area, including the National Library of Medicine.

The department’s current research strengths and training opportunities include the study of host-pathogen relationships, inflammation, vaccine development, T lymphocyte development and activation, cancer immunology, molecular parasitology, molecular retrovirology (HIV/AIDS) and microbial genomics and proteomics. The Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine is also home to the Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative, and several investigators maintain active international collaborations with research laboratories in Brazil, Honduras and China.

The Ph.D. program, part of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, requires 72 credit hours, of which 12 to 24 hours are fulfilled by dissertation research. During the first year, students take core courses required of Institute for Biomedical Sciences students and rotate through three laboratories to gain exposure to experimental research and the research interests of the faculty.

Upon completion of core courses and laboratory rotations, each student selects a degree program as well as a research mentor. A research advisory committee, consisting of the research adviser and two additional faculty members, guides the student through the completion of the dissertation. Students who choose immunology as their field take the molecular and cellular immunology course and three semesters of advanced topics in immunology.