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The inhabitants of Earth are mostly microbes, and their activities are central to human welfare. Microbes can cause disease, but a properly functioning microbiome is essential for health. Microbes spoil food, but drive many forms of food production. Microbes mediate organismic decay, but catalyze numerous geochemical processes essential for life on Earth.

Research in the Penn Microbiology Department focuses on infectious agents that threaten global health, with an emphasis on understanding molecular mechanisms and developing key new methods. Areas of focus include SARS-CoV-2, HIV, pathogenic bacteria of the airway and gut, cancer causing viruses, emerging infectious diseases, and the human microbiome. On the host side, faculty study many areas of immunology related to infection, including innate and adaptive immunity, tumor immunology and vaccine development.

Penn Micro on Bluesky

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Departmental Events

  • Prokaryotic Seminar

    Monday, March 9: 4pm in 209 Johnson Pavilion

    Zianxuan She, Moustafa Lab

    “A bacterial phylogenomics toolkit for strain identification, genome profiling, and bacterial evolution simulation”

  • Virology Seminar

    Tuesday, March 10: 12pm in Reunion Auditorium

    Kyle Frischkorn, PhD, Senior Editor, Nature Microbiology

    “Publishing in Nature Journals"

  • Microbiology Seminar

    Wednesday, March 11th: 12pm in CRB Austrian Auditorium

    Vincent Tam, PhD :: Temple

    "Fueling Infection: How Lipid Metabolism and PPARα Reshape Host Immunity from Lung to Gut"

     

     

     

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