Infectious Disease & Immunology - 24 credit hours

The Infectious Disease and Immunology concentration provides an individualized program of upper-level courses and scientific research in the laboratory of a faculty member within the Center for Infectious Diseases and Immunity. The goal of this center is to develop and enhance collaborative programs among researchers, physicians and businesses in New Mexico to address the threat of infectious and immunologically-mediated inflammatory diseases in New Mexican populations and the world by characterizing epidemiologic issues, studying basic host-pathogen mechanisms, developing new vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, and testing the preventive, therapeutic and diagnostic efficacy of these discoveries in clinical trials.

University Catalog Information

The Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences Infectious Disease and Immunology concentration provides an individualized program of upper-level courses and scientific research in the laboratory of a faculty member within the Infectious Diseases and Immunity Signature Research Program. The goal in this Research Program is to develop and enhance collaborative programs among researchers, physicians and businesses in New Mexico to address the threat of infectious and immunologically-mediated inflammatory diseases in New Mexican populations and the world by characterizing epidemiologic issues, studying basic host-pathogen mechanisms, developing new vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, and testing the preventive, therapeutic and diagnostic efficacy of these discoveries in clinical trials.

Required Coursework

To earn a Concentration in Infectious Disease & Immunology graduate students are required to take the following:

Following successful completion of the Qualifying Exam and remaining in Good Academic Standing (as defined by the BSGP), graduate training will mainly focus on laboratory research supervised by the student's mentor, and supplemented with the following advanced courses:

Infectious Disease & Inflammation (IDI) Research

Numerous faculty members in various departments have active research programs related to IDI, providing abundant opportunities for training in areas as diverse as bacterial, viral, and fungal diseases, cancer immunology, fundamental immunology, autoimmunity, neuro-immunology and immune-related pathogenesis, as well as vaccine technology. A list of participating programs and departments is given below (but see also the CIDI Webpage). Students may affiliate with faculty in UNM’s Center for Infectious Diseases & Immunity (CIDI) Signature program, the Center for Global Health (Department of Internal Medicine), the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology (Department of Pediatrics), Microbial Ecology, Microglial Pathogenesis and Microbiology (UNM Department of Biology), the Environmental Health Signature Program (College of Pharmacy) and the Center for Digestive Diseases.

Finally, all BSGP students are supported with a stipend, but IDI participants have a competitive advantage in applying for support from the NIH funded Infectious Disease & Inflammation Program (IDIP) Training Grant (T32 mechanism). Recipients of the training grant receive a stipend and a modest budget for supplies and travel, as well as the added distinction of having won a competitive independent fellowship.

Participating Departments/Divisions/Signature programs in the IDI Concentration

1. Center for Infectious Diseases & Immunity (CIDI) Signature program
2. Center for Global Health
3. Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology
4. Environmental Health Signature Program
5. Center for Digestive Diseases
6. Molecular Genetics & Microbiology
7. College of Pharmacy
8. Department of Pathology
9. Department of Biology
10. Division of Nephrology
11. Department of Internal Medicine
12. Department of Pediatrics
13. Department of Emergency Medicine
14. Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute
15. Department of Otolaryngology
16. Cancer Center
17. Department of Biomedical Engineering – Dr. Jeff Brinker
18. Genomics Labs
19. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology