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Welcome to the Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Parasitology.

Our department comprises 24 faculty who direct translational research linking the Basic and Clinical Sciences. Our range of interests include HIV/AIDS and SIV, tuberculosis, prokaryotic biology, pseudomonas infections of the eye, oral cavity diseases, Herpes viruses, sexually transmitted infections (STI’s), Leishmania, molecular mycology, mucosal immunity and development of vaccines. MIP faculty also teaches in the Medical, Dental and Graduate Schools, and we have over 20 Graduate students in our MIP program.

Many of our faculty undertake their research in the MIP departmental space which also houses our offices, conference and student space, and is based in the Medical Education Building.  Other primary and adjunct faculty are associated with, and have their research laboratories in, Gene Therapy, Pulmonary and Critical Care, the Cancer Center, the Dental School, and the Research Institute for Children based at Children's Hospital. We have a strong collegial and collaborative environment, and recently a number of our faculty members have been instrumental in obtaining state funding to establish The Louisiana Vaccine Center and South Louisiana Institute for Infectious Disease Research in collaboration with colleagues from Tulane and Xavier University. Faculty members are also very successful in generating external funds to support their research, particularly from the National Institutes of Health.

Looking at the news, it is clear that MIP is one of the most challenging and fast changing fields in the science arena, as we have seen from the H1N1 swine flu epidemic and the continuing problem of treating MRSA, MDR TB, and drug-resistant HIV. The recent solution of over 100 microbiological genomes has also opened up our field to cutting edge technology.

Microbiologists and immunologists tend to be adventurous souls, focusing their scientific energy on furthering our understanding on the interactions between hosts and pathogens. We invite prospective students, staff and researchers to join us in the adventure!

Sincerely,

Ronald B. Luftig, Ph.D.
Professor and Head
Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Parasitology