Department of Microbiology
University of Colorado
School of Medicine

MISSION OF THE DEPARTMENT

The Department of Microbiology:

• Teaches microbiology and pathophysiology of infectious diseases for medical students;
• Presents a graduate program leading to the Ph.D. degree in Microbiology and contributes to
  interdisciplinary Ph.D. programs at the UCD Anschutz Medical Campus;
• Obtains research grants, performs research leading to new knowledge in the disciplines of Microbiology, and disseminates such discoveries through invited lectures, professional meetings, publications and other forums;
• Trains postdoctoral fellows to acquire the qualities and attributes needed for them to succeed as independent research scientists in Microbiology;
• Performs administrative activities as needed to support the missions of the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine in teaching, research and public service;
• Provides services to the scientific community in the areas of the faculty's professional expertise.

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

The Department of Microbiology is a diverse group of investigators with expertise concerning the biology of microorganisms and the molecular mechanisms of microbial pathogenesis. The Microbiology faculty serve as the focal point for the development of educational programs for medical and graduate students in the discipline of microbiology, and they have a leadership role in development of research programs in microbiology, with and emphasis in microbial pathogenesis.

The Microbiology faculty is unique both with respect to the depth of its collective expertise concerning the biology of microbes and its commitment to using state-of-the-art tools of molecular and cell biology to study fundamental questions about how microbes cause disease.

Faculty members in the Department of Microbiology interact regularly with faculty from several other departments in the School of Medicine, from our CU-affiliated campuses of Denver, Boulder, and from Colorado State University in Fort Collins. These interactions reflect the broad expertise of our department faculty members as well as the relatively large number of faculty from other departments in the School of Medicine who study microbes from more clinical, translational or applied perspectives.

OUR RESOURCES AND CAMPUS

The University of Colorado Denver has undergone an exciting building program of unprecedented scope.  The Anschutz Medical campus of the UCD is the largest redevelopment project for an academic health center currently in progress in the United States.  Most of the basic sciences departments and the core facilities of the University of Colorado Cancer Center moved into two new interconnecting laboratory buildings Research Center 1 (600,000 gross sq. ft) on the Anschutz Medical Campus in the fall of 2004. The Research Center 2 laboratory building for all of the clinical departments was completed in 2008.  New buildings on the Anschutz campus house the new University Hospital, the Anshutz Outpatient Center, the outpatient Cancer Center, the Rocky Mountain Lions’ Eye Institute, the Barbara Davis Center for Juvenile Diabetes, Nighthorse Campbell Center for Native American Medicine, and the Lazzara Center for Oro-Facial Health. The new 290 bed Children’s Hospital complex opened October 2007.  Under construction are 5 new buildings in the Education Complex including the new Medical Library, the Fulginiti Center for Bioethics and Humanities, and buildings dedicated to teaching with auditoriums, classrooms, teaching laboratories and faculty offices. All teaching of students in the graduate school and the schools of medicine, nursing and dentistry are now held in this new educational complex on the Anschutz Medical Campus. Plans to construct a new Veterans’ Administration Hospital on the Anschutz campus are in the early stages of development.  This unprecedented relocation of an entire health sciences center to a new campus will culminate in remarkable new opportunities for faculty interactions leading to innovative research.