Bacteriology, established in 1914, has a long history of investigating host-microbe interactions (e.g. rumen microbiology, legume-bacterium symbiosis, Staphylococcus pathogenesis, and botulism) and is a core department for the MDTP and the Symbiosis Cluster, for which it provides administrative support. Bacteriology has 19 faculty members with research programs focusing on signal transduction, gene expression, metabolism, biochemistry, natural products, pathogenesis, symbiosis, and genomics in a wide range of microbes including bacteria, fungi, and parasites. Bacteriology faculty members serve as journal editors and editorial board members, on federal study sections and private foundation grant review panels, as well as in organizational roles in scientific meetings and courses. One of its faculty, Dr. Donohue, is the leader of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, recently established as a USSDOE research center with an award of $125 million over 5 years. Nearly all Bacteriology faculty are funded by NIH R01 or equivalent grants, including the 6 trainers on this training grant; these trainers have also received national awards from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Handelsman), Keck Foundation (Forest), and Burroughs Wellcome Fund (Goodrich-Blair) as well as the UW-Madison Pound Research Excellence Award (Goodrich-Blair) and Alfred Toepfer Faculty Fellow Award (Thomas). Bacteriology faculty members train both pre- and post-doctoral fellows, and serve on thesis committees for students of other faculty.
For more information regarding the Bacteriology Department, please see their website at http://www.bact.wisc.edu/.
