The Microbial Biology Program at Stanford University is an exciting, interdisciplinary program emphasizing "Microbial Cell and Environmental Interactions". Interactions among microorganisms and between microorganisms and their physical environment are complex and reflect a network of integrated physiological responses and regulatory circuitries. To better understand the biology of microbial interactions, Stanford's microbiologists, leaders in the fields of microbial symbiosis and pathogenesis, cell cycle control and development, and gene regulation and metabolism, have organized their research and teaching efforts into a new multi-disciplinary program. The main areas of research broadly encompassed in this program are:

• Microbe-microbe interactions, including the examination of microbial development and dissection of cellular regulatory circuitries,


• Microbe-host interactions, including microbial pathogenesis and symbiotic associations of microbes with both animal and plant cells,


• Microbe-virus interactions, including studies of phage genetics and coevolution,


• Microbe-environment interactions, including environmental microbiology, ecology and evolution of microbes.


• Comparative Microbial Genomics is an emerging interdisciplinary research area at Stanford and builds on the historic strength of Stanford's microbiologists in genetics, genomics and bioinformatics to understand the biology of the microbial genome.

Most laboratories emphasize a multi-tiered (physiological, biochemical, genetic, proteomic, bioinformatics) approach to dissect the functioning of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells during acclimation, adaptation, and evolution at the molecular, cellular, ecological and community levels. The research activities are complemented by a strong teaching and educational curriculum organized by faculty from the departments of Biological Sciences, Microbiology and Immunology, Developmental Biology, Biochemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Mathematics and Chemical Engineering. These activities include numerous interdepartmental seminars, journal clubs, and workshops.