Laboratories share common equipment rooms, forming a research cluster. Additional resources, in Biochemistry, provide access to protein synthesizers and peptide sequencers, as well as mass spectrometers. The Department's ethernet and modem connections provide office, laboratory and home computers connectivity to local and world-wide network resources. Other department core facilities include a fluorescence microscopy workstation, a graphics workstation and imaging workstations for the analysis and quantification of photo and radioactive emissions. Course work for medical students includes medical microbiology the second semester of the first year.
All information is presented in both classroom lecture and hands-on lab work with instruction.
Graduate students are required to take departmental core courses which involve all faculty. Because the faculty members, both primary, cross and adjunct appointments, have a wide variety of interests, the students are exposed to a multitude of research areas. Graduate students may also take specialty courses in microbial genetics, molecular biology, cell signalling, molecular basis of pathogenesis, microbial diversity and lower eukaryote microbiology. The importance of individual research is emphasized early. Graduate students are expected to perform laboratory rotations with at least three faculty members during the first year of residency.