Virology Graduate Training Program at the University of Maryland

Virology  is the study of viruses and their hosts. Virologists explore how viruses enter cells, direct the cell’s machinery to transcribe, translate, and replicate their genomes, and then exit the cell to establish new infections.   It is an exciting  discipline that encompasses the fields of Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Immunology, and Genetics.

Since Fall 2001, the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics (CBMG) at the University of Maryland College Park has offered a world-class specialization in Virology funded in part by a 5 year NIH Training Grant.  Virologists from several departments on the Maryland campus and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (Center for Biosystems Research) (located adjacent to CBMG) have joined with scientists from the nearby National Institutes of Health and the USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) to offer state-of-the-art training that emphasizes the true breadth of Virology.

Unlike virology programs that concentrate on viruses that only infect selected hosts, students have a unique opportunity to join a highly interactive group of scientists working on viruses that infect a wide array of animal, plant and fungal hosts.  Interests of the faculty range from the smallest of all pathogenic agents- viroids, satellites and prions- to the largest of the viruses, the poxviruses.

(To read more about the goals of the Virology Training Program, please select this link.)

Information for Virology Training Program Faculty