Did you know that the person sitting next to you in class may be a published author?  Many undergraduates who have made a significant time commitment to research have had their results published in peer reviewed scientific journals.
Microfungi that live within healthy plant tissues represent an unknown proportion of fungal diversity. U of A undergraduates are studying these unique organisms.	Taeniasis due to Taenia solium is a devastating parasitic disease in developing countries. But is there a sensitive assay to detect to parasite? An undergraduate researcher can tell you.	Cryptosporidium parvum oocytes, but which genotype? And how reliable is the assay? Ask the undergraduate researchers who helped figure it out.
Magnaporthe conidium with two appressoria (infection structures). Infectious hyphae is growing in the plant cell	Can environmental contaminants trichloroethylene (TCE) and its metabolite trichloroacetic acid (TCA) affect gene regulation? Is this hazardous? Ask the undergraduate student who knows.	If a virus evolves resistance to an antiviral agent, can it also evolve a mechanism to be stimulated by the agent? Nine undergraduates helped answer this question.
These examples represent only some of the published research by U of A undergraduate authors. For more click on the following link: Microbiology research articles with undergraduate authors

The Program's Purpose:

The Microbiology Honors Program is separate from the Honors College. It is designed for Microbiology majors who wish to participate in research in this exciting and vast area of biology. Many professional scientists conducted research when they were undergraduate students. Most would say they learned as much or even more about science from actual practice than in their formal course work. Why?
 

• Undergraduate research entails one-on-one contact with a professional scientist, your thesis advisor. Through this contact you learn scientific reasoning and concepts that are not addressed in formal course work.

• Concepts, which may seem abstract in the classroom, become very concrete when working with living organisms.

Eligibility:

The Microbiology Honors Program is open to Microbiology majors but is not limited to students in the Honors College.  Students who do not meet the Honors College criteria are eligible if they have earned an overall GPA of 3.0, and a science/math GPA of 3.3. To learn more about the program contact Dr. B. Fane (bfane@u.arizona.edu).
 
 

Program Description:

When you enter the Microbiology Honors Program, you will choose a research mentor in whose lab you will conduct your research. A list of potential research mentors and their scientific interests  can be found below. Meaningful research requires a time commitment, at least three semesters or two semesters and one summer. Dedicating more time to your research will allow you and your thesis advisor to design a more significant project, one that is more central to your advisor's research focus. In addition,  you may find spending a summer on campus working in a laboratory, without the pressure of course work, a very enjoyable experience. Several programs on campus, such as the Undergraduate Biology Research Program, Honors Undergraduate Research Grant Program, Minority Access to Research Careers, and national programs, such as those administered by the American Society for Microbiology, provide stipend support for undergraduate researchers. In addition, many PI's have funds in their grants to support undergraduate summer employment.

During the second half of the third semester, you will write your thesis, which will be in the form of scientific manuscript.  This will give you the opportunity to develop scientific writing skills.  Then will follow a formal thesis defense, which is not as frightening as it may sound. Your thesis advisor will work with you in constructing a 30 minute presentation. The presentation is semi open to the public. Besides your three-member thesis committee, consisting of at least two faculty members, fellow honor students, friends and family can attend. After the presentation, there will be a closed door 15 minute question and answer period with your committee. 

Getting Started:

If you decide to participate in the program, contact Dr. B. Fane (bfane@u.arizona.edu). Dr. Fane will assist with the application process and choosing a research mentor whose research best coincides with your scientific interests. The professors listed below have agreed to be research mentors if they have room in their laboratories. To learn more about their research, you should follow the links to their web sites. It is the student's responsibility to obtain a commitment from a thesis advisor, and there may not be available positions for every qualified student. Faculty members are more likely to make a commitment to you if you present yourself in a professional manner.

Dr. Marc Orbach Research Interests:  Fungal pathogenesis, using molecular biology, genetics and genomics to understand how pathogens invade their hosts and cause disease, using the plant pathogen, Magnaporthe oryzae,  and the mammalian pathogens, Coccidioides sp.  as models.	Coccidioides spherules: light micrographs and nuclear localized GFP fluorescence.	Dr. A. Elizabeth Arnold Research Interests: diversity, ecology, evolution, and potential applications of symbiotic microfungi, with a special focus on fungal endophytes.	An array of endophyte morphology.
Dr. Judith Brown Research Interests: Plant virology with an emphasis on (i) Begomovirus diversity and (ii) virus-vector biology.	The Begomovirus, Squash Leaf Curl Virus.	Dr. Charles Sterling Research interests: Molecular epidemiology and diagnosis of protozoan parasites that infect man and animals.	Cryptosporidium and Giardia colonizing the small intestine of an infected animal.
Dr. Samuel Campos Research Interests:Molecular mechanisms of human papillomavirus (HPV) host cell invasion.	Electron micrograph of purified HPV16.	Dr. Zhongguo Xiong Research Interests: Evolution, pathogenesis, RNAi-suppression, and high-throughput sequencing of RNA viruses infecting plants.	Analysis of Citrus tristeza virus isolates by resequencing microarray.
Dr. Bentley Fane Research Interests: Virology, with an emphases on viral structure and the molecular mechanisms involved in the intracellular assembly of viral proteins into infections particles.	The atomic structure of an internal scaffolding protein within viral electron density.	Dr. Ornella Selmin Research Interests: Environmental toxicology, with emphases on the molecular mechanisms by which environmental toxins  affect animal development and endocrine regulation.	An immuno-stained chick embryo heart with antibodies against a protein expressed during heart development and affected by environmental toxins.
Dr Maggie So Research Interests: Microbial Pathogenesis, the role Type IV pili play in Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis infection, pili biomechanics and dynamics.	Neisseria gonorrhoeae microcolonies forming on human cells in tissue culture	Dr. Barry Pryor Research Interests:systematics and speciation of asexual fungi, and  mycological community structure in native and agricultural ecosystems.
Dr. Michael Riggs Research Interests: Immunobiology of cryptosporidiosis, caused by Cryptosporidium sp, with focus on vaccine development, immunotherapy, molecular pathogenesis, of host cell infection, and structural characterization of parasite glycoprotein ligands.	Photomicrograph of a Cryptosporidium parvum sporozoite following cytoskeletal paralysis.	Dr. Charles Gerba Research Interests: The development of new disinfectants,  pathogen removal, microbiology of domestic environments, molecular methods of pathogen detection.	Bacteria found on an unsanitized surface.
Dr. V. K. Viswanathan Research Interests: The mechanisms by which bacterial proteins manipulate host cells and cause disease.	Pathogenic E. coli cause diarrhea by opening the junctions between cells in the intestine.	Dr. Felicia Goodrum Research Interests: the molecular mechanisms that control the outcome of viral infection and underlie pathogenesis, specifically using the herpesvirus, human cytomegalovirus.	Microarray analysis of human cytomegalovirus gene expression in hematopoietic subpopulations.
Dr.  Raina Maier Research Interests: The diversity and function of bacterial communities in stressed environments; the production and identity of bacterial surfactants; the role of rhizosphere microorganisms in revegetation of mine tailings.	Examples of the calcium carbonate formations in Kartchner Caverns (right) A bacterial colony recovered from a stalactite in Kartchner that produces calcium carbonate crystals.	Dr. Gayatri Vedantam Research Interests: Molecular pathogenesis of Clostridium difficile disease, hospital-acquired infections and bacterial antibiotic resistance.	Clostridium difficile adhering to human intestinal epithelial cells. Bacteria are shown in green, human cell nuclei in blue, and cell-cell junctional proteins in red.

A thesis advisor need not be an instructor in the Microbiology Major or listed on this page,  but s/he must  agree to supervise your thesis research, the writing of your thesis, the preparation of your defense, and to be a member of your thesis committee. The following are departments with faculty involved in Microbiology research: 

 

Veterinary Science & Microbiology Division of Plant Pathology & Microbiology Plant Sciences Biochemistry and Biophysics	Immunobiology Soils, Water, and Environmental Sciences Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Molecular and Cellular Biology
Did you know that plant viruses cause famines and world hunger?  Begomoviruses are some of the most devastating. The world data bank for these pathogens is located right here, at the University of Arizona.  A begomovirus infected bean plant.	Did you know that the University of Arizona is one of 20 universities that is part of the national Superfund Basic Research Program? The program addresses ways to clean up polluted sites.  Many U of A environmental microbiologists and toxicologists participate. Microbes can be used to detoxify hazardous waste sites.