Immunology Graduate Program: Overview
The Immunology Graduate Program is part of The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) at Houston, which is a unique partnership between The University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Principles of immunology have been applied to create numerous preventative and curative therapeutics for many types of human diseases. Our program is designed to provide a high-quality, comprehensive education in many facets of basic and translational immunology research, allowing graduates to pursue exciting and successful careers as independent investigators in academia or industry.
We currently have 41 faculty members from both institutions representing 15 departments. Collectively, research conducted by our faculty reflects the complexity and diversity of the immune system. Main areas of investigation include antigen-presenting cells/dendritic cells, T- and B- cells, immune regulation, cytokine and/or immune receptor signaling, and development of vaccines and immunotherapies for treating various forms of cancer, inflammation, allergy, and autoimmune disorders. Faculty members are committed to fostering a highly interactive and supportive environment that enables students to complete our rigorous curriculum and receive advanced training in biomedical research.
Student research projects are challenging and very rewarding; many of our students have earned local and national recognition through awards and fellowships. Our program has consistently been the recipient of a National Institutes of Health T32 training grant, which supports the most competitive graduate programs in the nation.
The "Highlights" section below showcases some of the experimental systems used by our program faculty members in their research.
Highlights
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Dendritic cells with dendrites (green) interacting with T cells (red). Image courtesy of Shino Hanabuchi, Ph.D.
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Regulatory FoxP3 T cells (green) in intestinal microvilli (red) visualized by multiphoton microscopy in FoxP3-GFP mice. Imaging Anna Zal, M.Sc.
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Interactions between regulatory FoxP3 T cells (green),
macrophages (red) and lung tumor (blue). Imaging by Anna Zal, M.Sc. -
Regulatory FoxP3 T cells (red) and ICOS-positive cells (green) in mouse thymus. Image courtesy of Yi-Hong Wang, M.D., M.Sc., and Anna Zal, M.Sc.
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Visualization of T-cell zones (green) in Peyer's patches in CD4-cre/Rosa26-YFP mice. Imaging by Anna Zal, M.Sc.
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Interactions between T cells (red) and dendritic cells (green) in the microenvironment of the intestine. Imaging by Anna Zal, M.Sc.
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Regulatory FoxP3 T cells (green) and autofluorescent cells
(blue) in the intestine (red). Imaging by Anna Zal, M.Sc.
