Bacteriology

The Bacteriology section of the Channing Laboratory has excellent opportunities for research training. Undergraduate students, medical school students and residents often choose to do research electives here. Students work closely with a faculty member on a mutually chosen project. Graduate students in the Harvard Medical School BBS Graduate Program may do their research here under the mentorship of our senior faculty members, Dr. Dennis Kasper and Dr. Gerald Pier.

Postdoctoral fellow training is another major focus of our program. Dr. Kasper is the Principal Investigator on the HMS Training Grant "Infectious Diseases and Basic Microbiologic Mechanisms". This training program provides a wide array of opportunities to do research under the mentorship of our faculty. The research opportunities span a wide array of disciplines involved in the study of bacterial diseases including: pathogenesis, molecular biology, structural chemistry, immunology, vaccine research, epidemiology, and clinical microbiology. The environment is enriched by regular group conferences and meetings between mentor and student.

Epidemiology

Each of the programs within the Epidemiology group has opportunities for training. The Respiratory and Environmental Epidemiology group has a formal NIH Institutional Research Training Award that provides fellowship support for five postdoctoral trainees in lung disease epidemiology, along with fellowships for two predoctoral candidates in lung and/or environmental epidemiology or statistics. Formal applications for the postdoctoral positions should be directed to Dr. Scott Weiss and for predoctoral positions to Dr. Douglas Dockery. The program combines research training in lung diseases with didactic classroom work leading (for postdoctoral candidates) to a Masters degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Similar arrangements through the Nutrition, Environmental Health, and Epidemiology departements at the Harvard School of Public Health provide support for predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows for research training in Chronic Disease Epidemiology in conjunction with a faculty mentor involved in the large cohort studies (e.g., Nurses' Health Study) under our direction. Applications for these positions should be directed to Dr. Meir Stampfer.

Additional possibilities exist for training in Pharmacoepidemiology (Dr. Richard Platt) and Biostatistics (Dr. Bernard Rosner).

Virology

The Virology program is rooted in all aspects of research training. The laboratories are principally composed of graduate and post-doctoral (Ph.D.and M.D.) trainees and some undergraduate trainees. The programs are an integral part of the Harvard University Virology Program and most of the trainees are also affiliated with Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, the Infectious Disease Program of the Department of Medicine, the Biological and Biomedical Sciences, and the Immunology Programs of Harvard Medical School.