Department of Microbiology
From September 21-27, 2025, a delegation from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) traveled to South Africa and Zambia to enhance institutional partnerships aimed at improving global health outcomes. The UAB delegation included Alan Tita, M.D., Ph.D., senior associate dean for Global and Women’s Health; J. Victor Garcia-Martinez, Ph.D., chair, UAB Department of Microbiology; J. Martin Rodriguez, M.D., FACP, FIPSA, Paul W. Burleson, M.D., Endowed Professor of Medicine; Rena C. Patel, M.D., MPH, MPhil, associate professor, UAB Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, associate director, MHIGH Global Health Research; and Stephen Obaro, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, associate director, MHIGH Faculty Engagement and Service Initiatives.
The UAB Department of Microbiology will host the 2025 Susan Roberts Dubay Endowed Lecture on Oct. 14, welcoming Lora Hooper, Ph.D., as this year’s keynote speaker presenting, “Vitamin A and barrier immunity.”
John Kearney, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and Endowed Professor in Immunology in the UAB Department of Microbiology, will officially retire from UAB on Sept. 30, 2025, after more than five decades of service to the institution.
At a time when science is reimagining what it means to prevent and potentially cure HIV, UAB Microbiology researchers carried their discoveries to the global stage.
UAB Medicine’s Leadership Development Office welcomed 18 individuals in its 11th cohort of Institute for Leadership in August 2025.
J. Victor Garcia-Martinez, Ph.D., professor and chair, Charles H. McCauley Endowed Chair, delivered the UAB Department of Microbiology’s inaugural State of the Department address on Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. Garcia-Martinez, who joined the department as chair in August 2023, covered several aspects of the department’s research-driven and educational missions while highlighting the department’s recent accomplishments and forward-facing goals.
A multi-institutional study led by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) has revealed a previously underappreciated mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 infection contributes to long-term lung damage. The study, published in Nature Microbiology, demonstrates that SARS-CoV-2 uniquely induces the formation of foam cells—lipid-laden macrophages with pro-fibrotic and pro-thrombotic properties—in human lung tissue.
A recent deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York is a stark reminder that this invisible threat could be lurking in the water mist you breathe every day, from your shower to a decorative fountain or a building’s cooling towers. Though it feels like a new danger, the bacteria behind this illness have haunted public health for nearly 50 years.
It starts quietly, a bite or a scratch, and by the time symptoms surface, it’s often too late. Rabies isn’t just a distant threat—it’s alive and present here in Alabama. Prevention remains critical, but once symptoms appear, treatment options are extremely limited. That’s because rabies hides behind a complex molecular shield that makes it nearly impossible to fight.
Jan Novak, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor in the UAB Department of Microbiology, has been named the Inaugural Holder of the Jiri Mestecky Endowed Professorship in Microbiology.
The UAB Department of Microbiology welcomed Hongjin Zheng, Ph.D., as associate professor in June 2025.
Fran Lund, Ph.D., professor in the UAB Department of Microbiology and director of the UAB Immunology Institute, along with other UAB researchers, recently published a study in Immunity illustrating the crucial role a protein called T-bet plays in protecting the body’s immune response to influenza.
For the first time in its history, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) will hold its annual meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, hosted by Elliot Lefkowitz, Ph.D., professor in the UAB Department of Microbiology.
How research enriches the medical school experience. Federico Prokopczuk is in his fourth year as an M.D./Ph.D. trainee. A native of Rancho Cucamonga, California, he graduated from California State University, Northridge with a Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology before joining the Heersink School of Medicine in June 2021.
The UAB Department of Microbiology is happy to welcome graduate students who have recently joined UAB Microbiology labs for their training.
Each year, rabies kills thousands of people worldwide, and it remains a silent threat right here in Alabama. Often transmitted through the bite or scratch of an infected animal, this viral disease is almost always fatal once symptoms appear. Yet, with timely action and widespread vaccination, rabies is entirely preventable. Researchers in the UAB Department of Microbiology are working to understand the viruses and other pathogens at a molecular level, supporting new advances in diagnosis, treatment, and public health preparedness.
The UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center recently announced five winners of the O’Neal Invests grant awards, two generously funded by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama (BCRFA).
You’re not the only one digesting your lunch—so are your microbes. Every time you eat, an entire ecosystem inside your gut gets to work, breaking down food, absorbing nutrients, and boosting your immune system. Probiotics, live microorganisms found in certain bacteria and yeasts, are at the heart of this process. But understanding how they function (and why you should care) can be more complicated than it seems.
Kansas recently confirmed one of the largest Tuberculosis outbreaks in U.S. history. This has prompted renewed focus on prevention efforts and public health preparedness. While the United States maintains low TB incidence rates globally, the country has experienced a significant increase in cases in the last few years.
The UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine recognized 15 faculty members for their outstanding contributions to research, education, and clinical care at the Spring 2025 Endowed Chairs and Professorships Reception.
The David E. Wells Memorial Symposium, a longstanding tradition in the UAB Department of Microbiology, will be held this year on May 21. The event will feature three student presentations and the David E. Wells Memorial Lecture given by Anne Moscona, M.D., Sheri L. Morrison Professor of Immunology, Departments of Microbiology and Immunology, Pediatrics and Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University.
Eight members of the Department of Microbiology were recently recognized for 20-plus years of service to UAB at a Service Awards reception on April 8, 2025.
Elliot Lefkowitz, Ph.D., has pioneered a unique perspective at UAB on the study of viruses: analyzing them via computational techniques, otherwise known as bioinformatics. Lefkowitz and his eight-person lab play a critical role in providing tools to scientists around the world to aid them in analyzing data related to genomic sequences.
The UAB Department of Microbiology will welcome Barney Graham, M.D., Ph.D., as its keynote speaker for the 37th Bertram M. Marx Endowed Lecture on Monday, April 28, 2025, at 3 p.m. in Cudworth 102. He will present, “RSV and a New Era of Vaccinology.”
Fran Lund, Ph.D., director of the UAB Heersink School of Medicine Immunology Institute, professor and Endowed Chair in Immunology in the Department of Microbiology, and senior scientist at the UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, was honored with the 2025 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award on Tuesday, March 18 at the UAB Alumni House.
Viruses constantly emerge and evolve, with some posing significant threats to human and animal health, while others remain confined to specific species. A recently identified example of the latter is the Camp Hill Virus (CHV), named after its discovery site in Camp Hill, Alabama.
The Heersink School of Medicine is proud to announce the 2025 recipients of its 1R01 Award. Securing extramural research funding is a very competitive process, and this award is a testament to these investigators’ groundbreaking research and dedication to advancing biomedical science.
Expressing a lifelong commitment to advancing global health, Gail H. Cassell, Ph.D., DSc (Hon.), and her family have generously donated $1 million to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine to establish the Cassell Family Bidirectional Training Initiative within the Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health (MHIGH)
The UAB Department of Microbiology and the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) hosted the inaugural HIV Basic and Translational Research Symposium Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, at the UAB Hilton Hotel. The all-day event featured speakers from the university and Southern Research, time for discussion, and a poster session.
Graduate Biomedical Sciences (GBS) at UAB recently welcomed its new class of GBS students pursuing their Ph.D. across eight interdisciplinary training themes. The GBS Doctoral Training Program provides interdisciplinary education and mentorship while allowing GBS trainees to perform doctoral research in more than 350 labs across campus.
UAB has committed to a significant leap forward in biomedical research by approving the Center for Integrative Structural Biology during the June 2024 University of Alabama System Board of Trustees meeting.
A platform for undergraduate students to advance their research, the UAB Summer Research Academy (SRA) launched its seventh installment of the program on June 3, 2024. This competitive research program provides summer scholarships for students in the joint health sciences while preparing them for advancement to graduate or medical scientist training programs.
The spring 2024 Endowed Chairs and Professorships Reception honored the distinguished faculty members of the Heersink School of Medicine for their outstanding impact on contemporary medicine and medical education. Anupam Agarwal, M.D., the dean of the Heersink School of Medicine, extended a warm welcome to the honorees, their families, and other leaders from the school. The gathering took place at the Wallace Tumor Institute on April 17.
The Heersink School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Inclusion hosted the annual Women in Medicine and Science Promotion Reception April 11, which recognized women faculty promoted at the end of 2023. The honorees and their guests were greeted by Heersink leadership to celebrate their remarkable achievements.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine saw great success in acquiring research funding in 2023, making significant strides in securing resources to advance human health through biomedical discovery.
Adrie J. C. Steyn, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Microbiology, and Hayden T. Pacl, an M.D.-Ph.D. student at the Heersink School of Medicine and first author of this study, are the latest winners of the Heersink School of Medicine's Featured Discovery. This initiative celebrates important research from Heersink faculty members.
Jamil Saad, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Microbiology, has been awarded an R37 Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) Award for his continued work with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1).
Frances Lund, Ph.D., Charles H. McCauley professor in the Department of Microbiology and director of the Immunology Institute, and Anoma Nellore, M.D., associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, are the latest winners of the Heersink School of Medicine's Featured Discovery. This initiative celebrates important research from Heersink faculty members.
UAB is an ever-expanding community, and growth begins with leadership. That is why we are so proud that, from February 1-June 30, 18 new full-time faculty members joined the Heersink School of Medicine, and a number of existing faculty members assumed new leadership roles. Two examples of these dedicated, engaging, innovative and inspiring individuals who bring fresh ideas and perspectives to our school are Herbert Chen, M.D., FACS, and J. Victor Garcia-Martinez, Ph.D.
Jianmei Leavenworth, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Microbiology, and Satoru Osuka, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery, introduce the Brain Tumor Research in Progress Forum.
Extended research has been conducted to understand how Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) can remain in the body for many years without causing any symptoms of the disease, only to suddenly become active and cause an explosive outbreak of tuberculosis (TB).
J. Victor Garcia-Martinez, Ph.D., has been named the chair of the UAB Department of Microbiology.
The Office of Research for the Heersink School of Medicine highlights the work of the Structural Biology Forum and Jamil Saad, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Microbiology, in this Team Action for Scientific Solutions article.
UAB Heersink School of Medicine has awarded three grants for the latest annual Multi-Investigator Program Award cycle. The 2022/2023 AMC21 Multi-PI Awards, which provide grant funding of $150,000 per year for two years, were awarded to Javier Neyra, M.D., Carlos Orihuela, Ph.D., and Anna Thalacker-Mercer, Ph.D.
The Heersink School of Medicine communications staff sat down with Dr. Jamil Saad to gain insights about the research of this study, UAB, and the science community.
As the Heersink School of Medicine grows, the leadership has defined four new research focus areas to grow over the next five to seven years. This part explores the next focus area, I-4ward.
Frances Lund, Ph.D., founding director of the Immunology Institute and professor in the Department of Microbiology, is donating her transition party funds to the Blazer Kitchen. These gifts will allow the kitchen to continue its support to ongoing Blazer Kitchen shoppers and help fulfill its expanding needs.
The Heersink communications staff sat down with Dr. Allan Zajac to gain insights about the research of this study, UAB, and the science community.
The Heersink communications staff sat down with Dr. Terje Dokland to gain insights about the research of this study, UAB, and the science community.
Six faculty members in the Heersink School of Medicine have been named the 2022 class of James A. Pittman Jr., M.D., Scholars.