Until the mid-1990’s, the Medical Microbiology and Immunology (MMI) Department in the Medical School and the Department of Bacteriology (founded in 1914) in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences administered separate, highly successful graduate programs, with an historical delineation of research and educational missions: pathogenic microbiology and host interactions for MMI, and basic microbiology for Bacteriology. Even then, faculty in each department served as trainers in the other department’s graduate program, and each department had a large number of affiliates and trainers from other departments on campus, such as Pathobiological Sciences and Animal Health & Biomedical Sciences (AHABS) in the School of Veterinary Medicine. Several considerations led to the evolution initially of an open rotation system in 1997 for students in the two departmental programs, and then formal integration in 1998 to yield the Microbiology Doctoral Training Program, which is one of the largest and strongest graduate programs on campus and one of the most highly regarded in its field nationally. First, already several departmental faculty were trainers in the other department’s program and even more were involved in co-mentoring of graduate students via service on thesis committees. Second, graduate courses offered by each department received heavy enrollment from students in the other department. Third, the existence of a large number of outside trainers and affiliates emphasized the strength and breadth of microbiology and immunology research and the large community of microbiologists and infectious disease immunologists on campus. One current demonstration of this point is that there are hundreds of American Society for Microbiology (ASM) members on campus. Fourth, UW-Madison has consistently ranked in the top tier of microbiology graduate programs in a variety of objective surveys. For instance, the U.S. News & World Report annual educational rankings, which are widely recognized and reasonably important for graduate recruitment albeit carrying inherent limitations, has placed UW-Madison in the top three Microbiology graduate programs since at least 1997, with the latest ranking update in 2002. This evaluation did not delineate or specify MMI or Bacteriology, and clearly arose from contributions by both departments and also others in the field on campus.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, the overlap between the departmental missions and the research interests of faculty members became increasingly emphasized. For example, four Bacteriology faculty members work on pathogenic microbes exclusively or as a major component of their research programs. Likewise, it has become generally recognized that the delineation of “basic microbiology” from “pathogenesis and host interactions” may not always be clear. One MMI faculty member (Bangs) focuses on basic mechanisms of protein trafficking in a pathogenic protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma brucei, partly with specific drug discovery objectives for combatting infection by interfering with these processes. Three MMI faculty members (Knoll, Welch, Woods) have used screening/selection techniques such as in vivo expression technology (IVET) and signature-tagged mutagenesis (STM) for identification of microbial genes important for infection (by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii, the bacterium Escherichia coli, and the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum, respectively). Some of these genes may not fit a classical definition of “virulence determinant,” instead encoding metabolic or regulatory factors that blur the boundaries between basic biological properties and pathogenic mechanisms. It is true that identification of trainers specifically focusing on pathogenesis and host responses has been important for the purposes of this training program, to insure cohesive focus in the students’ educational experience, and specifically to avoid overlap with the mission and objectives of other UW training programs. However, the development of the broader MDTP has been remarkably effective and successful for graduate recruiting and training purposes, and it is this Ph.D. degree-granting program that serves as a source for MPath Trainees. This graduate program has approximately 80 faculty, over half of whom are from departments other than MMI or Bacteriology. There are currently 102 MDTP students, including a few students remaining from the former MMI and Bacteriology departmental programs. The program receives hundreds of applications each year, accepts 40-55 students, and typically achieves a high 35-60% acceptance rate, resulting in a target class size of 20-25 for an overall program size of 100-125 (with approximately five to six years before graduation). For the entering class of 2002, we extended 54 offers of admission and had 27 acceptances (50% rate). Members of this group who join the laboratories of MPath Trainers will be eligible for consideration for support by the Training Program.
For more information regarding the Microbiology Doctoral Training Program, please see their website at http://www.microbiology.wisc.edu/.
