# Microbes in Health and Disease

> **NIH NIH T32** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2020 · $435,626

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Our community of investigators seeks renewed support for years 15 to 20 of a pre- and post-doctoral training
program that addresses the role of microbes in health and disease at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Microbiology is fundamentally important to human health due to the prevalence and consequence of infectious
diseases. Its significance has been elevated by bioterrorism, discovery of the unforseen roles for microbes in
causing certain human maladies, and in promoting normal human physiology and health. The proposed
Microbes in Health and Disease (MHD) training program represents the natural and synergistic synthesis of the
broad disciplines of microbial pathogenesis, beneficial microbiology, and host responses. MHD will have its
physical and intellectual home in a state-of-the-art Microbial Sciences Building where basic and clinical
scientists interact and collaborate, providing a strong sense of place, cohesion and identity to the Training
Program. Our pre-doctoral trainees are drawn chiefly from the Microbiology Doctoral Training Program
(MDTP), a top ranked graduate program. Our post-doctoral fellows are drawn from a strong pool of PhD and
Infectious Disease MD fellows, the latter from Pediatrics and Internal Medicine programs with a strong history
of placing fellows into academic medicine. MHD holds bi-weekly meetings, hosts invited speakers, and has a
website and listserve. Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Bacteriology, Medicine and Pediatrics are core
departments of MHD and MDTP activities, and offer required didactic, journal club and seminar courses to our
trainees. Instruction is provided in host-microbe interactions, microbial pathogenesis, immunology, infectious
disease, translational medicine, and responsible conduct of research. Our 35 trainers span 9 departments in 4
colleges and collaborate with each other in research and teaching. All trainers are productive scientists with
proven NIH or equivalent funding records and strong records of graduate training. Most are tenured (23 full, 7
associate professors) and 5 promising junior faculty trainers will be mentored by senior training faculty. The
training program faculty are dedicated to recruiting outstanding students and fellows, including focused efforts
for minority candidates, and are committed to pre- and post-doctoral mentoring and didactic and research
training. To support these efforts, and the NIH-stated need to train scientists in the area of microbes in health
and disease, support is requested for 8 trainees annually: 5 predoctoral trainees and 3 postdoctoral trainees,
including two MD and one PhD fellows. Each trainee is mentored by a committee consisting of a thesis advisor
or mentor and 4 other faculty, and all trainees are also co-mentored by virtue of joint trainer service on these
committees. Our program and trainers are highly regarded in the scientific community, and fill a unique niche
on campus and a critical national need. The success of t...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9854317
- **Project number:** 2T32AI055397-16
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** BRUCE Steven KLEIN
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $435,626
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2003-08-01 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9854317

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9854317, Microbes in Health and Disease (2T32AI055397-16). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9854317. Licensed CC0.

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