About
Letter from the Chair
It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology (CMMB) in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Florida (USF). This site will tell you about the Department; its degree programs, courses, faculty, staff, facilities and activities. We have all of the major instrumentation and facilities to allow our outstanding faculty and co-workers to perform world-class research, while maintaining an atmosphere conducive to one-on-one interactions among faculty, staff, and students at all levels. We are a biomedical research department, and CMMB has research efforts of international stature in our programmatic research areas, which are funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and U.S. Department of Agriculture: Bacterial Pathogenesis, Genome Integrity & Aging, and Structural & Computational Biology. Furthermore, we have Faculty undertaking meritorious research in Food Science, Cancer Cell Signaling, Juvenile Diabetes, and Proteomics. Indeed, the current extramural grant portfolio of CMMB is approximately $4,000,000. The Department also has a new highly interactive, multi-disciplinary initiative underway in Lipidomics & Metabolomics using mass spectrometric analysis of small molecules. Therefore, CMMB, through these innovative endeavors, extramurally funded research programs, and our rigorous coursework, provides unique opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students to receive a high-level of training in biomedical research and biotechnology.
CMMB is home to a community of dedicated scientists, instructors, students, and postdoctoral fellows conducting innovative research on cellular and molecular mechanisms governing cellular processes. The Department offers a strong collegial atmosphere where faculty, students, postdoctoral fellows and administrators work together to promote and share in the discovery of fundamental principles governing life processes. In addition to a commitment to research excellence, the department is dedicated to education. The CMMB prepares students for successful careers in academia, government, biotechnology, and in teaching. Our Bachelor of Science (BS) graduates are strongly prepared and typically enter fields related to medicine, biomedical research, biotechnology as well as enter postgraduate training in these areas to obtain a Ph.D. or M.D. degree. We also offer and continue to develop curricula in undergraduate BS majors of both Cell Biology & Molecular Biology and Microbiology. Research-oriented students can take advantage of the strong research environment in CMMB to pursue an MS degree in Biology, Concentration in Cell and Molecular Biology, an MS in Microbiology, a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology, or a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology jointly with the Moffitt Cancer Center. For those students interested in additional education in Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology, but do not want to commit to a long term research program, we also offer a non-thesis MS in Biology, Concentration in Cell and Molecular Biology that can be completed in two years.
If you are searching for outstanding training in Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology, you should explore what we have to offer. The training is rigorous and provides access to state-of-the-art technology in diverse research areas. Our faculty is especially committed to education and is actively engaged in shaping a highly collaborative environment with other departments, colleges, and the private sector that makes USF such a special place. It is an exciting time as CMMB has begun a major expansion with the recruitment of new faculty to further bolster the already strong international stature of our research programs.
I hope that you find your virtual visit to CMMB an enjoyable one, and I encourage you to drop in and visit us in person. We welcome all of your inquiries and comments.