Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs
USF Health · College of Medicine
 
 


The strength of the PhD program lies in our students' ability to develop expertise targeted towards future professional careers.  Although we do have departmental appointments, first year PhD students will complete at least three 5-week laboratory rotations without restriction.  Thus, students choose mentors based upon research projects and not departmental affiliation.  Some of our current research projects include: 

 
  
 
  • Alcoholic liver injury
  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Angiogenesis
  • Bacterial pathogenesis
  • Bioterrorism
  • Brain injury
  • Brainstem central chemoreceptors
  • Cancer biomarkers
  • Cancer pathobiology
  • Cardiac hormones
  • Cell signaling networks and the regulation of heart rate
  • Cellular and molecular mechanisms of CNS oxygen toxicity
  • Cellular immunology
  • Cholesterol biosynthesis & metabolism
  • Chromatin structure and transcription
  • Computational neuroscience
  • Electro-chemotherapy of cancer
  • Evolution of antigen receptors
  • Experimental cancer therapy
  • Extracellular matrix and tumor invasion
  • Gastrointestinal hormones
  • Gene & stem cell therapies for heart disease and diabetes
  • Gene & stem cell therapies for neurodegenerative disease
  • Gene and transcriptional regulation
  • Genes; antigen presentation
  • Glycobiology
  • Heme biosynthesis
  • Hyperbaric neurophysiology
  • Immune cell signaling
  • Immunomodulation, infection

 

  
  • Infectious diseases
  • Insulin signal transduction
  • Metalloenzymes, flavoproteins
  • Microbial genetics
  • Molecular mechanisms of septic shock
  • Myeloid cell differentiation
  • Myocardial injury
  • Nanotechnology, airway diseases
  • Neural networks that control breathing and cardiovascular function
  • Neural plasticity with neurodegenerative disease and after brain injury.
  • Neurogenesis, molecular biology
  • Opportunistic microbial pathogens
  • Parkinson’s Disease
  • Polyisoprenol biosynthesis
  • Protein engineering
  • Regulation and development of ion channels, synapses, and cell excitability
  • Regulation of bacterial virulence
  • Regulation of cell division
  • Renal function and blood pressure regulation
  • RNA processing
  • Signal transduction and drug discovery
  • Stem cells, immunology
  • Therapies for stroke
  • Transcription, signaling
  • Tumor virology & immunology
  • Tumor suppressor genes
  • Uterine leiomyomas
  • Vaccine development
  • Women’s cancers