Whether you’re harnessing the healing properties of microbes or conducting research in the fight against COVID-19, understanding how microorganisms affect the body’s immune system can position you for an important career in the health, medicine and biotechnology fields.
In our program, you’ll study how bacteria, viruses and other pathogens interact to help and hinder the body’s ability to fight illness. You’ll pair a deep knowledge of the biomedical sciences and disease systems with hands-on, student-centered laboratory projects designed to test your technical and problem-solving capabilities. The expertise you gain will prepare you for a career as a researcher in medical labs as well as pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
We give you the tools to understand and respond to the current issues facing the scientific and healthcare communities, from the effects of MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant bacteria to the spread of E. coli and other food-borne illnesses. This major also gives you the option to enroll in the premedical studies program, which fulfills many prerequisites for graduate medical, physician assistant, dental and physical therapy programs.
A two-semester research experience, performed in a lab setting under the guidance of a faculty mentor, culminates in a formal presentation of your findings. Third- and fourth-year students also may be hired for internships and part-time summer work in regional biotech and pharmaceutical firms as well as government labs.
The average median salary of a microbiologist. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022)
With an abundance of career-focused information and resources, the career advisers within the School of Health Sciences support students as they expand their professional networks and attract the attention of prestigious employers.
The behavior of genes that potentially lead to infection and disease in humans — particularly Lyme disease — has long fascinated Christian Eggers, PhD, professor of microbiology. And he shares his passion for research with the many students he’s mentored since joining Quinnipiac’s faculty more than 13 years ago.
Eggers teaches several courses including microbiology, pathogenic microbiology and epidemiology. He also oversees the microbiology seminar and supervises undergraduate and graduate students who collaborate with him on his research.
“We study what B. burgdorferi does when it enters a human host and causes Lyme disease, as well as the evolutionary or genetic mechanisms that make it the bacterium it is… and allow it to build its genome and survive in a host,” he said.
Some of his students have been listed as co-authors on papers he wrote that were published in academic journals, such as Pathogens & Disease and Molecular Microbiology. Others have presented posters at national conferences hosted by the American Society of Microbiology and the 2016 Gordon Research Conference on the Biology of Spirochetes.
He likened his teaching philosophy to the role that parents play. “We know how important modeling is for parents. I feel it is important for a professor to engage with a student in the same way. If I can show students that I’m reading literature, thinking about a problem, making mistakes and rectifying them, they will learn what kinds of things lead to solutions or how critical thinking can be applied to solve problems,” he explained.
Becoming familiar with research methods and getting experience in the lab is especially important for students going on to graduate education and medical school, he noted.
Our undergraduate admissions counselors are here to answer any questions you may have and help you navigate the application process.