The Ph.D. Program in Virology

The Harvard University Virology program was organized in 1983 in response to widespread recognition of the importance of virus research in the study of normal and abnormal molecular cell and organismal biology. Program faculty were drawn from the Division of Medical Sciences and from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Their research interests were centered in the genetics and molecular cell biology of bacterial and animal virus replication, in the role of viruses and viral gene products in abnormal cell growth, in the molecular pathogenesis of viral infection, in the use of viruses as vectors, and in structural biology. Over the years, the fifty faculty laboratories have evolved to include new pathogenic agents (particularly human immunodeficiency virus), molecular pharmacology, and the use of viruses as probes for the study of signal transduction, transcription, translation, cell cycle regulation, cell differentiation, and cell death. The first group of graduate students was admitted in the Fall of '83 and the program rapidly grew to the current size of eight to ten new students per year.

Several aspects of viruses continue to make them attractive targets for study. Most viruses can be grown in cultured cells. As the simplest life forms, they are most amenable to genetic and biochemical investigation. Because of their limited genetic information, viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that must interact with many aspects of the normal cell in order to be replicated. Viruses that infect multicellular organisms also encounter aspects of organismal biology such as cell growth control, differentiation, and host resistance factors. Thus, virus infection at the cell and organismal level dramatically highlights aspects of cell and organismal biology that can be readily reduced to genetic and biochemical analyses. Given a point of departure for the investigation of an interesting pathway, Virology laboratories continue to lead in the delineation of fundamental cell and organismal life processes. Indeed, several of the faculty are more widely known for their contributions to biochemistry or to cell or organismal biology than for their role as virologists.

The relatively small size of the Virology graduate program and faculty make this program ideally attractive for students interested in collegial student-student and student-faculty interactions. First year students interact weekly with more senior students and faculty at the Virology Program student journal club, research seminar, and luncheon discussion group. Faculty and students also attend the annual Program 2 day Retreat. This year the Retreat was held in Cape Cod at the Capecodder Resort and Spa in Hyannis, MA. Less formal interactions include dinners, receptions and trips by groups of students to New England's many vacation spots. Senior students are encouraged to more formally participate in the educational program. Almost all of the faculty are also mentors for trainees in other graduate programs so that interdisciplinary interactions flourish at all levels.