Promoting Innovation Through Collaboration
Research and training focused on diagnosis, treatment, prevention and clinical management of infectious disease, cancer, and metabolic and genetic disorders.
The Drexel University College of Medicine Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease is a collaborative inter-campus enterprise focused on research, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and clinical management of infectious disease, cancer, and metabolic and genetic disorders.
The institute guides the development of collaborative research programs that will be competitive for extramural research and training support. The institute also provides an organized framework to guide the development of inter-campus, inter-college and inter-unit research initiatives across the College.
Upcoming and Recent Events
5th International Symposium on Molecular Medicine & Infectious Disease
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Current Semester's Research Seminar Schedule Now Available
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News and Announcements
In CD4 Hunter™, players enter the bloodstream as an HIV particle, hunting for and infecting CD4+ T cells, which are the white blood cells of the adaptive immune system. Another game, Malaria Invasion™, enables users to learn more about malaria by following Plasmo the Invader™ (named after the parasite Plasmodium) on his quest to infect a human. Researchers Brian Wigdahl, PhD, and Sandra Urdaneta-Hartmann, MD, PhD, MBA, from Drexel’s Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease, expect to use these games as supplementary teaching tools for graduate students and undergraduates in advanced-level courses. Read more.
Lying inside a freezer in Drexel’s College of Medicine are 500 dead, mourned by no one. The deer ticks, dog ticks, lone star ticks and other tiny parasites in the diminutive morgue traveled from nearly every state in the country to reach this resting place. They arrived in baggies or cookie tins or what-have-you, scooped from meadows and forests by helpful volunteers responding to a “call for specimens” on Drexel’s website that was posted by Kayla Socarrás, a doctoral student studying microbiology and immunology. Each tick contains multitudes of smaller organisms — a grab-bag of the pathogenic bacteria that make tick bites so hazardous. Read more.
Malaria Invasion Receives Gold Medal
Congratulations to the Department of Microbiology & Immunology and the Institute for Molecular Medicine & Infectious Disease, whose game Malaria Invasion was awarded a gold medal by the 2019 International Serious Play Award program! Dr. Mary Ann Comunale, creative director, and Dr. Sandra Urdaneta-Hartmann, project director, will be traveling to the Serious Play Conference, where they will present game-based learning research and accept the award. John Harvey, a co-op student hired by the Institute and funded in part by the Steinbright Career Development Center, shares in the award as part of the game design team and game developer. John is currently a senior in the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design program.
Kayla Socarras Presents at PA Lyme Resource Network
On Monday, January 28, PhD candidate Kayla Socarrás presented her research regarding Lyme disease at the PA Lyme Resource Network of Montgomery County. Kayla met with participants following the meeting to answer additional questions and talk more about her findings.
Kayla Socarras (right) discussing her research with attendees at the PA Lyme Resource Network meeting.
Students Present at Discovery Day
On October 23, 2018, students in the Beld, Ma and Mell Labs, including graduate students Danielle Piazza, Haley Majer, Amanda Platt, Breanna Tyrell, Kristen Buenconsejo, Tucker Collins (mentored by Sandhya Kortagere) and medical student Nga Ying Eng, presented posters at Discovery Day in the Philadelphia Convention Center. Kristen Buenconsejo won a Junior Graduate Student Poster award for her poster, "The Significance of Secondary Metabolism on the Predatory Behavior of Myxococcus fulvus."
Discovery Day is an all-day annual event of intellectual pursuit and discovery, which is organized to celebrate the basic and clinical research accomplishments of the graduate, medical and undergraduate students, clinical research coordinators, postdoctoral fellows, and residents and fellows affiliated with the College of Medicine.
Danielle R. Piazza presenting "Dissecting Mechanisms of Variation of Genome Wide Transportation in Haemophilus influenzae" at Discovery Day
Kristen Buenconsejo with her award-winning poster, "The Significance of Secondary Metabolism on the Predatory Behavior of Myxococcus fulvus" at Discovery Day
Donald Hall Presents at ASM Conference
Donald C. Hall Jr., PhD candidate in the Departments of Microbiology & Immunology and Chemistry, presented his poster entitled "JEKMag Tech: High Throughput Technology to Grow and Assess Bacterial Biofilm Sensitivity to New Drugs" at the 2018 American Society for Microbiology Conference on Biofilms, October 7 – 11, 2018, in Washington, D.C.
The conference provided an interdisciplinary platform to discuss the latest biofilm research. Topics included the molecular basis and regulation of biofilm formation, biofilms in natural and industrial systems, diagnosis and study of clinically-relevant biofilms, and emerging technologies and their application to biofilms.
"Omics Studies in Ecological Interactions"
On Wednesday, September 12, Garth Ehrlich, PhD, hosted his postdoctoral researcher, Yves Mone, PhD, at the IMMID research seminar. Dr. Mone joined the Ehrlich Lab after serving as a researcher at the Health Department of the French Institute for Development (IRD).
Dr. Mone’s research focuses on the complexities of Lyme disease.
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