Presentation

At the Department of Medical Microbiology research is focused on the study of important bacterial pathogens. Research there seeks to unravel the mechanisms by which these microorganisms evolve, with special attention to those that cause diseases in humans and animals, and how they acquire and disseminate new resistance genes. The epidemiology of hospital infections and bacterial pathogens of an urban environment are also of great interest. In view of these objectives, the researchers in this department use the most modern technologies of Cellular and Molecular Biology, such as cloning, DNA sequencing, Northern blotting, proteome technology, DNA microarrays, as well as molecular typing techniques applying pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Southern blotting and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Our researchers have scientific associations with laboratories of various centers of excellence in Brazil and the USA; they participate in national and international scientific committees; are invited to write chapters of international books with strong editorial lines; and they also participate in the reviewing processes of important scientific journals such as: The Journal of Infectious Diseases, and Clinical Microbiology and Infection, among others.