Our faculty teach a wide portfolio of microbiology courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. We also serve as the home department for the Graduate Field of Microbiology (with over 40 affiliated faculty members) and provide a center of expertise for numerous aspects of microbial biology. Research within our department is focused on prokaryotic molecular biology and environmental microbiology.

Latest News

graphic of blood cells

News

Advancing Health: CCI Announces Multidisciplinary Seed Grants

Three innovative approaches to treating infections, fighting cancer, and enhancing the body’s immune system have been selected for funding through the Cornell Center for Immunology's 2025 Multidisciplinary Seed Grants.

  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Microbiology
An illustration using figures called “similarity trees,” used to infer the evolution of enzyme components essential to transposons, or “jumping genes,” functioning.

News

Researchers identified several families of "jumping genes," or transposons, in cyanobacteria and Streptomyces that can find and insert themselves at the telomere, with benefits for the transposon and their bacterial host.

  • Microbiology
  • Evolution
  • Genetics
A man smiling in a sunny lab

News

“This award places Scott Emr in the company of many of the top figures in molecular biology and biomedical sciences from the past 50 years.”

  • Microbiology
  • Molecular Biology and Genetics