Faculty from throughout the UC Berkeley campus and its affiliates make up the GGM, a unique network of microbiologists doing the latest research. Graduate students can join either PMB labs or GGM labs.  

The Graduate Group in Microbiology is composed of faculty from diverse departments, colleges, and schools (Plant and Microbial Biology; Molecular and Cell Biology; Public Health; Civil and Environmental Engineering; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Environmental Science, Policy, and Management; Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology; Optometry; and Integrative Biology) and is administered by the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology.

Learn more about the GGM.

Graduate Group in Microbiology


Associate Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management
Ecology of insect-associated microbes (disease ecology and insect symbiosis)
Lisa Alvarez-Cohen

Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Application of biological processes for the elimination of environmental contaminants
Arkin

Professor of Bioengineering (Affiliate)
Uncover the evolutionary design principles of cellular networks and populations and to exploit them for applications
Jillian Banfield

Professor, Environmental Science, Policy, Management
Microorganism and mineral interactions; geochemical cycling, bioremediation, human microbiome

Associate Professor
Fungi as a model system for the study of genetic variation and evolution
Professor Steven Brenner

Professor, Plant & Microbial Biology
Computational Biology, Genomics, Protein Function Prediction
Thomas D. Bruns, Microbiology, UC Berkeley

Professor Emeritus
Fungal Ecology

Associate Professor, Chemistry
Biochemistry, Chemical Biology, and Synthetic Biology—Designing new biosynthetic pathways for in vivo cellular production of biofuels and pharmaceuticals
Professor John D. Coates

Professor of Microbiology and Academic Director, Energy Biosciences Institute
Bioremediation
Devin Coleman-Derr

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Abiotic stress response and plant growth promoting microbial communities

Associate Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology
The molecular mechanisms of immune evasion employed by KSHV (human herpesvirus 8)
John Dueber

Associate Professor, Bioengineering
Developing strategies for introducing designable, modular control over living cells; particularly interested in biofuel applications
Mary Firestone

Professor, Environmental Science, Policy, Management
Microbial community ecology in terrestrial systems
Suzanne Fleiszig

Professor, Optometry and Vision Science
Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenesis: host-pathogen interactions determining health versus disease
Picture of Karine Gibbs, photograph by Adam Sings in the Timber

Associate Professor, Plant & Microbial Biology
Identity in social bacteria
N. Louise Glass

Professor, Plant & Microbial Biology and Graduate Group in Microbiology
Biofuels, Fungi
Britt A. Glaunsinger

Professor, Plant & Microbial Biology, Associate Chair
Virus-Host Interactions, RNA-Based Regulation

Adjunct Professor / Senior Scientist / Program Head
Fungal and Algal Genomics, Computational Biology
Eva Harris

Professor, Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology
Molecular virology, pathogenesis, immunology, epidemiology, and control of dengue
Jay Keasling

Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Microorganism metabolic engineering for environmentally friendly product synthesis or contaminant biodegradation
Nicole King

Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology
Molecular and comparative genomic approaches to reconstruct the origin and evolution of animals
portrait of Arash Komeili

Professor, Plant & Microbial Biology
Bacterial organelles and biomeinralization

Assistant Professor
Genomics and Innate Immune systems

Adjunct Associate Professor
Plant Disease and Immunity
steven lindow

Professor Emeritus
Ecology of Plant-Associated Microorganisms

Assistant Professor
Lanthanide-biochemistry and metabolism. Microbial Physiology, Metabolic Engineering, Plant-microbe interactions, bioremediation and biometallurgy
sabeeha

Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology

Assistant Professor in Molecular and Cell Biology
Archaea; Methanogenesis; Microbial Evolution; CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing
Krishna K. Niyogi

Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology
Regulation of Photosynthesis and Photoprotection
Celine Pallud

Assoc. Prof.; Environmental Science, Policy, Management
Soil biogeochemistry & biogeophysics, environmental fate of contaminants

Distinguished Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology & Plant and Microbial Biology
Bacterial pathogenesis
Lee Riley

Professor, Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology
Epidemiology with molecular biology to characterize pathogenesis of infectious agents e.g. tuberculosis and diarrheal diseases
Jasper Rine

Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology
Molecular genetics, functional genomics and cell biology of yeast, with an emphasis on epigenetics

Associate Professor, Plant & Microbial Biology
Signaling Pathways, Antibiotic Persistence, Cell Envelope Integrity
Randy Schekman

Professor, Molecular & Cell Biology
The process of membrane assembly, vesicular transport, and membrane fusion among organelles of the secretory pathway

Associate Professor
Interactions between bacteria and their viral predators (bacteriophages)
Michael Shapira

Assistant Professor in Residence, Integrative Biology
Host-microbiota-pathogen interactions, aging

Assistant Professor
Synthetic Biology, Plant Metabolism, Microbial Evolution
Shauna Somerville

Professor Emerita
Plant-pathogen interactions; mechanisms of host defense; cell wall integrity sensing
Sarah Stanley

Assistant Prof., Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology
Molecular mechanisms of M. tuberculosis virulence and pathogenesis in macrophages

Maxine J. Elliot Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology
Plant Immunity
Michi Taga

Professor, Plant & Microbial Biology
Microbial Nutritional Interactions
John W. Taylor

Professor of the Graduate School
Fungal evolution and genomics
Matt Traxler

Associate Professor
Bacterial interspecies interactions and specialized metabolism
Russell Vance

Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology
Innate immune sensing of intracellular bacterial pathogens
matt welch

Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology
Host-pathogen interactions, esp. how pathogens exploit the host cytoskeleton for growth and spread during infection
Mary C. Wildermuth, Associate Professor

Associate Professor, Plant & Microbial Biology
Plant-Microbe Interactions
Ashley Wolf

Assistant Professor, Public Health Division of Infectious Diseases & Vaccinology and Center for Computational Biology
Gut Microbiome

Professor Emerita
Type IV secretion in bacteria and cell-to-cell transport in plants
Wenjun Zhang

Assistant Prof., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Natural product biosynthesis and engineering for health and bioenergy applications