The Department of Immunology in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (SOM) is an internationally ranked leader in basic and translational immunology research. Founded in 2002, the department is built on a long legacy of excellence in immunology research at Pitt, including Jonas Salk’s discovery of the polio vaccine, Nobel laureate Niels Jerne’s perfection of the Jerne plaque assay, and Thomas Starzl’s pioneering transplant program. Located in The Assembly, a historic building in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Shadyside that has been renovated into a state-of-the-art research facility, the department is home to more than 30 primary and 60 secondary faculty and over 150 postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and staff.
Harnessing the latest advances in technology, supported by our core facilities, and novel systems and computational approaches developed through the Center for Systems Immunology, our researchers are uncovering fundamental immunological mechanisms such as how immune cells detect and process cues, coordinate responses within and across tissues, interact with the microbiome, distinguish self from non-self, and respond to pathogens. We are also learning what happens when these processes go awry. A dysregulated immune system is implicated in many autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, such as type 1 diabetes, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and allergic asthma, as well as in chronic viral infections and cancer.
By understanding the immune system through the dual lenses of cellular and molecular immunology, and computational and systems immunology, we seek to improve vaccination, control autoimmunity, and prevent or reverse infectious diseases and cancer. Our partnerships with UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, the Center for Vaccine Research, the Department of Pediatrics, the Division of Rheumatology, and many other departments and centers across Pitt and UPMC foster interdisciplinary research and clinical collaborations that accelerate basic discoveries and advance them from bench to bedside.
We are a highly collaborative and interactive community, hosting an invited seminar speaker series, trainee and faculty research in progress series, an annual two-day offsite departmental scientific retreat, a Center for Systems Immunology Annual Retreat, and a joint Immunology and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Symposium.
The department is committed to training the next generation of immunologists through the SOM’s graduate Program in Microbiology and Immunology, and other SOM graduate programs. These rigorous programs rapidly immerse students in a dynamic research environment and mentor them to become independent and creative scientists. In alignment with this mission, we also provide hands-on research experience to undergraduate students who have not previously considered a research career or had opportunities for hands-on research through the Microbiology and Immunology Departments (MID) Scholars Program.
Research.com places Pitt 8th in the U.S. and 13th in the world on its Best Immunology Universities in the World list, and the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research ranked the University 3rd for National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in 2024.