Paul Coussens

Dr. Coussens serves as Director of the Center for Animal Functional Genomics (CAFG) and the Molecular Pathogenesis laboratory, both located in Anthony Hall. Research in the Molecular pathogenesis laboratory focuses on the pathogenesis of Mycobacteria. Typical projects include: 1) Study of the mechanisms by which intracellular pathogens, such as M. bovis, M. paratubreculosis and M. tuberculosis, evade destruction by the host macrophage 2) Identification of genes induced or repressed in response to infection and 3) how Mycobacteria interact with the host immune system in experimentally and naturally infected animals. The CAFG is dedicated to developing EST resources and cDNA microarrays as tools to discover genes involved in a wide variety of animal systems, including various metabolic and infectious diseases. The CAFG offers training opportunities in functional genomics, bioinformatics, and statistical analysis of large data sets.