Graduate Programs
Interdisciplinary Program in Genetic Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (GBCB)
Dr. Bassaganya-Riera is an affiliated faculty member of the GBCB program. Bioinformatics and computational biology provide a research platform to acquire, manage, analyze, and display large amounts of data, which in turn catalyze a systems approach to understanding biological organisms, as well as human diseases. Nutritional Immunology students pursuing a GBCB Doctoral degree will integrate the use of bioinformatics tools for solving important problems related to inflammation, immunology, infectious disease or nutritional immunology. The GBCB program provides a training environment that produces a combination of skills in bioinformatics and biosystems that are not commonly found in academia.
Graduate Program in Biomedical Engineering (BME)
Dr. Bassaganya-Riera is an affiliated faculty member of the Virginia Tech – Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (SBES). SBES is a unique collaboration between the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Virginia Tech whose purpose is to “provide a framework for the generation and dissemination of knowledge through research and education for the improvement of human and animal health through cooperative advancement in engineering, science and medicine.” Students interested in pursuing the GPI in the Nutritional Immunology Group are encouraged to become BME students so that SBES becomes their academic Department.
Graduate Program in Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences (BMVS)
Dr. Bassaganya-Riera is an adjunct Associate Professor of the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology. The graduate program at VMRCVM leads to either the Master of Science or Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences (BMVS). The program is an integral part of the VMRCVM and the Graduate School of Virginia Tech and is designed to prepare graduate students to be scholars and researchers who will benefit society by advancing veterinary and biomedical knowledge. Students interested in pursuing a Master or PhD in the area of Biomedical Sciences are encouraged to become BMVS students.
Research Programs for Undergraduates
Undergraduate Research Program In Nutritional Immunology
Left to right: Josep Bassaganya-Riera, Montse Climent, Mar Armengol, Teresa Salazar, Adria Carbo, Graciela Lopez, Cristina Vives.
The scientific focus of this program for rising juniors in Systems Biology is to integrate transdisciplinary nutritional immunology research with a system’s approach for developing novel therapies against chronic inflammatory diseases. The student is expected to learn acquire a conceptual framework in the interface between nutrition, immunology and systems biology by designing and conducting a research project, becoming familiar with state-of-the-art analytical immunology techniques used to address the working hypotheses, and research data management and analyses. This program is a partnership between the Nutritional Immunology Group at VBI and the Department of Systems’s Biology at the University of Vic (Catalonia, Spain): http://www.uvic.cat.
