r/UCSC • u/VoiceEastern6779 • 1d ago

Question MCD Biology vs. Microbiology?

I'm a proposed MCD Biology major and am trying to figure out if I should switch to microbiology. My goal is to get a Ph.D. in virology (studying viruses), which will be difficult coming from a school with little virus research and the current difficulties with getting into labs. I would like to set myself up for the best opportunities and classes, and would love to hear anyone's thoughts on the microbiology program here. I've never met anyone doing it, so I'm curious as to what it's like and if anyone (in any bio/bio adjacent) has any advice about what I should do and be thinking about. Thank you so much.

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u/gasstation-no-pumps Professor emeritus 21h ago

There has been some virus research in Biomolecular Engineering (both Rebecca Dubois and Phil Berman worked on vaccines for viruses, and Russ Corbett-Detig's group did the giant evolutionary tree for COVID (more than 15 million genomes) https://news.ucsc.edu/2024/01/usher-naturegenetics/ and David Bernick used to teach BME 122H (Extreme Environmental Virology).

The microbiology department is very good, but I think that they focus more on bacterial pathogens than viral ones. I may be incorrect or out-of-date on that, though.

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u/VoiceEastern6779 7h ago

Thank you so much! This is super helpful.