Joseph Falkinham has been a member of the Department of Biology faculty at Virginia Tech since 1974. In 1975 he initiated studies of the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) focusing on identification of the sources of infection in humans, animals, and birds and the genetic and physiologic features that are determinants of their distribution, transmission, and persistence in the environment. Current investigations involve identification of factors that permit MAC to survive in the absence of oxygen, adaptation to growth in biofilms, mechanisms of disinfectant resistance, development of typing methods for M. intracellulare, and identifying the basis for the ability of M. avium and M. intracellulare to grow in phagocytic protozoa and amoebae. In 1993, Dr. Falkinham and two others founded Dominion BioSciences, Inc. It is a biotechnology development company focusing on development of novel products for the agricultural market.

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Dr. Christopher Lawrence’s research group at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) and the Dept. of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech primarily studies the interactions of fungi with plants and humans at the molecular level.  One project funded by the National Science Foundation Plant Genome Program aims to characterize the defense responses of resistant and susceptible plant hosts on a genome-wide scale when they are attacked by destructive necrotrophic fungi. The group is using the necrotrophic fungus Alternaria brassicicola, the model flowering plant Arabidopsis, and the closely related Brassica crops in their studies.

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