Dr. Mike Zimmer to join Department of Biological Sciences at PUC in August 2008

Dr. Zimmer explains a research project to a student.

Mike Zimmer earned his B.S. in Biology from California Polytechnic University, Pomona. During his undergraduate studies, he had the opportunity to work at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, and it was during this time that he became interested in immunology. Mike then went on to graduate study at the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh where he earned a Ph.D. in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology. As a graduate student, Dr. Zimmer developed a nonhuman primate model to study the effects of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus infection on dendritic cells, a professional antigen presenting cell type that plays important roles in regulating immune responses. Mike then pursued postdoctoral training in the Department of Pathology at the University of Chicago. As a Postdoctoral Scholar, he studied Natural Killer T (NKT) cells, a unique lymphocyte population that responds to lipid antigens as opposed to peptides.

Mike is married to Dr. Erin Zimmer, an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Lewis University in Romeoville, IL. Mike and Erin are the proud parents of 3 energetic young boys. In his free time, Mike enjoys fly fishing for trout in the Great Lakes region, including Michigan and Wisconsin.

Dr. Zimmer will join the Department of Biological Sciences as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the fall of 2008. His research will focus on the recognition of lipid antigens by T cells in a nonhuman primate model.