Michael Apicella

Michael Apicella graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, and a M.D. degree from the State University of New York, New York, NY. After internship and residency at The Ohio State University, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. He started his academic career at the State University of New York, Buffalo, and later was a Professor of Medicine at the University of Nevada, Reno. In 1993, he was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Microbiology in the Carver College of Medicine, The University of Iowa. He led the department for 18 years during which he helped attract an outstanding faculty. He encouraged all sub-disciplines of microbiology such as bacteriology, pathogenic bacteriology, parasitology, microbial immunology, and virology. The faculty responded to his leadership by achieving the highest funding levels in the history of the department and by making outstanding medical and scientific contributions.

Dr. Apicella’s own research interest focused on the pathogenesis of Neisseria meningitidisNeisseria gonorrhoeae, and Haemophilus influenzae. For his outstanding research accomplishments, he was awarded the Research Career Development Award and the Merit Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He was a member of seven editorial boards for the leading journals in pathogenic bacteriology and a member and chairperson of the NIH Bacteriology and Mycology Study Section. To date, Dr. Apicella has mentored 17 PhD students, 3 Master of Science students, 7 Infectious Disease Postdoctoral Fellows, and 13 Postdoctoral Fellows. He received the Graduate College Outstanding Mentor Award (2001) and the Carver College of Medicine Distinguished Mentor Award (2012). In 2010, the faculty of the Department of Microbiology honored Dr. Apicella by endowing the Michael A. Apicella annual lecture in Microbiology.

The following speakers have presented this lecture:

Denise Monack, PhD,  Stanford University, Stanford School of Medicine, February 27, 2024
"Battles for gut resources and niches: How Salmonella induces superspreader hosts"

Mark Stinski, PhD, University of Iowa, May 11, 2021
"Discovering the CMV Promoter and the Major Immediate Early Genes of Human Cytomegalovirus"

Stephen Beverley, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis, September 25, 2018
"Origins and contributions of endogenous protozoal viruses to parasite virulence"

Wendell Lim, PhD, University of California San Francisco, September 15, 2016 (Co-sponsored by the Department of Microbiology and the Department of Biochemistry)
“Synthetic Biology: Learning to Talk to and Program Cells”

Arturo Casadevall, MD, PhD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, April 2, 2013
“Thoughts on the origin of microbial virulence”

Michael Good, MBBS, PhD, MD, DSc, Griffith University, Australia, April 12, 2012
“The Long Road to a Malaria Vaccine”

Harald zur Hausen, MD, DSc, MDs, German Cancer Research Centre, 2008 Nobel Prize Recipient, May 3, 2011
“Perspectives of Tumorvirus Research”

Patrick Moore, MD, MPH, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, October 5, 2010
“Why Do Viruses Cause Cancer?”

E. Peter Greenberg, PhD, University of Washington, October 15, 2009
“The Social Life of Bacteria”