Michael Johnson
Associate Professor, Applied BioSciences - GIDP | Associate Professor, Immunobiology | Associate Professor, BIO5 Institute | Member of the Graduate Faculty | Endowed Professor, Keating Family for Interdisciplinary Research at BIO5 Institute | Associate Dean, Basic Science Research and Graduate Studies
About
Michael D. L. Johnson received his bachelors from Duke University. He obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied the effects of calcium on bacterial motility and attachment under the mentorship of Matthew Redinbo. For his postdoctoral training, Michael Johnson went to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in order to work with Jason Rosch on metal homeostasis of Streptococcus pneumoniae and subsequently with Douglas Green on the mechanisms of LC3-associated phagocytosis. Michael Johnson joined the faculty of the University of Arizona in 2016.
Research Area
- Metals serve as vital nutrients to all biological systems. During infections, bacteria must not only acquire all metals necessary for survival from within the host, such as calcium or manganese, but must also efflux metals that are toxic or in excess such as copper. The overall goal of my laboratory is to investigate how bacteria maintain homeostasis within the metal milieu. This goal involves determining how metals are processed, the orchestrated response during metal sensing, and the role that the host plays in this process during infection. Understanding how bacteria interact with metals during infections will identify novel therapeutic strategies against bacterial infections.
Principles and Molecular Mechanisms of Microbe-Host Interactions
Medical Microbiology and Immunology
- 2018·Technology
- 2017·Technology