Principal Investigator, Bond LSC
Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Marc Johnson
School of Medicine
Biography
Marc Johnson is a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology (MMI). The Johnson lab studies viral metagenomics through air and water sampling. A primary focus of the lab is to work with public health to develop tools for monitoring the presence of new and emerging pathogens through wastewater surveillance. Through their wastewater surveillance work, the lab also studies ‘cryptic lineages’, which are evolutionarily advanced viral lineages from individual with very long persistent infections that are detected from wastewater. In addition to wastewater, the lab collects air and wastewater samples from diverse sources to establish a more complete picture of the complete virome on earth.
Featured news
April 29, 2020
The Lab in Time of COVID-19
The main halls of Bond LSC are empty due to researchers being told to work from home. | photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC. By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC On an average day, you can find post doctorate Norman Best surrounded by corn in the greenhouse or at his bench in the McSteen lab doing molecular work. However, since Columbia and state leaders issued a stay-at-home order on March 25 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, this means Bond LSC is mostly empty and researchers like Best are at home writing. “It’s definitely…
Aug. 4, 2014
Viruses as Vehicles: Finding what drives
Graduate students Yuleam Song and Dan Salamango inoculate a bacteria culture in Johnson’s lab. The inoculation takes a small portion of a virus and multiplies the sample, allowing researchers to custom-make viruses. By Madison Knapp | Bond Life Sciences Center summer intern Modern science has found a way to turn viruses —tiny, dangerous weapons responsible for runny noses, crippling stomach pains and worldwide epidemics such as AIDS— into a tool. Gene therapy centers on the idea that scientists can hijack viruses and use them as vehicles to deliver DNA to organs in the body that…