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| Michael D. L. Johnson, Ph.D. |
Johnson’s seminar, “Using Copper Toxicity to Exploit a Microbial Achilles’ Heel,” is set for Thursday, Sept. 28, at 4 p.m. in the first-floor auditorium of the Medical Sciences Building. Students and faculty are invited to attend the lecture, hosted by the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
Among his accomplishments, Johnson has been a participant in the National Institute of General Medical Sciences Director's Early Career Investigator Lecture series. In 2020, he was chosen as one of the “100 Black Scientists in America” by Cell Press, and in 2022, he was awarded the American Society for Microbiology Award for advancement of a diverse community of microbiologists. Johnson is well-known for his diversity, equality, and inclusion efforts and has a large following on social media, including on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, where he can be found at @blacksciblog.
Johnson’s lab group focuses on the study of metals in biological systems. Specifically, he examines the role of these vital metals as nutrients and sensing mechanisms for bacteria. The overall understanding of how bacteria interact with metals during host infections is critical to defining pathogenesis mechanisms. Recent work from the Johnson lab focused on using a copper-dependent antibiotic against multiple upper respiratory tract pathogens and pneumococcal hypersensitivity to copper and macrophage-mediated clearance. Research on these topics have been published in the American Society for Microbiology journals.
Learn more about the DSS program and view the fall schedule of seminars.
