Overview
John Mekalanos is a microbiologist who is primarily known for leading one of the first teams that reported the discovery of the type VI secretion system as well as his work on the pathogenicity of the bacterial species Vibrio cholerae, its toxin, and its secretion systems. Since 1998, he has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Education
He started his research studies as a graduate student in the labs of R. John Collier and William Robert Romig at UCLA where his research was focused on studying the genetic and biochemical analysis of the cholera toxin secreted by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Highlights of his career during this time was, along with Romig, the development of a screening assay designed to isolate the tox mutants of Vibrio cholerae (strains with altered toxin production ability) which led to the genetic mapping of the toxin-regulatory mutants in this bacterial species.
He continued his work on cholera toxin as a post-doc at the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School with John R. Murphy, which was followed by his appointment as an assistant professor there.
Career and Research
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