Jethro Johnson

I am an Innovation Track Principal Investigator at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology and Deputy Director of the Oxford Centre for Microbiome Studies.

My research uses multi-omic and computational approaches to identify the molecular basis of host-gut microbiome interactions and understand their impact on health and disease.

In 2012 I completed a PhD in nutritional ecology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, focussing on the effects of temperature on microbially-mediated digestion in ectothermic herbivores. I subsequently transitioned from wet to dry-lab research via an MRC career development fellowship in computational genomics, working with Professor Chris Ponting and Dr Andreas Heger at the Oxford MRC Functional Genomics Unit. As a postdoctoral research associate, I moved to the lab of Professor George Weinstock at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Connecticut, USA, where I applied next-generation sequencing and computational genomic approaches to characterize the human microbiome. In particular, I focussed on the role of the microbiome in metabolic disease, working on the type 2 diabetes arm of the NIH Integrative Human Microbiome Project. I joined the Kennedy Institute in 2020 to establish my own research group and help run the OCMS.