What’s New?
November 21st 2022
Finally (!) two open access papers, from the Bullman and Johnston lab collaboration, out within a day of each other relating to the intratumoral microbiota and it’s impact within the tumor microenvironment and chemotherapeutic drug efficacy.
First up, our Nature paper, open access link here.
“Effect of the intratumoral microbiota on spatial and cellular heterogeneity in cancer“
Also a really elegant write up on this work in Nature ‘News and Views‘ and another in Science ‘News‘ sections that nicely frame this study in the broader context of the field.
Next up, our Cell Reports paper, open access link here.
“The cancer chemotherapeutic 5-fluorouracil is a potent Fusobacterium nucleatum inhibitor and its activity is modified by intratumoral microbiota“
Outstanding work by all co-authors.
Collectively, these studies reveal that the distribution of the microbiota within a tumor is not random; instead, it is highly organized in microniches with immune and epithelial cell functions that promote cancer progression. Further, this intratumoral microbiota is capable of depleting routing chemotherapeutic drugs to limit their efficacy.
March 31st 2022
‘The Tumour-associated Microbiome’
Our comment piece in Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology is online now. Along with Dr Susan Bullman, we discuss current concepts relating to the intratumoral microbiota and what is needed to gain mechanistic insights on the role of bacteria in human tumors.
“the tumor- associated microbiota is an intrinsic component of the tumor microenvironment that can no longer be ignored“
MAR 1ST 2022
Complete genomes from the intratumoral microbiota!
Last summer we hosted (remotely) two outstanding Trinity College Dublin (TCD) undergraduates Adam McGlingchey and Marija Stepanovica, mentored by Martha Zepeda Rivera. Both worked on the analyzing and characterizing the genomes of Clostridium cadaveris and Morganella morganii strains isolated from human adenocarcinomas, resulting in two microbiology resource announcements linked here. Great productivity by all involved!
Jan 3rd 2022
Welcome to Postdoc researcher Ying Wu!
Ying joins the lab to work on the creation and application of new dCas9-effector tools for epigenome editing in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. She completed her master’s study at Zhejiang University, using qPCR and metagenomic analysis to understand the behaviors of antibiotic resistance genes in the microbial community of an anaerobic digester. Then went to the University of Notre Dame and completed her PhD with Dr. Na Wei. During her graduate research, Ying used synthetic biology to develop novel biomaterials for environmental applications, with a special interest of creating a whole-cell biosensor to detect water contamination by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia pseudomallei based on their quorum-sensing signals. Here she is excited to study how bacteria interact with cancer cells using genetic and epigenetic editing tools.
deC 21ST 2021
‘Harnessing the microbiome to restore immunotherapy response’
Our perspective article with the Bullman Lab and Laurence Zitvogel group at Goustave Roussy is out in the December issue of Nature Cancer. The full article can be read here.
nOV 15TH 2021
Welcome to Research Technician Kelly Kennedy!
Kelly joins the lab to assist with multiple synthetic biology projects, including characterizing a novel bacterial defense system and refining RM-silent SyngenicDNA minicircle techniques for historically intractable bacteria.
Kelly earned her B.A. in Statistics at the University of Chicago in 2010. Due to a strong interest in public health and the built environment, she then pursued a successful career as a commercial plumber and CAD/BIM piping detailer, where she drafted and built plumbing, hydronics, and medical gas systems for large construction projects across the Pacific Northwest. Interested in applying the strong spatial, mechanical, and design skills she developed in her plumbing career to new and exciting biological problems, Kelly enrolled in Shoreline Community College’s Biotechnology Certificate program in 2020. This program enabled her to get hands-on experience with a variety of molecular biology techniques, and to conduct an independent project where she used DNA barcoding to identify bacterial species in local marine soil samples. Kelly is very excited to start her new career in scientific research with the Johnston Lab.
sep 22nd 2021
Welcome to Bioinformatics Analyst Heather Bouzek!
Joining the Johnston lab as a Bioinformatics Analyst, Heather has decades of experience in biology and biology-adjacent disciplines, including astrobiology, the molecular biology of cancer, immunology, microbiology, statistics, R programming and virology. Heather holds two Bachelors’ of Science degrees from the University of Washington and a Master’s Degree in Statistics from Texas A&M. She is excited to marry her twin loves of data visualizations and sequence exploration. Heather lives in Seattle’s fabled Ballard neighborhood with her partner, children, and cats. She loves music, art, and entomology and is fascinated by obscure minutiae.
jULY 23rd 2021
We are hiring at multiple levels, both wet lab and dry lab.
Come work with us on prokaryote/eukaryote epigenetics!
A) Postdoc or Staff Scientist –
Synthetic Microbiology/Epigenomic engineering (dCas9)
The successful applicant will work with Dr. Christopher D. Johnston to develop and support expanding synthetic microbiology and epigenome-editing efforts (prokaryote/eukaryote) focused on the human microbiome. Central responsibilities will include: (i) the management and advancement of multiple ongoing wet-lab research projects – primarily associated with the application of state-of-the-art long-read sequencing technologies (PacBio/Oxford-nanopore) in the context of clinical metagenomics and methylation studies. (ii) Design/engineering/purification and validation of novel CRISPR-Cas/dCas9-effector systems for prokaryotes/eukaryotes. (iii) Continued adoption of novel synthetic biology methodologies/technologies for creative problem-solving during strain engineering across a wide range of bacterial species.
The full job postings can be found here at Staff Scientist level, or here at Postdoc level found.
B) Postdoc or Computational Staff Scientist –
Microbial Genomic/Metagenomic/Epigenomic analyses
The successful applicant will work with Dr. Christopher D. Johnston to develop and support the growing computational and bioinformatics efforts within a research group focused on the human microbiome. Central responsibilities will include all aspects of analysis and management of multiple unique data sets -primarily associated with long-read sequencing technologies (PacBio) including large scale computational genomics of clinical microbial strain collections, patient tumor and tissue metagenomics, and microbial/eukaryote epigenetics. Additionally, statistical analysis of large datasets, integration of multiple data elements, and generation of figures to visualize microbiome data and results.
The full job postings can be found here for both levels.
C) Bioinformatics Analyst II/III –
Synthetic Microbiology/Epigenomic engineering (dCas9)
The successful candidate will contribute to multiple funded ongoing projects and work closely with bench scientists during project design, method development, and data acquisition; executing, improving, and developing informatics pipelines based on evaluation of computational tools and reference databases; and conducting and reporting data analysis using principles of good statistical scientific practice and reproducible research. Central responsibilities will include all aspects of analysis and management of multiple unique data sets -primarily associated with long-read sequencing technologies (PacBio) including large scale computational genomics of clinical microbial strain collections, patient tumor and tissue metagenomics, and microbial/eukaryote epigenetics. Additionally, statistical analysis of large datasets, integration of multiple data elements, and generation of figures to visualize microbiome data and results.
The full job posting can be found here.
D) Research Technician I/II –
Molecular Microbiology/Epigenetic Engineering of Prokaryotes/Eukaryotes
We are recruiting a highly motivated research technician with strong expertise in microbiology/molecular biology/genetic engineering of prokaryotes or eukaryotes to join our cutting-edge genomics/epigenomics efforts. The research technician will be given the opportunity and be responsible for conducting independent and creative research related to the overall mission of the laboratory, specifically relating to design/construction/validation and testing of a suite of novel CRISPR-dCas9-effector systems.
The full job posting can be found here.
Jun 1ST 2021
Welcome 2021 (remote) lab interns!
This year we are excited to team up with Trinity College Dublin, School of Genetics and Microbiology, and welcome Marija Stepanovica / Adam McGlinchey to the lab.
Both Adam and Marija are pursuing their BSc in Human Genetics will work on the genome/epigenome characterization of bacterial species isolated from human colorectal tumors, under the mentorship of Dr. Martha Zepeda Rivera.
Welcome!
April 14th 2021
Lab alum doing great things!
Huge congratulations to Stephany Flores-Ramos who was just awarded The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship to support work towards her PhD in Biomedical Sciences at University of California, San Diego. You can read all about Stephany and the fellowship here. Steph joined our Forsyth group back in 2017 jointly with collaborator Dr Katherine Lemon’s lab and started grad school in 2019. Onward and Upward!
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans program honors the contributions of immigrants and children of immigrants to the United States. Each year, they invest in the graduate education of 30 New Americans—immigrants and children of immigrants—who are poised to make significant contributions to US society, culture or their academic field.
March 18th 2021
‘The Relationship between Gastrointestinal Cancers and the Microbiota’, our review with Susan and Kaitlyn from the Bullman Lab is out in the April issue of The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology
A detailed review (by Kaitlyn LaCourse from Susan Bullman‘s lab) on how the microbiota influences GI cancer risk/treatment and how this could be harnessed to improve patient health. Now available in the April 2021 issue of ‘The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology’ (open access link here). This was great to work on, and sterling work by Kaitlyn and Susan.
Feb 17th 2021
We are seeking two outstanding Staff Scientists (Wet-Lab/Dry-Lab)!
1) Staff Scientist – Synthetic Microbiology/Epigenomic engineering (dCas9)
The successful applicant will work with Dr. Christopher D. Johnston to develop and support expanding synthetic microbiology and epigenome-editing efforts (prokaryote/eukaryote) focused on the human microbiome. Central responsibilities will include: (i) the management and advancement of multiple ongoing wet-lab research projects – primarily associated with the application of state-of-the-art long-read sequencing technologies (PacBio/Oxford-nanopore) in the context of clinical metagenomics and methylation studies. (ii) Design/engineering/purification and validation of novel CRISPR-Cas/dCas9-effector systems for prokaryotes/eukaryotes. (iii) Continued adoption of novel synthetic biology methodologies/technologies for creative problem-solving during strain engineering across a wide range of bacterial species.
2) Computational Staff Scientist – Microbial Genomic/Metagenomic/Epigenomic analyses
The successful applicant will work with Dr. Christopher D. Johnston to develop and support the growing computational and bioinformatics efforts within a research group focused on the human microbiome. Central responsibilities will include all aspects of analysis and management of multiple unique data sets -primarily associated with long-read sequencing technologies (PacBio) including large scale computational genomics of clinical microbial strain collections, patient tumor and tissue metagenomics, and microbial/eukaryote epigenetics. Additionally, statistical analysis of large datasets, integration of multiple data elements, and generation of figures to visualize microbiome data and results.
I especially encourage those from backgrounds poorly represented in STEM fields to apply to the lab.
The full job postings can be found here and here.
Feb 3rd 2021
A bacterial epigeneticist, a human epigeneticist, and a tumor microbiome researcher walk into a bar…
A nice write up by Fred Hutch on our new project supported by the W.M. Keck Foundation. We will be hiring an outstanding staff scientist with enthusiasm for all things epigenetics soon. Expertise in dCas9 and mammalian model systems would help greatly! Email johnston[at]fredhutch.org.
Jan 19th 2021
W.M Keck foundation funding success!
Very excited to share the news that the W.M. Keck Foundation has funded our super high-risk medical research application that focuses on the potential of host-microbe epigenetic crosstalk in cancer. This one is an awesome research collaboration two years in the making with Susan Bullman right here at Fred Hutch and Angela Ting over at Cleveland Clinic. We will be hiring a scientist with enthusiasm for all things epigenetics soon. Expertise in dCas9 and mammalian model systems would help greatly!
Dec 31st 2020
Lab swag suitable for 2020. 
We made it through 2020! To celebrate we had a socially distant lab holiday lunch and got new lab swag!
Welcome to the future!
NOv 21st 2020
Upgrade unlocked: Anaerobic Growth
Our Concept 1000 anaerobic chamber is up and running (We named it Ripley). Apparently some bacteria don’t enjoy atmospheric oxygen, it’s a wonder they made it this far..
More genetic systems for anaerobes are on the way!
Sep 30th 2020
We are hiring computational expertise in microbial datasets
Bioinformatics Analyst I-II, Computational Analyses of Microbial Genomic/Metagenomic/Epigenomic Data
The Johnston Laboratory in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is recruiting a highly motivated and creative Bioinformatics Analyst to analyze multiple unique data sets primarily associated with long-read sequencing technologies (PacBio) including large scale computational genomics of microbial genomes, patient tumor and tissue metagenomics, and microbial/eukaryote epigenetics.
The Bioinformatics Analyst will be responsible for working with our team to provide data analyses and visualizations of primarily microbial datasets (Genomic/Metagenomic/Epigenomic data). A successful candidate will have experience in data analysis, generating visualizations, writing analyses summaries and abstracts, and managing time across various projects with different collaborators.
We are accepting applications for either a Bioinformatics Analyst Level I (min 0-2 years) or Level II (min 3-6 years).
I especially encourage those from backgrounds poorly represented in STEM fields to apply to the lab.
The full job posting can be found here
Jun 27th 2020
Congratulations to Martha and Sam on their wedding!
We all need as much good news as we can get these days, and the Johnston lab was delighted to (remotely) wish Martha and Sam huge congratulations on their wedding day!
Mar 12 2020
We are working, but remotely.
Since its emergence in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world, including the U.S. The Johnston Lab are currently working remotely to support social distancing measures to contain the pandemic in Seattle.
The global scientific community has reacted to this new viral threat with unprecedented speed and cooperation. Key insights for saving lives are coming out of rapid genome sequencing, open data sharing and transparent scientific communications. We particularity recommend Trevor Bedford’s blog and twitter page as a coherent and rapidly updating source of information on COVID-19 (https://twitter.com/trvrb)
Jan 06 2020
Welcome to research associate Rebecca Cooper!
Rebecca joins the Johnston lab as a Research Associate and is excited to shift her focus to new protein structure targets. She’ll be working to characterize structural motifs in bacterial methyltransferases and to develop a more efficient system for sequencing bacterial DNA from mixed cell populations.
Rebecca completed her PhD in west Texas with Dr. Guillermo Altenberg at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, using a FRET variant to investigate the conformational dynamics of ATP binding cassette (ABC) proteins. Rebecca then joined Dr. Katya Heldwein’s group at Tufts University in Boston and transitioned to crystallography, solving the structure of the full-length HSV-1 fusogen, glycoprotein B. In her most recent project, she studied sodium channels in the laboratory of Dr. William Catterall at the University of Washington.
Welcome Rebecca!
Jan 01 2020
Welcome to research technician Michael Owen!
Michael joins the lab to assist with the development of bacterial transformation techniques and synthetic microbiology protocols for multiple bacteria, genome sequencing, and laboratory support.
Michael’s educational credentials consist of a B.S. in Biochemistry, a B.S. in Molecular Biology and Cellular Biology, and a Certificate in Biomedical Regulatory Affairs, all from the University of Washington. He has 13 years of experience working with a wide range of infectious disease bacteria under BSL-2 conditions in academic, government, and public health laboratories. This includes 7 years of experience working under BSL-3 conditions to identify bacterial select agents to support bioterrorism preparedness and response programs. Michael also has 2 years of experience as a Biosafety Outreach Officer for the 2015-2018 U.S. CDC Ebola Virus Disease Enhanced Laboratory Biosafety and Biosecurity Capacity (ELBBC) Project. He assisted public health and clinical laboratories in Washington State with laboratory biosafety risk assessments for ebolaviruses and other high consequence pathogens.
Welcome Michael!
Nov 15 2019
We are hiring for multiple positions! (UPDATE: Both positions have been filled)
Post-Doctoral Fellow/Research Associate, Protein Engineering (dCas9) for Microbial Epigenetics.
The Johnston Laboratory in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is recruiting a highly motivated and creative Post-Doctoral Fellow/Research Associate to conduct research relating to microbial epigenetics, metagenomics and synthetic microbiology. The successful candidate will be involved in multiple funded projects that seek to create new technologies (dCas9 effectors) and methodologies to delineate and/or engineer the epigenetic landscape of the human microbiota. These projects will focus particularly on microbial communities that reside within human tumors and related clinical cancer specimens.
We are accepting applications from both recent graduate students and more senior post-doctoral fellows with 2-3 years’ of post-doc experience that may be suitable for a Research Associate track.
Research Technician I – Microbiology/Bacterial Transformation
The Johnston Laboratory in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at Fred Hutch is recruiting a highly motivated and resourceful research technician with expertise in the genetic engineering/transformation of non-model bacterial species and general microbiology to join our cutting-edge microbial genomics efforts.
The position is intended to provide support for our ongoing microbial engineering projects and microbial technology developments, as well as supporting general laboratory responsibilities. The successful candidate will work with the PI and post-doctoral fellows using state-of-the-art approaches in synthetic microbiology and genomics in a highly collaborative, stimulating, and collegial research environment. The candidate will also assist in lab maintenance, including responsibility of ordering lab reagents/supplies and making of communal lab reagents. With interest and experience in our lab, the individual may assist with additional opportunities in research. This position will provide ample opportunities for professional development and the acquisition of cutting-edge skills in synthetic microbiology research, research planning and strategy, and data analysis and interpretation.
October 31 2019
Congratulations Martha!
Massive congratulations to Martha Zepeda Rivera Ph.D, who has been recognized as one of ten 2020 Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellows. The highly competitive WRF Postdoctoral fellowship program is designed to support up-and-coming researchers who seek to conduct groundbreaking work that addresses unmet public needs. Over the next 3 years, this fellowship will provide funding for Martha to investigate innate bacterial defense systems that exist against foreign DNA and design and apply reproducible methodologies to bypass these systems to genetically engineer clinically relevant bacterial species.
October 17 2019:
We are hiring!
Post-Doctoral Fellow/Research Associate, Protein Engineering (dCas9) for Microbial Epigenetics
The Johnston Laboratory in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is recruiting a highly motivated and creative Post-Doctoral Fellow/Research Associate to conduct research relating to microbial epigenetics, metagenomics and synthetic microbiology. The successful candidate will be involved in multiple funded projects that seek to create new technologies (dCas9 effectors) and methodologies to delineate and/or engineer the epigenetic landscape of the human microbiota. These projects will focus particularly on microbial communities that reside within human tumors and related clinical cancer specimens.
We are accepting applications from both recent graduate students and more senior post-doctoral fellows with 2-3 years’ of post-doc experience that may be suitable for a Research Associate track.
We especially encourage those from backgrounds poorly represented in STEM fields to apply to the lab.
October 9 2019:
Welcome to visiting research scholar Hermoine Jean Venter!
Hermoine joins the Johnston lab as a visiting postdoctoral researcher from the University of Tromsø in northern Norway. She will be training in SyngenicDNA techniques to break through the genetic defenses of Staphylococcus haemolyticus; a commensal of the skin flora that is also an important hospital pathogen and carrier of multi-drug resistance genes.
Hermoine completed her PhD at the North-West University in South Africa, and is currently a post-doc in the Cavanagh Lab, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Tromsø. Originally from an environmental sciences background, Hermoine recently made the jump to clinical microbiology. Her research centers on S. haemolyticus, and she seeks to determine the genetic factors required to to turn this common skin bacterium into a nasty hospital pathogen.
September 20 2019:
Welcome to computational researcher Hanrui Wu!
Hanrui joins Johnston lab and Bullman lab (Fred Hutch Human Biology Division) as a Lab Technician for Computational Analyses of Microbial Data Sets, including our PacBio generated genomes and metagenomes.
Hanrui has completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences from Northern Arizona University (NAU), and a Bachelor of Engineering in Biopharmacy from Tianjin University of Science and Technology (TUST). During his undergraduate study, he worked in the NAU Environmental Genetics and Genomics Laboratory (EnGGen) and TUST Pharmaceutical Synthesis Laboratory, developing his skills in environmental genetics and molecular biology. He then worked at Cloud Health Genomics performing whole genome sequencing for human subjects on Illumina HiSeq X10 systems before moving to Purdue to explore genomic data analysis as a part of his MS Research. During his masters, he worked on the identification of pathways that underlie complex disease, including Tourettes.
Welcome Hanrui!
September 1 2019:
New Beginnings for Lab Alumnus!
Huge congratulations to Dr. Javier Fernandez Juarez this month for successfully establishing his own research laboratory at St. John’s University in New York City!
Javier joined our synthetic microbiology initiative in late 2016, after completing his postdoctoral research in the Church Lab at Harvard. At the Johnston Lab (Cambridge, MA) he sought to expand our SyngenicDNA platforms and create novel synthetic “kill-switch” circuits for biocontainment of engineered organisms.
He joins St. Johns University as an Assistant Professor within the Biological Sciences Department. The new Juarez lab will focus on the construction of whole-cell biosensors that can be applied early detection of pollutants and disease biomarkers.
We are very proud of his achievements! Well done Javier!
June 28 2019:
We are hiring!
Research Technician II, Computational Analyses of Microbial Data Sets
The laboratory of Dr. Susan Bullman and the laboratory Dr. Christopher Johnston are establishing a research program that utilizes state-of-the-art DNA sequencing technologies to study microbial epigenetics and the microbiome of human cancers and other diseases. These labs seek to jointly recruit a highly motivated research technician II with expertise in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies (library preparation) and computational analyses of multi-omics data (running bioinformatic tools on raw NGS data).
May 21 2019:
Our SyngenicDNA paper is out in PNAS!
Restriction-Modification systems are powerful defense mechanisms that bacteria use to recognize and degrade nonself DNA during predatory bacteriophage attack. The problem is that human-made genetic tools are also recognized as nonself DNA and degraded during genetic engineering. We use synthetic microbiology to create stealthy or “invisible” genetic tools that evade these defenses altogether. Can’t attack nonself DNA if you don’t know it’s there! Read all about our SyngenicDNA and SyMPL work here!
April 29 2019:
Welcome to new Research Technician Dakota Jones!
Dakota joins the lab to assist with ongoing single-molecule real-time (SMRT) genome sequencing efforts and multiple synthetic microbiology projects.
Dakota completed his B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Missouri State University (Springfield, MO) in 2015. Primarily a human health focused program, he was exposed to molecular biology techniques ranging from protein science to nucleic acid science. He focused his undergraduate research on characterizing NER protein pathways, with a specific interest in knocking-out the protein Rad 16 (involved in differential repair of DNA after UV damage) in the model organism Tetrahymena thermophila.
Welcome Dakota!
April 4 2019:
Welcome to new Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr. Martha Zepeda Rivera!
Martha joins the lab to work on the delineation of the innate genetic defense systems of bacterial species and the design, development, and implementation of methodologies to bypass these systems during genetic engineering.
Martha’s graduate research was conducted at Harvard University in the laboratory of Dr. Karine Gibbs, and focused on the mechanistic understanding how cells of the bacterium Proteus mirabilis communicate self identity to differentiate and exclude different P. mirabilis strains and harness the power of a coordinated population.
Welcome Martha!
April 1 2019:
The move from Boston to Seattle is complete!
The PacBio Sequencer is happy in it’s new home in Seattle and we are currently seeking candidates to join our team and help us feed the machine (DNA Sequencing Technology and Microbiology Technician)
February 13 2019:
They grow up so fast!
Huge congratulations to Sean Cotton for successfully transitioning from academia to industry this month.
Sean (the first official alumnus of the Johnston lab) spent close to 2 years working with us as our staff scientist, figuring out and single-handedly running our PacBio sequencer, honing his synthetic micro skills, and driving our CRISPR projects forward. He begins his new career with Synlogic Therapeutics as a Strain Engineer next week! Awesome work Sean, we will miss you on the West Coast!
January 25 2019:
We are hiring!
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Synthetic Microbiology & Genetic Engineering
The Johnston Laboratory in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is recruiting a highly motivated and creative Post-Doctoral Fellow to conduct research relating to synthetic microbiology and microbial genetics / epigenetics. The successful candidate will be involved with delineation of the innate genetic defense systems of bacterial species and the design, development, and implementation of methodologies to bypass these systems during genetic engineering. This position will be funded under an NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award (TR01) research grant entitled “The SyngenicDNA and µPOET Platform: Overcoming Innate Barriers to Genetic Engineering in Bacteria.”
Here is the link to the full posting: https://careers-fhcrc.icims.com/jobs/12818/
January 14 2019:
Very cool to see our SyngenicDNA preprint detailed and summarized nicely by Jonas Korlach, Chief Scientific Officer at Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) during the (4th Annual Microbiology and Immunology Virtual Conference). Fascinating to hear of other developments in the epigentic space, our method is detailed right around the 28 minute mark.
January 8 2019:
Happy New Year! In April 2019 the Johnston Lab will be relocating to Seattle, WA.
After an amazing 2 years at the The Forsyth Institute, Boston, the lab is shipping out to the west coast to join The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Fred Hutch) within the Department of Vaccine and Infectious Disease.
Come work with us in Seattle: As always, we’re looking for highly motivated, hard-working and enthusiastic people to come work with us in our new location. We especially encourage those from backgrounds poorly represented in STEM fields to apply to the lab. We will be advertising several positions soon (research technician / computational biologist / postdoctoral researcher) but welcome applications year-round.
August 9 2018:
Wondering what SyngenicDNA is all about? Now you can find out. Our pre-print on SyngenicDNA is available as of today!:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/08/09/387985
August 6 2018:
Huge congrats to synthetic microbiology team member Javier on his new Nature Communications manuscript “Biosensor libraries harness large classes of binding domains for construction of allosteric transcriptional regulators“, hot off the press today!
You can read it right here! (and email Javier when you have questions).
July 6 2018:
Welcome to this years Forsyth Student Scholars! Deepti and Sina joined the lab to work on a novel restriction-modification (RM) system sub-type identified by the Johnston Lab. Over the next 8 weeks they will work with their mentors Sean and Javier to figure out how this new type of RM system works! Exciting stuff!
Each year we accept student applications for summer internships through the Forsyth Student Scholars Program (formally EOP program): https://www.forsyth.org/forsyth-student-scholars-program
June 6 2018:
As a 2017 TRA awardee, Chris attended and presented a poster at the 2018 NIH High-Risk, High-Reward symposium in Bethesda, MD.
Details of next years exciting funding opportunities through the Common Fund can be found here!
March 7 2018:
The Johnston lab is seeking postdoctoral applications through the Forsyth Institute’s T90/R90 Institutional Postdoctoral Training award. Details can be found here! Interested individuals should contact us directly.
December 15, 2017:
The PacBio Sequel is up and running! Lots of genomes and methylomes coming soon.
November 20, 2017:
Dr. Javier Fernández-Juárez joins the Johnston Lab group at Forsyth Institute as a Staff Research Investigator, bringing exciting skill sets and his biosensor expertise to the synthetic microbiology group at Forsyth.
October 5, 2017:
The prestigious NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award has been granted to Forsyth Investigator Christopher Johnston and his colleagues and will be administered by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). The grant recognizes exceptionally creative scientists pursuing high-risk, high-reward research that spans multiple disciplines and has the potential to challenge current paradigms. Johnston is one of eight investigators selected to receive this year’s award, which is open to scientists at all career stages. He is also among the program’s youngest grantees since its launch in 2009.
A research team led by the Forsyth Institute today received a $5.4 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to pursue revolutionary research of microbes living in the mouth and within the human body. The research has the potential to accelerate work in diverse fields, including medicine, synthetic biology, agriculture and environmental sciences.
Johnston Lab 