Rate My Professor Marc Johnson

Marc Johnson, PhD, serves as Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology in the University of Missouri School of Medicine and Principal Investigator at the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center. He earned his PhD from Oregon State University in 1999. Johnson's research has long focused on virology, particularly the molecular mechanisms of retroviral replication, host-pathogen interactions, intracellular trafficking, structural biology, antiviral drug resistance, RNA virus replication, virus pathogenesis, and transmission. His laboratory originally investigated these areas, with contributions to understanding HIV and other retroviruses, as well as Ebola virus entry mechanisms through cell-cell contact.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson's lab pivoted to pioneer next-generation pathogen surveillance using environmental sampling, developing high-throughput sequencing methods for wastewater and air to monitor known and emerging viruses. They established Missouri's statewide wastewater surveillance system in collaboration with the Departments of Health and Senior Services and Natural Resources, providing early warnings of community infections. This work expanded nationally, identifying cryptic SARS-CoV-2 lineages—highly evolved strains from persistent infections—in New York City and U.S. sewersheds. Key publications include 'Deep untargeted wastewater metagenomic sequencing from sewersheds across the United States' (Justen et al., medRxiv, 2026), 'Detecting SARS-CoV-2 Cryptic Lineages using Publicly Available Whole Genome Wastewater Sequencing Data' (Suarez et al., PLoS Pathogens, 2025), and 'Untargeted longitudinal ultra deep metagenomic sequencing of wastewater provides a comprehensive readout of expected and unexpected viral pathogens' (Rushford et al., medRxiv, 2025). Johnson's innovations have advanced public health monitoring, mapping the virome through diverse samples and influencing responses to infectious threats.