John Rawls

Professor, Departments of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, and Medicine

Director, Duke Microbiome Center

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham, North Carolina, USA

Website: https://sites.duke.edu/rawlslab/

Dr. Rawls has focused his scientific career on understanding how host-microbe interactions in the intestine contribute to health and disease. His lab uses gnotobiotic, in vivo imaging, genetic, and functional genomic approaches to determine how microbiota interact with vertebrate hosts to regulate physiologic processes. He pioneered the use of germ-free and gnotobiotic zebrafish to investigate the roles of microbiomes in vertebrate biology, and now uses complementary zebrafish and mice to investigate conserved bacterial signals and responsive host pathways that regulate host nutrition, immunity, and gene expression. Finally, he expanded his lab’s studies to humans to define microbial species and metabolites that are associated with and potentially contribute to pediatric obesity and associated comorbidities.

After completing his undergraduate education at Emory University, he received a Ph.D. in Developmental Biology from Washington University in St. Louis under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen Johnson. He then trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Jeffrey Gordon at the Center for Genome Sciences at Washington University, and has directed his independent research program since 2006. Dr. Rawls was named as a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences in 2008, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2016, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2021. In addition to his research, Dr. Rawls also serves as Director for the Duke Microbiome Center, which provides resources and training in the microbiome sciences to the Duke University community.