John Connor's Biography

John Connor, Associate Professor, Boston University

John Connor is an Associate Professor of Microbiology at Boston University School of Medicine and an investigator at the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory. He received a B.A in Chemistry from Swarthmore College in 1994, and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 1999 from Duke University. Following a postdoctoral fellowship with Douglas Lyles at Wake Forest University, moved to Boston University continue his studies of RNA viruses. His laboratory research focuses on viruses that are associated with high fatality diseases such as Ebola, Marburg and Lassa. Within this focus, his laboratory has participated in the collaborative development of new diagnostic platforms for detecting highly fatal pathogens at the point of need and the identification of critical steps of virus replication that can be targeted to block viral replication. Professor Connor is a Research Investigator at the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) at the Boston University Medical School. Dr. Connor leads a team of researchers and collaborators who are interested in developing new vaccines, antiviral drugs and diagnostics for the detection and treatment of viruses like Ebola. His lab has worked to identify small molecule inhibitors of Ebola virus replication (featured as one of Discovery Magazine’s top 100 stories of 2013) and to develop vaccines that will protect against all known strains of Ebola. As part of a large collaborative group, his laboratory is helping to develop new diagnostic tools that are aimed at making it easier to identify individuals infected with viruses that cause hemorrhagic fever..