معرفی
John Atack is a Senior Research Fellow and Research Leader at Griffith University's Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics. He completed his PhD at the University of Sheffield studying oxidative stress in Campylobacter jejuni, followed by postdoctoral research on Neisseria gonorrhoeae metabolism at the University of Queensland and DNA repair at Sheffield. Atack joined the Institute for Glycomics in 2012 under Professor Michael Jennings.
His research focuses on phase variation in bacterial pathogens, particularly nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi). He investigates how phase-variable epigenetic regulators (phasevarions) control virulence traits in respiratory pathogens and zoonotic bacteria. Key applications include vaccine development and overcoming antibiotic resistance.
Atack's publications explore phasevarion mechanisms across pathogens including Streptococcus suis and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae. Recent work characterizes adhesins, biofilm formation, and glycan recognition in host-pathogen interactions.
He currently supervises doctoral projects on Acinetobacter baumannii surface diversity and bacterial virulence factors. Honors include the ASM Frank Fenner Award and ARC Discovery Projects funding. Atack serves as editor for Microbiology and ASM Microbiology Spectrum journals.
