Education
1970-1972
Postdoctoral Research Associate
NIH Malariology Training Program, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
1970
Ph.D. (Medical Parasitology, minor in Zoology)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
1966
M.S.P.H., Public Health (Parasitology)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
1963
A.B. (Biology)
Asbury College, Wilmore, KY
Professional Experience
1997-2007
Associate Dean for Biomedical Sciences and Graduate Studies, Oklahoma State Univeristy Center for Health Sciences (OSU-CHS), Tulsa, OK
1990-2007
Associate Dean for Biomedical Sciences, OSU-CHS
1990-2007
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, OSU-CHS
1983-1990
Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Oral Roberts University,
Tulsa, OK
1983-1990
Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, OK
1980-1983
Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, OK
1978-1980
Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
1972-1978
Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
Professional Societies
- Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (London).
- Member of:
- American Society of Parasitologists
- American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
- Helminthological Society of Washington
- International Society of Protistologists
- Oklahoma Academy of Science
- Southwestern Association of Parasitolgists
- Past member of:
- Editorial Board, Folia Parasitologica
- Board of Reviewers, Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology.
Other
- Parasitology consultant for the 29th, 30th and 31st editions of Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary
- Recipient of 10 awards for excellence in teaching
- Member of the American Tropical Medicine Delegation to the People’s Republic of China (1978)
Representative Publications
John, D.T. and R.A. John. 2006 Viability of pathogenic Naegleria and Acanthamoeba isolates during 10 years of cryopreservation. Folia Parasitologica 53:311-312.
John, D.T. and D.A.Henderson. 2006. Features of a Dermatobia Hominis third stage larva recovered from a patient in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science, 86:85-86
John, D.T. and W.A. Petri, Jr. 2006. Markell and Voge's Medical Parasitiology. 9th edition. W.B. Saunders Co., an imprint of Elsevier Inc., St. Louis, 463 pages.
Belofsky, G., R. Carreno, S.M. Goswick and D.T. John. 2006. Activity of isoflavans of Dalea aurea (Fabaceae) against the opportunistic ameba Naegleria fowleri. Planta Medica 72:383-386.
John, D.T. 2005. Opportunistic amoebae. In: Topley & Wilson's Microbiology and Microbial Infections. 10th Edition. Parasitology, F.E.G. Cox, D.D. Wakelin, S.H. Gillespie and D. Despommier (eds.). Hodder Arnold, London, pp. 226-240.
Markell, E.K., John, D.T. and W.A. Krotoski. 2003. Markell and Voge Parasitologia Médica. Oitava Edicão (8th edition). Portuguese translation. Editora Guanabara Koogan S.A., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 447p.
Markell, E.K., John, D.T. and W.A. Krotoski. 2002. Markell and Voge's Medical Parasitology, 8th edition. Chinese Translation. Elsevier Science (Singapore) Pte Ltd, 501 pages.
John, D.T. 2001. Opportunistic amoebae. In: Parasitic Diseases of Wild Mammals. 2nd edition, Samuel, W.M., Pybus, M.J. and Kocan, A.A. (eds). Iowa State University Press, Ames, pp. 460-462.
Jarolim, K.L., McCosh, J.K., Howard, M.J., and John, D.T. 2000. A light microscopy study of the migration of Naegleria fowleri from the nasal submucosa to the central nervous system during the early stage of primary amebic meningoencephalitis in mice. Journal of Parasitology 86:50-55.
John, D.T. 1998. Chapter 9, Opportunistic amoebae. In: Topley & Wilson’s Microbiology and Microbial Infections. 9th edition, Vol. 5, Parasitology, Cox,F.E.G., Kreier, J.P. and Wakelin, D. (eds.) Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd., London, pp. 179-192.
John, D.T., Howard, M.J. and Watson, K.R. 1998. Identification of environmental isolates of pathogenic Naegleria amebae by indirect immunofluorescence. Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science 78: 11-14.
John, D.T. and John, R.A. 1997. Mortality of mice inoculated with cryopreserved Naegleria fowleri. Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science 77:35-38.
John, D.T. and Smith, B.L. 1997. Amebicidal activity of wild animal serum. Journal of Parasitology 83:757-759.
John, D.T. and Howard, M.J. 1996. Isolation of thermotolerant freeliving amebae from Lake Tenkiller, Oklahoma. Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science 76:1-4.
John, D.T. and Howard, M.J. 1996. Techniques for isolating thermotolerant and pathogenic freeliving amebae. Folia Parasitologica 43:267-271.
John, D.T. and John, R.A. 1996. Viability of pathogenic Acanthamoeba and Naegleria and virulence of N. fowleri during long-term cryopreservation. Folia Parasitologica 43:43-46.
Instructional Activities
Present
- Medical Microbiology and Immunology - MS I (lectures in parasitology)
- Diagnostic Parasitology (BIOM 6313) - graduate course
Past
- High School microbiology course for the Richmond Mathematics and Science Center, Richmond, Virginia.
- Medical Parasitology for medical, dental, nursing and pharmacy students and Infectious Diseases fellows and graduate students at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond and Oral Roberts University, School of Medicine in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Research Interests
Pathogenic freeliving amebae: environmental isolation and characterization, factors affecting virulence and resistance.
My research has been in medical parasitology. More specifically, it has been with pathogenic freeliving amebae - organisms that live in the environment, where normally they feed on bacteria. However, given the right set of conditions, they are able to cause devastating human disease, including infection of the eye and the brain. The research has focused on the factors that affect resistance and virulence as well as the environmental distribution of these amebae, which include Acanthamoeba, Naegleria and the leptomyxids. The research has been funded by grants from the A.H. Robins Company, the U.S. Public Health Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
