John Rose, PhD

Dr. Rose earned his Ph.D. at Stanford University in 1973 in the laboratory of Dr. Charles Yanofsky. His thesis research focused on regulation of the tryptophan operon of E. coli. He then did postdoctoral research at MIT in the laboratories of Drs. David Baltimore and Harvey Lodish, where he began work on eucaryotic RNA viruses. In 1978, Dr. Rose took a faculty position at the Salk Institute, where he continued work on RNA virus transcription, as well as structure, function, and transport of the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) glycoprotein. In 1986, he moved to become Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology at Yale University School of Medicine. In 1994, his laboratory developed a system for recovering non-segmented, negative-strand RNA viruses from DNA plasmids. His work at Yale during the past fifteen years has focused largely on new approaches to vaccine development using vectors based on recombinant VSV and other viral replicons. This work has led to development of robust vaccine platforms that can protect animals against numerous viral and bacterial pathogens, typically after a single dose. A VSV-based HIV vaccine advanced from the Rose laboratory has recently completed a successful Phase I clinical trial.