Professor of biology at the CUNY Graduate Center
PhD, Clark University
MS, University of Idaho
John Dennehy is a virologist who is interested in all aspects of virus biology ranging from virus molecular biology to virus ecology and evolution. Dr. Dennehy earned a Ph.D. at Clark University and was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University and the State University of New York At Albany prior to joining the faculty at Queens College in 2007. Research in the Dennehy Laboratory employs bacteriophages, rotaviruses, and coronaviruses as model organisms to test predictions generated by theory and mathematical modeling. We probe how viruses evolve at the molecular level to best exploit host cells and propagate in host populations. Additionally, we explore gene expression regulatory mechanisms to determine how processes such as virus infection, assembly, and life history event timing are controlled. Other topics of interest include the biology of virus collective infection via extracellular vesicles, virus coevolution and exploitation of hosts, phage therapy, and virus systems biology. Dr. Dennehy has published over 50 articles, book chapters and conference papers on virus biology. He is also a Senior Editor for Microbiology Resource Announcements, an Associate Editor for Virus Evolution, and a Curator for the American Society of Microbiology’s COVID-19 Research Registry.