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John A. Frank Assistant Professor

Graf Hall 240

5038832227

jofrank@linfield.edu

Education

• B.S., Biology, ÃÛѨÊÓƵ College, McMinnville, OR (2008-2012)
• University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (2012-2017)
• Ph.D., Genetics & Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (2017-2020)
• Postdoctoral Research, Department of Immunobiology, Yale University, New Haven, CT (2020-2024)

Academic Interests

My research studies how interactions between viruses and their hosts change over long periods of time. This work helps us better understand how viruses infect cells and avoid detection by the immune system, which may allow us to prepare for future pandemics. I specifically focus on how host receptor proteins—these are the proteins that viruses recognize and use to enter cells—change over time in response to long-term exposure to viruses. I am currently investigating which receptors SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses use to infect different animal species. To answer these questions, I use tools from the fields of bioinformatics, molecular biology, molecular evolution, virology, and biochemistry. All of my research has been and is conducted with the help of undergraduate students.

Research Interests

• Host-pathogen co-evolution
• Virology
• Molecular evolution
• Genetics and Genomics

Publications

• Frank, J. A., & Feschotte, C. (2017). Co-option of endogenous viral sequences for host cell function. Current Opinion in Virology, 25, 81–89. DOI: 10.1016/j.coviro.2017.07.021
• Frank J. A., Singh M., Cullen H., Kirou R.A., Benkaddour-Boumzaouad M., Cortes J.L., Garcia-Perez J., Coyne C., Feschotte, C. (2022). Antiviral activity of a human placental protein of retroviral origin. Science, 378 (6618), 422-428, DOI: 10.1126/science.abq7871
• Taura M.†, Frank J. A.†, Takahashi T., Kong Y., Kudo E., Song E., Tokuyama M., Iwasaki A. (2022). APOBEC3A regulates transcription from interferon-stimulated response elements. PNAS. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2011665119 [†authors contributed equally to this work]
• Frank J. A., Gan E., Hooper W. B., Ott I. A., Iwasaki A. (2025). Systematic Multi-reference Vertebrate ACE2 Sequence Similarity Analysis Predicts Species Susceptibility to SARS-related Sarbecoviruses. (under review at Scientific Reports)

Grants

Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cancer Research Institute (2021-2024)