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Joseph P. Zackular, PhD

Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

  • Member, PennCHOP Microbiome Program
  • Member, Penn Institute for RNA Innovation
  • Member, Center for Molecular Studies in Digestive and Liver Diseases
  • Member, Center for the Study of Antibiotic Resistance (C-STAR) at the University of Pennyslvania
  • Founder and Co-director, The Center for Microbial Medicine, Center of Emphasis at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
  • Co-director, The Microbial Archive and Cryocollection at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Department: Pathology and Laboratory Medicine


Graduate Group Affiliations


Contact Information

1211A Abramson Research Center
3615 Civic Center Blvd


Philadelphia, PA 19104
Office: 2674265016
Email: joseph.zackular@pennmedicine.upenn.edu


I3H Keywords

  • Innate and Adaptive Immunity to Pathogens

Publications

Pubmed Link


Links


Education

  • B.S. (Microbiology)
    University of Massachusetts - Amherst, 2008
  • M.S. (Microbiology)
    University of Massachusetts - Amherst, 2009
  • Ph.D. (Microbiology & Immunology)
    University of Michigan, 2014

Post-Graduate Training

  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow
    Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, 2014 - 2018

Description of Research Expertise

The Zackular laboratory is focused on understanding how interactions between the host, gut microbiota, and pathogens impact human health and disease. The labs efforts primarily center on the nosocomial pathogen, Clostridioides difficile, which is an urgent global public health threat. The Zackular lab is interested in understanding how the gut microbiota shapes C. difficile fitness and virulence, and the team is studying how this complex microbial community alters host responses to infection. Recent work from the Zackular lab has focused on elucidating cooperative interactions between C. difficile and other pathogens, such as the enterococci. Leveraging knowledge learned from studying polymicrobial interactions and microbial ecology during infection, the Zackular lab is also developing novel vaccine strategies for the prevention of C. difficile infection and using microbiome-based therapies for the treatment of disease.

Dr. Zackular is co-director of the Center for Microbial Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which focuses on i.) bringing microbiome-based medicine to pediatric patients and ii) using precision pathogen surveillance for infection prevention and control and to provide children with improved and personalized treatments for infections.

Selected Publications

  • Hewlett K.K#, PeBenit A.#, Hecht A.L.#, Tiffany C, Tanes C., Glover R.C., Fawad J.A., Friedman E.S., Reynolds J.C., Bittinger K., Lewis J.D., Wu G.D., Ahuja N.K.†, Zackular J.P.† : Dietary fiber modulates the window of susceptibility to Clostridioides difficile infection Gastroenterology S0016-5085(25) : 00761-9, May 2025 Notes: doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2025.04.027 #Denotes co-first authorship; † Denotes co-corresponding authorship
  • Soto Ocaña J, Friedman ES, Keenan O, Bayard NU, Ford E, Tanes C, Munneke MJ, Beavers WN, Skaar EP, Bittinger K, Zemel BS, Wu GD, Zackular JP. : Metal availability shapes early life microbial ecology and community succession mBio 15(11) : e0153424, Nov 2024
  • Alameh M., Semon, A., Bayard N.U., Pan Y., Knox J., Dwivedi G., Glover R.C., Rangel P.C., Tanes C., Bittinger K., She Q., Maslanka J.R., Planet P.J., Moustafa A.M., Davis B., Chevrier A., Beattie M., Ni H., Blizard G., Furth E.E., Mach R H., Lavertu M., Sellmyer M., Tam Y., Abt M.C., Weissman D., Zackular J.P. : A multivalent mRNA-LNP vaccine protects against Clostridioides difficile infection Science 386(6717) : 69-75, Oct 2024 Notes: doi: 10.1126/science.adn4955
  • Smith A.B., Specker J.T., Hewlett K.K., Scoggins T.R., Knight M., Lustig A.M., Lid Y., Evans K.M., Guob Y., She Q., Christopher M.W., Garrett T.J., Moustafa A.M., Van Tyne D., Prentice B.M., Zackular J.P. : Liberation of host heme by Clostridioides difficile-mediated damage enhances Enterococcus faecalis fitness during infection mBio 15(1) : e0165623, Jan 2024
  • Soto Ocaña J, Bayard NU, Hart JL, Thomas AK, Furth EE, Lacy DB, Aronoff DM, Zackular JP. : Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs sensitize epithelial cells to Clostridioides difficile toxin-mediated mitochondrial damage Sci Adv 9(29) : eadh5552, Jul 2023
  • Smith A.B., Jenior M.L., Keenan O., Hart J.L., Specker J, Abbas A, Rangel P.C., Di C., Green J., Bustin K. A., Gaddy J.A., Nicholson M.R., Laut C., Kelly B.J., Matthews M.L, Evans D.L., Van Tyne D., Furth E.E., Papin J.A., Bushman F.D., Erlichman J., Baldassano R.N., Silverman M.A., Dunny G.M., Prentice B.M., Skaar E.P., and Zackular J.P. : Enterococci enhance Clostridioides difficile pathogenesis Nature 611(7937) : 780-786, Nov 2022
  • Bushman FD, Conrad M, Ren Y, Zhao C, Gu C, Petucci C, Kim MS, Abbas A, Downes KJ, Devas N, Mattei LM, Breton J, Kelsen J, Marakos S, Galgano A, Kachelries K, Erlichman J, Hart JL, Moraskie M, Kim D, Zhang H, Hofstaedter CE, Wu GD, Lewis JD, Zackular JP, Li H, Bittinger K, Baldassano R. : Multi-omic Analysis of the Interaction between Clostridioides difficile Infection and Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Cell Host & Microbe 28(3) : 422-433, Sep 2020