Jed Rasmussen

About Me

Before sage brush (Artemisia tridentata) I knew what I wanted out of life. While participating in a summer undergraduate research program at Utah State University to study this ubiquitous Utah plant, I discovered my desire to comprehend how and why life works through scientific research. My career path changed.

In addition to sage brush, I studied soil microbes, free radical production from LASIK machines, biofuel production, and biotherapeutics. After Utah State, I attended the University of Iowa where I studied the neurobiology of pain management, vaccine production for biothreats, outer membrane bacterial sugar identification, and vestibular schwannomas.

It took me several years during my doctorate work before I realized and reminded myself that I wanted to become a college teacher. At that time, I thought about many reasons why I desired to be in higher education. Ultimately, it was my experiences at Snow College that largely influenced me to not only pursue my doctorate, but to seek out a career in higher education. My time as a Snow College student was the best preparation for my future studies as I was challenged and tasked to go above and beyond what I thought I was capable of accomplishing. As a teacher in the Department of Biology it has been a personal goal to not only provide students with a similar experience to my own, but in a sense, to continue in the Spirit of Snow and provide an avenue for students to find knowledge, confidence, and to see themselves as scientists.

I enjoy the outdoors, reading books, playing boardgames, video games, watching “fail” and “success” videos, and being with my family.

Education

• Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Department of Otolaryngology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 2014-2015
• Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Department of Microbiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 2014
• Ph.D; Department of Microbiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 2014
• Science Teaching Fellowship, American Society for Microbiology, 2013-2014
• B.S.; Biochemistry, Utah State University, Logan, UT 2007
• A.A.; Spanish and Chemistry, Snow College, Ephraim, UT 2005

Publications

1. Apicella MA, Post DM, Fowler AC, Jones BD, Rasmussen JA, Hunt JR, Imagawa S, Choudhury B, Inzana TJ, Maier TM, Frank DW, Zahrt TC, Chaloner K, Jennings MP, McLendon MK, Gibson BW. Identification, characterization and immunogenicity of an O-antigen capsular polysaccharide of Francisella tularensis. PLoS ONE. July 2010.
2. Long ME, Lindemann SR, Rasmussen JA, Jones BD, Allen LA. Disruption of Francisella tularensis Schu S4 iglI, iglJ, and pdpC genes results in attenuation for growth in human macrophages and in vivo virulence in mice, and reveals a unique phenotype for pdpC. Infection and Immunity. December 2012.
3. Faron M, Fletcher JR, Rasmussen JA, Long ME, Allen LA, Jones BD. The Francisella tularensis migR, trmE, and cphA Genes Contribute to F. tularensis Pathogenicity Island Gene Regulation and Intracellular Growth by Modulation of the Stress Alarmone ppGpp. Infection and Immunity. August 2013.
4. Cardon ZG, Stark JM, Herron PM, Rasmussen JA. Sagebrush carrying out hydraulic lift enhances surface soil nitrogen cycling and nitrogen uptake into inflorescences. PNAS. November 2013.
5. Jones BD, Faron MF, Rasmussen JA, Fletcher JF. Uncovering the components of the Francisella tularensis virulence stealth strategy. Frontiers Microbiology. March 2014.
6. Rasmussen JA, Post DM, Gibson BW, Lindemann SR, Apicella MA, Meyerholz DK, Jones BD. Francisella tularensis Schu S4 LPS Core Sugar and O-antigen Mutants are Attenuated in a Mouse Model of Tularemia. Infection and Immunity. April 2014.
7. Rasmussen JA, Fletcher JF, Long ME, Faron MF, Allen LA, Jones BD. in vitro and in vivo Characterization of Francisella tularensis Schu S4 mutants identified from a transposon library screened for O-antigen and capsule deficiencies. Frontiers in Microbiology. May 2015.
8. Faron MF, Rasmussen JA, Fletcher JF, Jones BD. Interactions of Francisella tularensis with Alveolar Type II Epithelial Cells and the Murine Respiratory Epithelium. PLoS One. May 2015.
9. Wyatt EV, Diaz K, Griffin AJ, Rasmussen JA, Crane DD, Jones BD, Bosio CM. Metabolic Reprogramming of Host Cells by Virulent Francisella tularensis for Optimal Replication and Modulation of Inflammation. Journal of Immunology. May 2016.
10. Chen L, Valentine JL, Huang CJ, Endicott CE, Moeller TD, Rasmussen JA, Fletcher JR, Boll JM, Rosenthal JA, Dobruchowska J, Wang Z, Heiss C, Azadi P, Putnam D, Trent MS, Jones BD, DeLisa MP. Outer membrane vesicles displaying engineered glycotypes elicit protective antibodies. PNAS. June 2016.
11. Post DMB, Slütter B, Schilling B, Chande AT, Rasmussen JA, Jones BD, D’Souza AK, Reinders LM, Harty JT, Gibson BW, Apicella MA. Characterization of Inner and Outer Membrane Proteins from Francisella tularensis Strains LVS and Schu S4 and Identification of Potential Subunit Vaccine Candidates. mBio. October 2017.
12. Rasmussen JA. GE Foundation Handbook. Chapter: Critical Thinking. Snow College Publication. April 2019.
13. Stacey Kiser, Robin Cutter, Rasmussen JA. Supporting Biology Education Research at Community Colleges: Implementing and Adapting Evidence-Based Practices. New Directions for Community Colleges. March 2022.