John F. Bohnsack, MD

Languages Spoken: English

John Bohnsack MD graduated from Yale College, and received his medical degree from the University of Virginia. He is board certified in Pediatrics and in Pediatric Rheumatology. He is a Professor of Pediatrics and has been a member of the faculty of the University of Utah School of Medicine for 22 years.

Dr. Bohnsack’s clinical interests include rheumatic disorders, autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases (including recurrent fever syndromes) and primary immune deficiency disorders of childhood and adolescence.

Dr. Bohnsack's research interests are currently focused on the epidemiology, genetics and treatment of juvenile arthritis.

John Bohnsack MD is Professor and Chief of the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Pediatric Rheumatology. He also serves as the Vice Chair of the Department of Pediatrics for the Clinical Enterprise. Dr. Bohnsack graduated from Yale College, and received his medical degree from the University of Virginia. He trained in Pediatrics at the University of Washington, and then did successive fellowships at the University of Washington, the intramural program of the NIH and at Scripps Research Institute. He joined the faculty of the University of Utah in 1988.

Dr. Bohnsack has received NIH funding for his research on neutrophil adhesion molecules, and the pathophysiology of infections caused by Group B streptococci (GBS). His most recent work on GBS helped identify the population structure of GBS using multi-locus sequence typing, and the specific populations that colonize and infected infants in a prospectively collected sample of GBS from women and infants born in six US academic centers. This work was performed in collaboration with Dr. Kimi Lin, an intramural investigator at the National Institute of Child Health and Development, who led the effort that collected the samples and clinical information from this cohort. Dr. Bohnsack’s interest in the population structure of GBS was spurred by his association with Dr. Shinji Takahashi, a Professor at Shinji-Eiyo University in Saitama, Japan, during Dr. Takahashi’s year in Dr. Bohnsack’s lab as a visiting investigator. Dr. Takahashi had earlier identified clones of GBS using analysis of restriction digest profiles. He and Dr. Takashi continue a long-distance collaboration on the role of l-ficollin in the opsonization of GBS.

Most recently, Dr. Bohnsack’s research has shifted towards identifying the genetic basis of childhood rheumatic diseases. He started the Intermountain States Database for Childhood Rheumatic Diseases in 2000, and then worked as a mentor and colleague with Dr. Sampath Prahalad who further developed the Database by collecting DNA and serum samples from over 500 affected children with well-characterized JIA. Dr. Bohnsack was a mentor for Dr. Prahalad’s KO-8 funded research at the University of Utah which identified polymorphisms in selected genes with JIA. The Database continues to expand, and now includes close to 700 samples from affected patients and a larger number of samples from parents. His collaboration continues with Dr. Prahalad, who joined the faculty at Emory University in 2008. They are beginning work on Dr. Prahalad’s NIH RO-1 which will examine segmental chromosome sharing in JIA patients in the Database that are in extended pedigrees identified using the resources of the Utah Population Database. Samples from the Database are also being used in collaborative multi-institutional Genome Wide Association Studies at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and at the intramural program at the NIH.

Dr. Bohnsack’s clinical interests include the evaluation and treatment of rheumatic disorders, autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases (including recurrent fever syndromes) and primary immune deficiency disorders of childhood and adolescence. His administrative role in the Department includes oversight of the revenue cycle, Pediatric contracting, implementation of clinical information systems, and redesign of the ambulatory clinics to improve patient and physician satisfaction. He participates in the Primary Childrens’ Medical Center Value Project, a working group that is devising and implementing measures to improve quality while containing cost, and has been an elected member of the University of Utah Medical Group Board since 2005.