Professor Zaph obtained a B.Sc. (Honours) in Biochemistry from the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada in 1995. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2004 from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA working with Phillip Scott on memory T cell responses that develop follwing infection with the protozoan parasite Leishmania major. He carried out his postdoctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania with David Artis where he focused on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate immunity and inflammation at mucosal sites, which continues to be the overall focus of his laboratory.

Professor Zaph has made several important contributions such as defining the role of parasite persistence in memory T cell development (Zaph et al. (2004) Nat. Med. 10:1104) and identifying a critical role for intestinal epithelial cells in licensing innate and adaptive immune responses during intestinal infection (Zaph et al. (2007) Nature 446:552). More recently, his reserach has focused on the role of lysine methylation in epigenetic regulation of gene expression (Lehnertz et al. (2010) J. Exp. Med. 207:915; Antignano et al. (2014) J. Clin. Invest. 124:1945), as well as a novel signaling mechanism that controls subcellular localization of proteins (Oudhoff et al. (2013) Dev. Cell 26:188).