John received a B.S. in Pathobiology from the University of Connecticut. After receiving a D.V.M. from the University of Illinois he practiced for 3 years in a rural 4-doctor mixed-animal veterinary hospital where he focused on dairy cattle health (although he also enjoyed companion animal surgery and medicine). John completed a PhD at the University of Vermont under the guidance of Ynte Schukken and John Bramley. He also completed 3 years of post-doctoral training in mammary gland biology at UVM under Karen Plaut. John is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal Science.

Dr. Barlow studies host-pathogen interactions and the impact of infectious disease control interventions (e.g. vaccination and antimicrobial use) on cattle health. This work is motivated by practical concerns of the effects of dairy cattle health on food production systems, and encompasses epidemiology, molecular genetics, microbiology and immunology. Dr. Barlow is interested in economically important diseases of dairy cattle that affect productivity and ultimately human health and well-being through food availability. He is also interested in zoonotic diseases and the epidemiology and host specificity of infectious diseases at the human-animal interface.