Academic Affiliation
Professor, School of Life Science in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Credentials
PhD, 1981, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Bio
Stephen Albert Johnston, PhD, seeks advanced solutions to basic medical problems. Specific research includes drug targeting, vaccine technology, cancer treatment, and presymptomatic diagnosis of cancers through identifying the biosignatures of disease.
By engaging the most advanced technologies and interdisciplinary teams of chemists, biologists and computer scientists, Johnston tackles highly aspirational goals.
Major projects include creating a system for early detection and universal treatment of all cancers, a simple at-home instrument that would take an individual’s biosignature every day, and treatment that target disease at the genetic level. Johnston also conducts basic research into how genes are regulated. He is the inventor of the gene gun and gene vaccines.
Prior to joining ASU, Johnston was professor of internal medicine and the Eugene Tragus chair in cardiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. While there, he served as director of the center for biomedical inventions, which he founded with three colleagues. The center was among the first to bring a broad group of disciplines together to invent solutions to basic problems in medicine.
Johnston earned a BS in molecular biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he went on to earn PhDs in genetics/biochemistry and plant genetics/plant breeding.