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(480)727-0792

Stephen Johnston, PhD

Director

The Biodesign Institute, Innovations in Medicine

Professor

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, School of Life Sciences

Director

Graduate College, Biological Design Graduate Program

Bio

Director, Center for Innovations in Medicine, Biodesign Institute

Director, Biological Design Graduate Program

Professor
School of Life Sciences 

Stephen Johnston is currently the Director for the Center for Innovations in Medicine (CIM), a Professor in the School of Life Sciences, and Director of the Biological Design Graduate Program at The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University.  The CIM's and Dr. Johnston's current work focuses on innovative solutions to fundamental problems in biomedicine.  The CIM is unique in that it has brought together a group of interdisciplinary scientists who first identify a problem, analyze the physical economy basis of the related issues and then come up with an inventive solution.  Current major projects are 1) Cancer Eradication: The focus is on developing a universal, preventative cancer vaccine, 2) Health Futures: The aim is to produce a diagnostic system that allows  continuous monitoring of the health status of healthy people - helping in the revolution to pre-symptomatic medicine.   Dr. Johnston has experience in basic science, notably first cloning the Gal4 gene, showing that proteins have separable functional domains, and discovering the AAA proteins and their role in transcription.  His focus now is in translational sciences and technology development.  He was co-inventor/innovator of pathogen derived resistance, organelle transformation, the gene gun, genetic immunization, TEV protease system, expression library immunization, linear expression elements, synbodies and immunosignaturing.  He is author of over 150 journal articles, has over 20 patents, and has garnered approximately $85M in grant support including large programs from DARPA, NIAID and NHLBI.  

Expertise

Drug targeting - vaccine technology - cancer treatment - presymptomatic diagnosis of cancers through identifying the biosignatures of disease

Education

1981, Ph.D. in Genetics and Plant Genetics/Plant Breeding, University of Wisconsin/Madison

 Recent Publications

 

Berea A. R. Williams, Chris W. Diehnelt, Paul Belcher, Matthew Greving, Neal W. Woodbury, Stephen A. Johnston, and John C. Chaput. Creating Protein Affinity Reagents by Combining Peptide Ligands on Synthetic DNA Scaffolds. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 10.1021/ja9051735. 6 November 2009.

Boltz KW, Gonzalez-Moa MJ, Stafford P, Johnston SA, Svarovsky SA. 2009. Peptide microarrays for carbohydrate recognition. Analyst. Apr;134(4):650-2.

Morales Betanzos C, Gonzalez-Moa MJ, Boltz KW, Vander Werf BD, Johnston SA, Svarovsky SA. 2009. Bacterial glycoprofiling by using random sequence peptide microarrays. Chembiochem. Mar 23;10(5):877-88.

Betanzos CM, Gonzalez-Moa M, Johnston SA, Svarovsky SA. 2009. Facile labeling of lipoglycans with quantum dots. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. Feb 27;380(1):1-4.

Ferdous A, O'Neal M, Nalley K, Sikder D, Kodadek T, Johnston SA. 2008. Phosphorylation of the Gal4 DNA-binding domain is essential for activator mono-ubiquitylation and efficient promoter occupancy. Mol Biosyst. Nov;4(11):1116-25.

Archer, Chase T ; Delahodde, Agnes ; Gonzalez, Fernando ; Johnston, Stephen Albert ; Kodadek, Thomas. 2008. Activation domain-dependent monoubiquitylation of Gal4 protein is essential for promoter binding in vivo The Journal of biological chemistry. Vol 283. No 18. 12614-23

Kumar, P.K., Y. Yu, R. Sternglanz, S. A. Johnstonand L. Joshua-Tor. 2008. NADP regulates the yeast GAL induction system. Science. 319: 1090-1092

Qu, B., Q. Xiang, L. Li, S.A.Johnston, L.S. Hynan and R. N. Rosenberg. 2007. AB42 Gene vaccine prevents AB42 deposition in brain of double transgenic mice. J. Neurological Sci. 260: 204-213.

Johnston, S.A. 2007. The Potential Importance of Presymptomatic, Host-Based Diagnosis in Biodefence and Standard Health Care. In: Global Infectious Disease Surveillance and Detection. National Academy Press. p193-212.

Anwarul Ferdous, Devanjan Sikder, Thomas Gillette, Kip Nalley, Thomas Kodadek, and Stephen Albert Johnston. 2007. The role of the proteasomal ATPases and activator monoubiquitylation in regulating Gal4 binding to promoters. Genes & Dev. 21: 112-123. (Published in Advance December 13, 2006, 10.1101/gad.1493207)

Selected Publications

2006

  • Chen, S, Ding, J, Bereredjian, R, Yang, B, Shohet, R, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Hohmeier, H, Newgard, C, Grayburn, P. Efficient gene delivery to pancreatic islets with ultrasonic microbubble destruction technology. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci (2006).
  • Lawson, J, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Amplification of Sense-Stranded Prokaryotic RNA. DNA Cell Biol (2006).
  • Lawson, J, Lyons, R, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Expression Profiling of Yersinia pestis During Mouse Pulmonary Infection. DNA Cell Biol (2006).
  • Nalley, K, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Gal4 does not cycle on and off promoters while activating transcription. Nature (2006).
  • Qu, B, Boyer, P, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Hynan, L, Rosenberg, R. Abeta-42 gene vaccination reduces brain amyloid plaque burden in transgenic mice. J. Neurol. Sci (2006).

2005

  • De, Jitakshi, Chang, Ya-Ching, Samli, Kausar N, Schisler, Jonathan, Newgard, Christopher B, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Brown, Kathlynn. Isolation of a Mycoplasma-specific binding peptide from unbiased phage-displayed peptide library. Molecular Biosystems (2005).
  • Magee, D M, Friedberg, R L, Woitaske, M D, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Cox, R A. Role of B cells in vaccine-induced immunity against coccidioidomycosis. Infection and Immunity (2005).
  • Samli, Kausar N, McGuire, Michael J, Newgard, Christopher B, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Brown, Kathlynn C. Peptide Mediated targeting to the Islets of Langerhans. Diabetes (2005).
  • Solis, C F, Ostoa-Saloma, P, Lugo-Martinez, V H, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Laclette, J P. Genetic vaccination against murine cysticercosis by using a plasmid vector carrying Taenia solium paramyosin. Infection and Immunity (2005).
  • Solis, C F, Ostoa-Saloma, P, Lugo-Martinez, V H, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Laclette, J P. Related Articles, Links Genetic vaccination against murine cysticercosis by using a plasmid vector carrying Taenia solium paramyosin. Infect Immun (2005).
  • Stemke-Hale, K, Kaltenboeck, B, DeGraves, F J, Sykes, K F, Huang, J, Bu, C H, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Related Articles, Links Screening the whole genome of a pathogen in vivo for individual protective antigens. Vaccine (2005).
  • Stemke-Hale, K, Kaltenboeck, B, DeGraves, F J, Sykes, Kathryn, Huang, J, Bu, C H, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Screening the whole genome of a pathogen in vivo for individual protective antigens. Vaccine (2005).

2004

  • Belosludtsev, Y Y, Bowerman, D, Weil, R, Marthandan, N, Balog, R, Luebke, K, Lawson, J, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Lyons, C R, Obrien, K, Garner, H R, Powdrill, T F. Organism Identification Using a Genome Sequence-Independent Universal Microarray Probe Set. Biotechniques (2004).
  • Gillette, T, Gonzalez, F, Delahodde, A, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Kodadek, T. Physical and Functional Association of RNA Polymerase II and the Proteasome. PNAS (2004).
  • McGuire, M J, Samli, K N, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Brown, K C. In vitro Selection of a Peptide with High Selectivity for Cardiomyocytes in vivo. Journal of Molecular Biology (2004).
  • McGuire, M J, Sykes, Kathryn, Samli, K N, Timares, L, Barry, M, Stemke-Hale, K, Tagliaferri, F, Logan, M, Jansa, K, Takashima, A, Brown, K, Johnston, Stephen Albert. A Library-Selected, Langerhans Cell-Targeting Peptide Enhances an Immune Response. DNA and Cell Biology (2004).
  • Qu, Bao-Xi, Rosenberg, R, Li, L, Boyer, P J, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Genetic vaccination to bias the immune response to amyloid beta peptide as therapy for alzheimers. Archives of Neurobiology (2004).
  • Talaat, A M, Lyons, R, Howard, S, Johnston, Stephen Albert. The temporal expression profile of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in mice. PNAS (2004).

2003

  • Chambers, Ross S, Johnston, Stephen Albert. High-level generation of polyclonal antibodies by genetic immunization. Nature Biotechnology (2003).
  • Ivey, D, Magee, Dewey Mitchell, Woitaske, M, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Cox, R. Identification of a protective antigen of Coccidioides immitis by expression library immunization. Vaccine (2003).
  • Liu, Y H, Luebke, K, Livesay, E, Johnston, Stephen Albert. A simple method to make a membrane with regions of differential permeability. Journal of Membrane Science (2003).
  • Oyama, T, Sykes, K F, Samli, K N, Minna, J D, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Brown, K C. Isolation of lung tumor specific peptides from a random peptide library: generation of diagnostic and cell-targeting reagents. Cancer Letter (2003).
  • Rombel, I, Talaat, A, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Shotgun library production in a day. Biotechniques (2003).
  • Timares, L, Safer, K M, Qu, B, Takashima, A, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Drug-inducible, dendritic cell-based genetic immunization. The Journal of Immunology (2003).

2002

  • Ferdous, A, Kodadek, T J, Johnston, Stephen Albert. A Nonproteolytic Function of the 19S Regulatory Subunit of the 26S Proteasome Is Required For Efficient Activated Transcription by Human RNA Polymerase II. Biochemistry (2002).
  • Gonzalez, F, Delahodde, A, Kodadek, T, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Recruitment of a 19S proteasome subcomplex to an activated promoter. Science (2002).
  • Johnston, Stephen Albert. Genetic Immunization: What's in a name?. Archives of Medical Research (2002).
  • Lakey, D L, Zhang, Y, Talaat, A M, Samten, B, DesJardin, L, Eisenach, K D, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Barnes, P F. Priming reverse transcription with oligo(dT) does not yield representative samples of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis cDNA. Journal in Microbiology (2002).
  • Livesay, E A, Ying-Horng, Liu, Luebke, K J, Irick, J, Belosludtsev, Y, Rayner, S, Balog, R, Johnston, Stephen Albert. A scalable high-throughput chemical synthesizer. Genome research (2002).
  • Rombel, I, Sykes, K F, Rayner, S, Johnston, Stephen Albert. ORF-FINDER: A vector for high throughput gene identification. Gene (2002).
  • Sun, L, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Kodadek, T J. Physical association of the APIS complex and general transcription factors. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (2002).
  • Sykes, Kathryn, Lewis, M G, Squires, B, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Evaluation of SIV expression library vaccines in a macaque challenge. Vaccine (2002).
  • Talaat, A, Garner, H, Howard, S, Lyons, R, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Genomic DNA standards for gene expression profiling in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Nucleic Acids Research (2002).

2001

  • Chang, C, Gonzalez, F, Rothermel, B, Sun, L, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Kodadek, T. The Gal4 activation domain binds the Sug2 protein, a proteasome component, in vivo and in vitro. J. Biol. Chem (2001).
  • Ferdous, A, Gonzalez, F, Sun, L, Kodadek, T, Johnston, Stephen Albert. The 19S regulatory particle of the proteasome is required for efficient transcription elongation by RNA polymerase II. Molecular Cell (2001).
  • Gillette, T, Huang, W, Russell, S J, Reed, S H, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Friedberg, E C. The 19S complex of the proteasome regulates nucleotide excision repair. Genes & Development (2001).
  • Jeong, C -J, Zhang, L, Yang, S H, Kodadek, T, Xie, Y, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Evidence That Gal11 Protein Is A Target of the Gal4 Activation Domain In the Mediator. Biochemistry (2001).
  • Johnston, Stephen Albert, Qu, B, McGuire, M, Stemke-Hale, K, Sykes, K. Applications of, and Future Challenges for, Genetic Vaccines. Development in Biologicals (2001).
  • Li, Q, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Are all DNA binding and transcriptional regulation by an activator physiologically relevant?. Mol. Cell Biol (2001).
  • Morita, A, Ariizumil, K, Ritter, R, III, Jester, J V, Kumamoto, T, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Takashima, A. Development of Langerhans cell-targeted gene therapy format using a dendritic cell-specific promoter. Gene Therapy (2001).
  • Russell, S J, Gonzalez, F, Joshua-Tor, L, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Selective chemical inactivation of AAA proteins reveals distinct functions of proteasomal ATPases. Chemistry and Biology (2001).
  • Russell, S J, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Evidence that proteolysis of Gal4 can not explain the transcriptional effects of proteasome ATPase mutations. J. Biological Chemistry (2001).
  • Talaat, A, Lyons, R, Johnston, Stephen Albert. A combination vaccine confers full protection against co-infection with influenza, herpes simplex and respiratory syncytial viruses. Vaccine (2001).

2000

  • Hayashi, S, Johnston, Stephen Albert, Takashima, A. Induction of Th2-Directed Immune Responses by IL-4-Transduced Dendritic Cells in Mice. Vaccine (2000).
  • Johnston, Stephen Albert, Talaat, A M. Gene vaccines: Origins and implications for the future. Emirates Medical Journal (2000).
  • Talaat, A, Hunter, P, Johnston, Stephen Albert. Genome-directed primers for selective labeling of bacterial transcripts for DNA microarray analysis. Nature Biotech (2000).