Dr. Johnston completed his PhD at the University of Warwick Medical Research Institute in Coventry, England. He did post-doctoral training on psoriasis immunology under Professor Helgi Valdimarsson in the Department of Immunology at National University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland. In addition, he completed post-doctoral training on keratinocyte biology under the direction of Dr. James T. Elder at the University of Michigan, Department of Dermatology in Ann Arbor. Dr. Johnston's primary research interest is the identification of immunological pathways involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. He is currently investigating how recently identified members of the IL-1 and IL-17 families of cell signaling molecules contribute to the T-cell infiltration and activation that is characteristic and necessary for the development of psoriasis skin lesions. Additionally, Dr. Johnston is also working toward the identification of the (self)-antigen(s) that drive this autoimmune pathology and to functionally implicate HLA-Cw*0602-restricted CD8+ T-cells in the induction of psoriatic lesions.
