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Dr. Johnston completed his Ph.D at the University of Warwick Medical Research Institute in Coventry, England. He did post-doctoral training under Professor Helgi Valdimarsson in the Department of Immunology at Landspitali-University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland. In addition he completed post-doctoral training under the direction of Dr. J.T. Elder at the University of Michigan Department of Dermatoloigy in Ann Arbor.
Dr. Johnston's primary research interest is the udentification of immunological pathways involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Therapies inhibiting T-cell activity are effective in psoriasis and genetic linkage studies have consistently suggested HLA-Cw*0602 to be the major risk allele. His long-term goal is to identify the (self)-antigen(s) that drive
the autoimmune pathology and to functionally implicate HLA-Cw*0602-restricted CD8+ T-cells in the induction of psoriatic lesions.
Addiitonally, Dr. Johnston is currently investigating how variant forms of certain proteins, implicated in psoriasis pathology and essential
regulators of inflammatory responses, may influence T-cell responses to common stimuli and responses to treatment with biologic therapies.
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