Stephen Johnston
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BDB 224A BIODESIGN TEMPE, AZ 85287-5901
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Mail code: 6106Campus: Tempe
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Stephen Johnston is currently the director for the Center for Innovations in Medicine (CIM) at The Biodesign Institute and a professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.
The center and Professor Johnston's current work focuses on innovative solutions to fundamental problems in biomedicine. The center 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, as well as the ability to diagnose disease or infection.
Professor 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.
PhD Genetics and Plant Genetics/Plant Breeding, University of Wisconsin-Madison 1981
We are developing technologies to prevent cancer and chronic diseases
~25 people at Calviri, Inc
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)
More Publications
- Legutki JB, Zhao ZG, Greving M, Woodbury N, Johnston SA, Stafford P. Scalable High-Density Peptide Arrays for Comprehensive Health Monitoring. Nature Communications (2014).
- Navalkar K, Magee DM, Cichacz Z, Galgiani J, Woodbury NW, Johnston SA, Woodbury NW, Stafford P. Application of Immunosignatures to Diagnosis of Valley Fever. Clinical Vaccine Immunolology (2014).
- Shen, L., D. Hansen, S.A. Johnston and J.B. Legutki. Could immunosignature technology enable the development of a preventative cancer vaccine?. Expert Review of Vaccines (2014).
- Stafford P, Cichacz Z, Woodbury N, Johnston SA. An Immunosignature System for Diagnosis of Cancer. Procedings National Academy of Sciences (2014).
- Domenyuk V, Loskutov A, Johnston SA, Diehnelt CW. A Technology for Developing Synbodies with Antibacterial Activity. PLoS ONE (2013).
- Legutki JB, Johnston SA. Immunosignatures can predict vaccine efficacy. PNAS (2013).
- Johnston, s.a. Cancer goal: vaccine is cause for optimism. (2013).
- Halperin RF, Stafford P, Emery JS, Navalkar KA, Johnston SA. GuiTope: An Application for Mapping Random-Sequence Peptides to Protein Sequences. BMC Bioinformatics (2012).
- Hughes AK, Cichacz Z, Scheck A, Coons SW, Johnston SA, Stafford P. Immunosignaturing can detect products from molecular markers in brain cancer. PLoS One (2012).
- Kroening K, Johnston SA, Legutki JB. Autoreactive antibodies raised by self derived de novo peptides can identify unrelated antigens on protein microarrys. Experimental and Molecular Pathology (2012).
- Kukreja M, Johnston SA, Stafford P. Comparative study of classification algorithms for immunosignaturing data. BMC Bioinformatics (2012).
- Kukreja m, Johnston SA, Stafford P. Immunosignaturing Microarrays Distinguish Antibody Profiles of Related Pancreatic Diseases. Proteomics & Bioinformatics (2012).
- McGuire, MN., Johnston, SA., Sykes, KE. Novel immune-modulator identified by a rapid, functional screen of the Parapoxvirus ovis (Orf virus) genome. Proteome Science (2012).
- Restrepo L, Stafford P, Johnston SA. Feasibility of an Early Alzheimer's Disease Immunosignature Diagnostic Test. Journal of Neuroimmunology (2012).
- Stafford, P., Halperin, R., Legutki, JB., Magee, DM., Galgiani, J., Johnston, SA. Physical Characterization of the "Immunosignaturing Effect". Molecular Cell Proteomics (2012).
- Brown, J., Stafford, P., Johnston, SA, Dinu, V. Statistical Methods for Analyzing Immunosignatures. BMC Bioinformatics (2011).
- Gupta N., Belcher P., Johnston SA., Diehnelt C. Engineering a Synthetic Ligand for Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha. Bioconjugate Chemistry (2011).
- Restrepo L., Stafford P., Magee DM., Johnston SA. Application of immunosignatures to the Assessment of Alzheimer's disease. Annals of Neurology (2011).
- Stafford P, Johnston SA. Microarray technology displays the complexities of the humoral immune response. Expert Reviews in Molecular Diagnostics (2011).
- Diehnelt C, Shah, M, Gupta, N, Belcher, PE, Greving, MP, Stafford, P, Johnston, SA. Discovery of High-Affinity Protein Binding Ligands - Backwards. PLoS One (2010).
- Fu J, Cai K, Johnston SA, Woodbury NW. Exploring peptide space for enzyme modulators. J Am Chem Soc (2010).
- Greving MP, Belcher PE, Diehnelt CW, Gonzalez-Moa MJ, Emery J, et al. Thermodynamic Additivity of Sequence Variations: An Algorithm for Creating High Affinity Peptides Without Large Libraries or Structural Information. . PLoS ONE (2010).
- Legutki JB, Magee DM, Stafford P, Johnston SA. A general method for characterization of humoral immunity induced by a vaccine or infection. Vaccine (2010).
- 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 (2009).
- Betanzos CM, Gonzalez-Moa M, Johnston SA, Svarovsky SA. Facile labeling of lipoglycans with quantum dots. Biochem Biophys Res Commun (2009).
- Boltz KW, Gonzalez-Moa MJ, Stafford P, Johnston SA, Svarovsky SA. Peptide microarrays for carbohydrate recognition. Analyst (2009).
- Morales Betanzos C, Gonzalez-Moa MJ, Boltz KW, Vander Werf BD, Johnston SA, Svarovsky SA. Bacterial glycoprofiling by using random sequence peptide microarrays. Chembiochem (2009).
- Archer, Chase T ; Delahodde, Agnes ; Gonzalez, Fernando ; Johnston, Stephen Albert ; Kodadek, Thomas. Activation domain-dependent monoubiquitylation of Gal4 protein is essential for promoter binding in vivo. The Journal of biological chemistry (2008).
- Kumar, P.K., Y. Yu, R. Sternglanz, S. A. Johnston and L. Joshua-Tor. NADP regulates the yeast GAL induction system. Science (2008).
- Talaat AM, Ward SK, Wu CW, Rondon E, Tavano C et al. Mycobacterial bacilli are metabolically active during chronic tuberculosis in murine lungs: Insights from genome-wide transcriptional profiling. Journal of Bacteriology (2007).
- B Qu, P Boyer, Stephen Johnston, L Hynan, R Rosenberg. Abeta-42 gene vaccination reduces brain amyloid plaque burden in transgenic mice. J. Neurol. Sci (2006).
- J Lawson, R Lyons, Stephen Johnston. Expression Profiling of Yersinia pestis During Mouse Pulmonary Infection. DNA Cell Biol (2006).
- J Lawson, Stephen Johnston. Amplification of Sense-Stranded Prokaryotic RNA. DNA Cell Biol (2006).
- K Nalley, Stephen Johnston. Gal4 does not cycle on and off promoters while activating transcription. Nature (2006).
- S Chen, J Ding, R Bereredjian, B Yang, R Shohet, Stephen Johnston, H Hohmeier, C Newgard, P Grayburn. Efficient gene delivery to pancreatic islets with ultrasonic microbubble destruction technology. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci (2006).
- C Solis, P Ostoa-Saloma, V Lugo-Martinez, Stephen Johnston, J Laclette. Genetic vaccination against murine cysticercosis by using a plasmid vector carrying Taenia solium paramyosin. Infection and Immunity (2005).
- C Solis, P Ostoa-Saloma, V Lugo-Martinez, Stephen Johnston, J Laclette. Related Articles, Links Genetic vaccination against murine cysticercosis by using a plasmid vector carrying Taenia solium paramyosin. Infect Immun (2005).
- D Magee, R Friedberg, M Woitaske, Stephen Johnston, R Cox. Role of B cells in vaccine-induced immunity against coccidioidomycosis. Infection and Immunity (2005).
- Jitakshi De, Ya-Ching Chang, Kausar Samli, Jonathan Schisler, Christopher Newgard, Stephen Johnston, Kathlynn Brown. Isolation of a Mycoplasma-specific binding peptide from unbiased phage-displayed peptide library. Molecular Biosystems (2005).
- K Stemke-Hale, B Kaltenboeck, F DeGraves, K Sykes, J Huang, C Bu, Stephen Johnston. Related Articles, Links Screening the whole genome of a pathogen in vivo for individual protective antigens. Vaccine (2005).
- K Stemke-Hale, B Kaltenboeck, F DeGraves, Kathryn Sykes, J Huang, C Bu, Stephen Johnston. Screening the whole genome of a pathogen in vivo for individual protective antigens. Vaccine (2005).
- Kausar Samli, Michael McGuire, Christopher Newgard, Stephen Johnston, Kathlynn Brown. Peptide Mediated targeting to the Islets of Langerhans. Diabetes (2005).
- A Talaat, R Lyons, S Howard, Stephen Johnston. The temporal expression profile of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in mice. PNAS (2004).
- Bao-Xi Qu, R Rosenberg, L Li, P Boyer, Stephen Johnston. Genetic vaccination to bias the immune response to amyloid beta peptide as therapy for alzheimers. Archives of Neurobiology (2004).
- M McGuire, A Takashima, K Brown, Stephen Johnston, Kathryn Sykes, K Samli, L Timares, M Barry, K Stemke-Hale, F Tagliaferri, M Logan, K Jansa. A Library-Selected, Langerhans Cell-Targeting Peptide Enhances an Immune Response. DNA and Cell Biology (2004).
- M McGuire, K Samli, Stephen Johnston, K Brown. In vitro Selection of a Peptide with High Selectivity for Cardiomyocytes in vivo. Journal of Molecular Biology (2004).
- T Gillette, F Gonzalez, A Delahodde, Stephen Johnston, T Kodadek. Physical and Functional Association of RNA Polymerase II and the Proteasome. PNAS (2004).
- Y Belosludtsev, K Obrien, H Garner, T Powdrill, D Bowerman, R Weil, N Marthandan, R Balog, K Luebke, J Lawson, Stephen Johnston, C Lyons. Organism Identification Using a Genome Sequence-Independent Universal Microarray Probe Set. Biotechniques (2004).
- D Ivey, Dewey Magee, M Woitaske, Stephen Johnston, R Cox. Identification of a protective antigen of Coccidioides immitis by expression library immunization. Vaccine (2003).
- I Rombel, A Talaat, Stephen Johnston. Shotgun library production in a day. Biotechniques (2003).
- L Timares, K Safer, B Qu, A Takashima, Stephen Johnston. Drug-inducible, dendritic cell-based genetic immunization. The Journal of Immunology (2003).
- Ross Chambers, Stephen Johnston. High-level generation of polyclonal antibodies by genetic immunization. Nature Biotechnology (2003).
- T Oyama, K Sykes, K Samli, J Minna, Stephen Johnston, K Brown. Isolation of lung tumor specific peptides from a random peptide library: generation of diagnostic and cell-targeting reagents. Cancer Letter (2003).
- Y Liu, K Luebke, E Livesay, Stephen Johnston. A simple method to make a membrane with regions of differential permeability. Journal of Membrane Science (2003).
- A Ferdous, T Kodadek, Stephen Johnston. 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).
- A Talaat, H Garner, S Howard, R Lyons, Stephen Johnston. Genomic DNA standards for gene expression profiling in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Nucleic Acids Research (2002).
- D Lakey, Y Zhang, A Talaat, B Samten, L DesJardin, K Eisenach, Stephen Johnston, P Barnes. Priming reverse transcription with oligo(dT) does not yield representative samples of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis cDNA. Journal in Microbiology (2002).
- E Livesay, Liu Ying-Horng, K Luebke, J Irick, Y Belosludtsev, S Rayner, R Balog, Stephen Johnston. A scalable high-throughput chemical synthesizer. Genome research (2002).
- F Gonzalez, A Delahodde, T Kodadek, Stephen Johnston. Recruitment of a 19S proteasome subcomplex to an activated promoter. Science (2002).
- I Rombel, K Sykes, S Rayner, Stephen Johnston. ORF-FINDER: A vector for high throughput gene identification. Gene (2002).
- Kathryn Sykes, M Lewis, B Squires, Stephen Johnston. Evaluation of SIV expression library vaccines in a macaque challenge. Vaccine (2002).
- L Sun, Stephen Johnston, T Kodadek. Physical association of the APIS complex and general transcription factors. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (2002).
- Stephen Johnston. Genetic Immunization: What's in a name?. Archives of Medical Research (2002).
- A Ferdous, F Gonzalez, L Sun, T Kodadek, Stephen Johnston. The 19S regulatory particle of the proteasome is required for efficient transcription elongation by RNA polymerase II. Molecular Cell (2001).
- A Morita, K Ariizumil, R Ritter, J Jester, T Kumamoto, Stephen Johnston, A Takashima. Development of Langerhans cell-targeted gene therapy format using a dendritic cell-specific promoter. Gene Therapy (2001).
- A Talaat, R Lyons, Stephen Johnston. A combination vaccine confers full protection against co-infection with influenza, herpes simplex and respiratory syncytial viruses. Vaccine (2001).
- C Chang, F Gonzalez, B Rothermel, L Sun, Stephen Johnston, T Kodadek. The Gal4 activation domain binds the Sug2 protein, a proteasome component, in vivo and in vitro. J. Biol. Chem (2001).
- C Jeong, L Zhang, S Yang, T Kodadek, Y Xie, Stephen Johnston. Evidence That Gal11 Protein Is A Target of the Gal4 Activation Domain In the Mediator. Biochemistry (2001).
- Q Li, Stephen Johnston. Are all DNA binding and transcriptional regulation by an activator physiologically relevant?. Mol. Cell Biol (2001).
- S Russell, F Gonzalez, L Joshua-Tor, Stephen Johnston. Selective chemical inactivation of AAA proteins reveals distinct functions of proteasomal ATPases. Chemistry and Biology (2001).
- S Russell, Stephen Johnston. Evidence that proteolysis of Gal4 can not explain the transcriptional effects of proteasome ATPase mutations. J. Biological Chemistry (2001).
- Stephen Johnston, B Qu, M McGuire, K Stemke-Hale, K Sykes. Applications of, and Future Challenges for, Genetic Vaccines. Development in Biologicals (2001).
- T Gillette, W Huang, S Russell, S Reed, Stephen Johnston, E Friedberg. The 19S complex of the proteasome regulates nucleotide excision repair. Genes & Development (2001).
- A Talaat, P Hunter, Stephen Johnston. Genome-directed primers for selective labeling of bacterial transcripts for DNA microarray analysis. Nature Biotech (2000).
- S Hayashi, Stephen Johnston, A Takashima. Induction of Th2-Directed Immune Responses by IL-4-Transduced Dendritic Cells in Mice. Vaccine (2000).
- Stephen Johnston, A Talaat. Gene vaccines: Origins and implications for the future. Emirates Medical Journal (2000).
We are conducting the worlds largest dog trial (810 dogs) to test a vaccine to prevent cancer. It seems to be working to reduce ~30 of malignant tumors. It also reduces non-tumor deaths ~80%. We are also developing diagnostics for the early detection of cancer and other diseases.
Courses
2025 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
BIO 493 | Honors Thesis |
BCH 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
BCH 492 | Honors Directed Study |
BCH 493 | Honors Thesis |
BIO 492 | Honors Directed Study |
CHM 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
CHM 492 | Honors Directed Study |
CHM 493 | Honors Thesis |
MBB 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BIO 495 | Undergraduate Research |
CHM 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
BCH 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
BCH 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
2024 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
BCH 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
BCH 492 | Honors Directed Study |
BCH 493 | Honors Thesis |
BIO 492 | Honors Directed Study |
BIO 493 | Honors Thesis |
CHM 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
CHM 492 | Honors Directed Study |
BDE 792 | Research |
BIO 495 | Undergraduate Research |
MBB 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BDE 799 | Dissertation |
CHM 493 | Honors Thesis |
BCH 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
CHM 392 | Intro to Research Techniques |
2024 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
BIO 493 | Honors Thesis |
MBB 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BIO 495 | Undergraduate Research |
2023 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
BIO 492 | Honors Directed Study |
BIO 493 | Honors Thesis |
BDE 792 | Research |
BIO 495 | Undergraduate Research |
MBB 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BDE 799 | Dissertation |
2023 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
BIO 492 | Honors Directed Study |
BIO 493 | Honors Thesis |
MBB 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BIO 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BIO 394 | Special Topics |
2022 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
BIO 492 | Honors Directed Study |
BIO 493 | Honors Thesis |
BDE 792 | Research |
BIO 495 | Undergraduate Research |
MBB 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BDE 799 | Dissertation |
2022 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
BIO 492 | Honors Directed Study |
BIO 493 | Honors Thesis |
MBB 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BIO 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BIO 394 | Special Topics |
2021 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
BIO 492 | Honors Directed Study |
BIO 493 | Honors Thesis |
BDE 792 | Research |
BIO 495 | Undergraduate Research |
MBB 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BDE 799 | Dissertation |
BDE 799 | Dissertation |
2021 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
BIO 492 | Honors Directed Study |
BIO 493 | Honors Thesis |
MBB 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BIO 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BIO 394 | Special Topics |
2020 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
BIO 492 | Honors Directed Study |
BIO 493 | Honors Thesis |
BDE 792 | Research |
BIO 495 | Undergraduate Research |
MBB 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BDE 799 | Dissertation |
2020 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
BIO 492 | Honors Directed Study |
BIO 493 | Honors Thesis |
MBB 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BIO 495 | Undergraduate Research |
2019 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
BIO 492 | Honors Directed Study |
BDE 792 | Research |
BIO 495 | Undergraduate Research |
MBB 495 | Undergraduate Research |
BDE 799 | Dissertation |
- Vaccine Summit. 10.2022. A new source of cancer neoantigens as the basis for broadly protective cancer vaccine.
I teach "How to become a biomedical inventor" each spring
none
none
National Association of Corporate Directors
Sols
50% ASU professor, 50% CEO Calviri
I give Michael Crow unsolicited advice.
SAB Aurovax
Calviri