Louise N. Johnson - Obituaries & Curriculum vitae#
- Obituaries in The Lancet
and Structure
EDUCATION AND ACADEMIC CAREER:
- 1959-1962 University College, London (1962) Graduated with B.Sc. (Hons.) Physics
- 1962-1966 The Royal Institution, London (1965) Ph.D., University of London. Thesis entitled "The Structure of N-acetyl-glucosamine and its relation to Lysozyme". Supervisor: David C. Phillips (later Lord Phillips of Ellesmere).
- 1966-1967 Department of Biophysics, Yale University. Post-doctoral research assistant in Prof. F.M. Richards Laboratory.
- 1967-1973 Departmental Demonstrator in the Zoology Department, University of Oxford and Janet Vaughan Lecturer in Biophysics at Somerville College, Oxford.
- 1973-1990 University Lecturer in Molecular Biophysics, University of Oxford.
- 1973-1990 Additional Fellow and Janet Vaughan Lecturer, Somerville College, Oxford
- 1990-2007 David Phillips Professor in Molecular Biophysics, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford.
- 1990-2008 Professorial Fellow, Corpus Christi College, Oxford (Emeritus Fellow 2008- ).
- 1990- Honorary Fellow, Somerville College Oxford
- 2003-2008 Science Director, Life Sciences, Diamond Light Source.
- 2008- Diamond Fellow
HONOURS:
- Kaj Linderstrom-Lang Prize 1989 for "pioneering contributions to protein crystallography and to our understanding of the structural properties of enzymes, especially through the use of time-resolved X-ray crystallography".
- Elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 1990
- Elected Member of European Molecular Biology Organisation, 1991
- Honorary D.Sc. University of St. Andrews, 1992
- Fellow University College London, 1993
- Royal Society of Chemistry Award in Enzyme Chemistry, The Charmian Medal, 1996
- Datta Medal, Federation of European Biochemical Societies, 1998
- Elected Associate Fellow, Third World Academy of Science, 2000
- Elected Member Academia Europaea, 2001
- N. and B. L. Vallee Visiting Professor, Harvard University Medical School, 2001
- DBE, New Year's Honors 2003
- Honorary D.Sc. University of Bath, 2004
- Honorary Fellowship of the British Biophysical Society, 2004
- Honorary Fellowship of the Biochemical Society, 2004
- Honorary Fellowship of the Institute of Biology, 2004
- Foreign Fellow, Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, 2005
- Foreign Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2007
- Novartis Medal and Prize, Biochemical Society, 2009
- Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, 2009
- Honorary D.Sc. Imperial College London, 2009
JOURNALS:
- Editor: FEBS LETTS: 1986-1991
- Associate Editor: Protein Science: 1991-1997
- Editorial Board: Proc.Roy.Soc. B: 1990-1993
- Editorial Board: Structure 1999-
COMMITTEES AND ADVISORY APPOINTMENTS OUTSIDE OXFORD (from 2001)
- Governor, Westminster School, 1993-2001
- Trustee, Cambridge Crystallographic Data Base, 1996-2003
- Member Council of Central Laboratories of the Research Councils 1998-2001
- Centro di Eccellenza di Biocristallografia, University of Trieste SAC (chairman) 2001-2003
- Fourth Generation Light Source, Daresbury, Member of International Advisory Committee 2001-2003
- Swiss National Centre for Competence in Research, Zurich; Scientific Advisory Council (NCCR) 2001-2004
- Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, Scientific Advisory Committee 2001-2005
- Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Scientific Advisory Committee 2003-2004
- Biological and Life Sciences Advisor, CCLRC 2002-2003
- International Science Advisory Committee, CCLRC 2003-2007
- The Academy of Medical Sciences, Wellcome Trust, MRC review of the use of non-human primates in research 2005-2006
- Scientific Advisory Board School of Biological Sciences, University of Cambridge 2005-
- Scientific Advisory Board for Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR) 2008-
- Trustee, Daphne Jackson Trust 2009-
- Scientific Advisory Board for Advanced Photon Source, Argonne 2009-
- Scientific Advisory Board for the Biosciences Research Institute, University of Durham 2009-
- Scientic Advisory Board for Biological Sciences, University of Bath 2010-
Synopsis of scientific research.
My research has focused on the mechanisms for control and catalysis in biologically important molecules. I use X-ray crystallographic diffraction methods complemented by other techniques that include molecular biology, protein purification, enzyme kinetics and electron microscopy. As a graduate student, I contributed to the crystallographic studies on lysozyme that led to the first structural explanation for an enzyme mechanism in 1966. In my independent research programme, we determined the structure of the large enzyme glycogen phosphorylase, exploiting the bright radiation from a synchrotron radiation source, and developed this work with time resolved studies and in understanding the mechanisms for control by allosteric effectors and by phosphorylation. Later work has developed the theme of control by phosphorylation with studies on the regulatory proteins that control the cell cycle and on phosphorylase kinase. We have had an active programme structure based drug design with therapeutic applications for both glycogen phosphorylase, the cell cycle kinases CDK2 and CDK7, and the transcriptional regulator CDK9. We have addressed the following questions: how is substrate specificity achieved by molecular recognition? How does modification of a protein by phosphorylation lead to activation or inactivation? How do regulatory subunits exert their control? What is the structural basis for the catalytic mechanism? How can knowledge of structure be exploited in understanding drug interactions?
Other work
Within the University, my major efforts have been in research, teaching, administration of the Laboratory of Molecular biophysics in the University of Oxford and service on various Committees and Boards of the University. I have also contributed to the administration of science both at the national and international level. I served on the Council for the Royal Society from 1998 to 2000, a service that gave insights into the role of the Society and in particular its current aims for presentation of science to society through its reports and press statements and I have recently been elected to serve again (2009-2011). I served for 3 years as Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. I served an exceptional third year at the wish of the Director General, Professor Fotis Kafatos, in order to steer the Laboratory through its plans for the next 5 years and the funding requests for its programme (happily successful). I also served at the direction of the Director General of the Research Councils on the Council for the Central Laboratories of the Research Councils. For 8 years I was the Royal Society’s representative on the Governing Body of Westminster School, a rather rewarding experience with some insights how an exceptionally able academic school operates and its efforts through recent new funding to provide a more extended scholarship programme. My current service on outside committees is mostly involved in an international role in advising on the exploitation of synchrotron radiation for biological research.
In 2003 I took up the position of Director of Life Sciences at the Diamond Light Source, the UK's new synchrotron source that was commissioned in January 2007. This is an exciting venture. I spent 50% of my time with the University and 50% with Diamond. I was involved with the macromolecular crystallography beam lines (3 in 2007, plus 3 more in the following 3 years), the non-crystalline diffraction beam lines, the CD and the infrared microspectroscopy beam lines. Together with Professor So Iwata and Dr Gwyndaf Evans and in collaboration with Imperial College, we created the Membrane Protein Laboratory at Diamond funded by the Wellcome Trust. I have also been much involved in the creation of a Research Complex at Diamond jointly funded by the research councils.
I have a special interest in promoting science in developing countries and several of my lecture engagements reflect this interest. In this connection I was pleased to be honored by the election as an Associate Member of the Third World Academy of Sciences. I chair the TWAS selection panel for elections in the fields of Cell, Structural and Molecular Biology.
UNIVERSITY GRADUATE TRAINING:
Over the last 40 years I supervised 30 graduate students all of whom have obtained their DPhil degrees. Six are Professors two are Readers, two are Principal Beam Lines scientists at synchrotron sources, three are Research Fellows. Three have moved outside science. All the others are in academic or industrial research.
The textbook “Protein Crystallography” (Blundell, T. L. & Johnson, L. N. (1976)) co-authored with Tom Blundell is still useful for graduate training 35 years after it was first published. It has become a ‘classic”. The publishers Elsevier reissued the book in 2006.
