Jeffrey Johnson

About

Jeffrey A. Johnson, PhD, is a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Director of the Bachelor of Science Pharmacology and Toxicology Program at the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy. His research focuses on the transcriptional control of neuroprotective genes and the prevention of neurodegeneration in diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and neuromuscular disorders. A central theme of his work is the investigation of dysfunctional proteostasis in disease progression and the development of viral-mediated delivery methods for protective genes to the brain. Dr. Johnson's laboratory has extensively studied the Keap1/Nrf2 pathway, which plays a critical role in mitigating mechanisms associated with Alzheimer's disease, including oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, and protein aggregation. Activation of this pathway promotes the expression of detoxifying and antioxidant genes, enhancing cellular resistance to neurodegenerative processes. His research has demonstrated that Nrf2 activation in astrocytes confers neuroprotection both in vitro and in vivo, including significant attenuation of pathology in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease through reduced tau phosphorylation, neuronal loss, and amyloid-beta plaque load. Current projects in his lab include elucidating neuroprotective mechanisms mediated by astrocytic Nrf2 activation, exploring the role of Nrf2 in microglial activation, developing viral-mediated delivery of Nrf2…

Research topics

• Medicine
• Computer Science
• Internal medicine
• Medical education
• Endocrinology
• Geography
• Environmental health
• Library science
• Business
• Virology

Selected publications

• PATIENT PERSPECTIVES ON THE MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY OF LIFE BURDENS OF CHRONIC HAND ECZEMA

  Annals of Allergy Asthma & Immunology · 2024-10-25 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Sensing the Sounds from Earth’s Hazardous Environments

  Eos · 2026-05-08

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Low-cost infrasound sensors, deployed in large numbers, provide a practical means of data collection near volcanoes, earthquakes, wildfires, and other geophysical phenomena.

  PublisherDOI

• Health-related quality of life of people receiving venous leg ulcer treatment with compression therapy

  Wound Practice and Research · 2025-06-01

  articleOpen access

  This study assessed the effects of high compression bandages and Unna's boots on health-related quality of life for venous leg ulcer treatment.A randomised clinical trial was conducted with 56 patients across 22 primary healthcare services in Brazil, between 2020 and 2023.Participants were randomly assigned to receive high compression bandages (Group A) or Unna's boots (Group B).Health-related quality of life was assessed by the six-dimensional Health State Short Form questionnaire at baseline a…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Greater Access and Impact through Point-of-Care Nucleic Acid Testing: Protocol for the GAIN Study (Preprint)

  2025-09-23

  articleOpen access

  <sec> <title>BACKGROUND</title> Accurate HIV testing is important for individual and population level health for persons with and without HIV. With shorter window periods than serologic point-of-care (POC) tests and faster turnaround than laboratory-based nucleic acid testing (NAT), POC NATs could be valuable tools in improving early detection of HIV. Furthermore, semi-quantitative POC NAT could provide real-time monitoring for persons with HIV (PWH). There have been limited evaluations of POC N…

  PublisherDOI

• PATIENT PRIORITIES IN PRESCRIPTION TREATMENT DECISIONS FOR ATOPIC DERMATITIS: RESULTS FROM A 2025 NATIONAL SURVEY

  Annals of Allergy Asthma & Immunology · 2025-11-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• REU Site: Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunity in Chemistry (SUROC) at UNC Chapel Hill

  NSF · $270k · 2015–2019

• NIH Grant R01ES010042

  NIH · $4.0M · 2012

• The Nrf2-ARE Pathway in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

  NIH · $3.7M · 1996–2015

Frequent coauthors

• Sonja Hansen

  Freie Universität Berlin

  1152 shared

• James H. Grendell

  776 shared

• Elisabeth Meyer

  764 shared

• Peter J. Papadakos

  Hospital General Universitario Morales Meseguer

  641 shared

• Prasanna Simha Mohan Rao

  Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research

  590 shared

• A. L. Hoefnagel

  Florida College

  404 shared

• John A. Kellum

  University of Pittsburgh

  390 shared

• Jordi Carratalà

  388 shared

Labs

• Jeffrey Johnson LabPI

  Research on Alzheimer's Disease, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, protein aggregation, and proteostasis.

Education

• PhD, Pharmaceutical Economics

  University of Arizona

  1996

• Masters of Science, Clinical Pharmacy & Pharmacoepidmiology

  Univeristy of Saskatchewan College of Pharmacy

  1994

• Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy (BSP)

  University of Saskatchewan

  1988

Awards & honors

• Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor

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