Paul Andrew Johnston

Paul A. Johnston is a professor in the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh. He obtained a B.Sc. with Honors (2.1) (1978) and a Ph.D. (1983) in Biochemistry, from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. Subsequent postdoctoral positions in the department of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina, the Pathology department of Duke University, and at the Howard Hughes Institute of the University of Texas Southwestern have provided a diversity of experience in biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, immunology, protein purification and recombinant protein expression. Dr Johnston has thirty years of drug discovery experience in the Pharmaceutical (American Cyanamid, Sphinx Pharmaceuticals & Eli Lilly), Biotechnology (Embrex) and academic sectors (University of Pittsburgh). Throughout his career Dr. Johnston has been an innovator of cell based approaches to lead generation and optimization and pioneered the development and implementation of high content imaging technology to drug discovery. A founding member of the Society for Biomolecular Imaging and Informatics (SBI2) in 2012, he is a past president and former sponsorship/exhibitor contact for the annual SBI2 conference and exhibit show. In the summer of 2005, he returned to academia to design and build the University of Pittsburgh Molecular Library Screening Center (PMLSC) where he led 21 HTS campaigns and reconfigured the NCI 60 cell line assays for cancer drug combination screening. In 2011, Dr. Johnston joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the School of Pharmacy where he established his own chemical biology laboratories and his research has focused on the application of novel drug discovery strategies to identify new and effective drugs or drug combinations for prostate cancer, melanoma, head and neck cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma. He also provides expertise in HTS/HCS assay development and implementation for drug discovery collaborations in other therapeutic areas. Dr. Johnston teaches biochemistry and drug discovery courses to students in the Pharm.D. and Ph.D. programs of the School of Pharmacy. HTS/HCS assay development and implementation, prostate cancer, melanoma, head and neck cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma