Alexander (Sandy) D. Johnson, PhD

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN, B.A., 1974, Biochemistry
Harvard University, Cambridge MA, M.A., Ph.D., 1980, Biochemistry
University of California, San Francisco, Postdoctoral, 1981-85, Biochemistry

• 1975-1980
  Graduate student with Mark Ptashne, Dept. of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Harvard University
• 1980-1981
  Postdoctoral fellow with Mark Ptashne, Dept. Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Harvard University
• 1981-1985
  Postdoctoral fellow with Ira Herskowitz, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, UCSF
• 1985-1990
  Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology; Joint Appointment in Biochemistry & Biophysics, UCSF
• 1991-1995
  Associate Professor, Departments of Microbiology & Immunology; Biochemistry & Biophysics, UCSF
• 1995-present
  Professor, Departments of Microbiology & Immunology; Biochemistry and Biophysics, UCSF
• 2003-present
  Vice Chair, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, UCSF
• 2005-present
  Director of The Tetrad (Biochemistry, Genetics, Cell Biology, and Developmental Biology) Graduate Program, UCSF

• B.A. summa cum laude, 1974
• Phi Beta Kappa, 1974
• Dreyfus Scholarship, 1974-1977
• Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1981-1983
• Pew Scholarship, 1986-1990
• Elected to American Academy of Microbiology, 1998
• Burroughs Wellcome Merit Award, 1999 - 2004
• Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar in Global Infectious Diseases, 2004-2008
• Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2007
• The Emil Christian Hansen Award for Microbiology, 2009
• Elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 2011

• Keleher, C., Goutte, C., and Johnson, A.D. (1988). The yeast cell-type specific repressor α2 acts cooperatively with a non-cell-type specific protein. Cell 53:927-936.
• Smith, D., and Johnson, A.D. (1992). A molecular mechanism for combinatorial control in yeast: MCM1 protein sets the spacing and orientation of the homeodomains of an α2 dimer. Cell 68:133-142.
• Keleher, C.A., Redd, M.J., Schultz, J., Carlson, M., and Johnson, A.D. (1992). SSN6/TUP1 is a general repressor of transcription in yeast. Cell 68:709-719.
• Herschbach, B.M., Arnaud, M.B., and Johnson, A.D. (1994). Transcriptional repression directed by the yeast α2 protein in vitro. Nature 370:309-311.
• Stark, M.R., and Johnson, A.D. (1994). Interaction between two homeodomain proteins is specified by a short C-terminal tail. Nature 371:429-432.
• Braun, B.R. and Johnson, A.D. (1997). Control of filament formation in Candida albicans by the transcriptional repressor TUP1. Science 277:105-109.
• Hull, C.M., and Johnson, A.D. (1999). Identification of a mating type-like locus in the asexual pathogenic yeast Candida albicans. Science 285:1271-1275.
• Hull, C.M, Raisner, R.M., and Johnson, A.D. (2000). Evidence for mating of the "asexual" yeast Candida albicans in a mammalian host. Science 289:307-310.
• Miller, M.G., and Johnson, A.D. (2002). White-opaque switching in Candida albicans is controlled by mating-type (MTL) locus homeodomain proteins and allows efficient mating. Cell 110: 293-302.
• Tsong, A.E., Miller, M.G., Raisner, R.M., and Johnson, A.D. (2003). Evolution of a combinatorial transcriptional circuit: a case study in yeasts. Cell 115:389-399.
• Tsong A.E., Tuch, B.B., Li H., Johnson A.D. (2006). Evolution of alternative transcriptional circuits with identical logic. Nature 443:415-420.
• Zordan, R.E., Miller, M.G., Galgoczy D.J., Tuch, B.B., Johnson A.D. (2007). Interlocking transcriptional feedback loops control white-opaque switching in Candida albicans. PLoS Biology 5(10)e256. PMCID: PMC1976629.
• Mitrovich, Q.M., Tuch, B.B., De La Vega, F.M., Guthrie, C., Johnson, A.D. (2010). Evolution of yeast noncoding RNAs reveals an alternative mechanism for widespread intron loss. Science 5: 838-841. NIHMSID#267973.
• Booth, L.N., Tuch, B., Johnson, A.D. (2010). Intercalation of a new tier of transcription regulation into an ancient circuit. Nature 468:959-963. NIHMSID#266815.
• Noble, S.M., French, S., Kohn, L.A., Chen, V., Johnson, A.D. (2010). Systematic screens of a Candida albicans homozygous deletion library decouple morphogenetic switching and pathogenicity. Nature Genetics. 42:590-598. PMCID: PMC2893244.