Dr. Neil Johnson is an associate professor with tenure at Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC) and leads an NCI R01-funded research program. Dr. Johnson’s laboratory studies mechanisms of DNA damage detection, repair, and signaling that occur in BRCA1 mutation-containing organisms and cancers. A range of approaches are routinely employed, including cell biology, mouse genetics, and therapy resistance modeling, to understand basic biological processes and their implications for tumorigenesis and chemotherapy sensitivity. In particular, Dr. Johnson’s research has focused on the utility of PARP inhibitor (PARPi) therapy for the past 10 years. Dr. Johnson used small molecule inhibitors to convert homologous recombination (HR) proficient cancer cells into HR-deficient cells, inducing ‘BRCAness’, and sensitizing cancers to PARPi. Subsequently, multiple contributions have been made toward understanding mechanisms by which BRCA1 mutation-containing alleles generate protein products that promote HR repair and chemotherapy resistance. More recently, several new BRCA1 mutant mouse alleles were generated in the Johnson laboratory to study the impact of loss of various BRCA1 functional domains on development and organismal health. Currently, the Johnson laboratory is continuing to explore DNA repair biology, and we aim to improve the current understanding of the role of BRCA1 in the repair of double stranded DNA breaks (DSBs) and maintaining genome stability. 

Read more about Dr. Johnson's work on his FCCC website