NINDS K99/R00 Awardee - January 2017
Independent Position: Louisiana State University, Louisiana
Dr. Alyssa Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Louisiana State University, Louisiana. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Graeme Davis at the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, where she investigated the potential mechanisms of Valosin containing protein (VCP)-mediated cellular degeneration in fruit flies. She explored how VCP disease mutations disrupt autophagy-dependent protein clearance and cause several degenerative diseases, including frontotemporal dementia and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). She received her Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology from Vanderbilt University and completed her BS in chemistry from Hope College.