His other research interests include signaling networks controlling cell function and disease and the behavior of the kinome en masse in cancer.
in Biology in 1971 at Cal State Northridge,where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 1976 at the University of Colorado Medical School.
He served as the chair of the Department of Pharmacology at UNC Chapel Hill from 2003 to 2017 and was a Kenan Distinguished Professor from 2011 to 2019.
Now, Johnson works as the co-director of the Program in Molecular Therapeutics for the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and director of the Human Genome RNAi/CRISPR Screening Facility.
They defined the adaptive bypass mechanisms that result in the lack of durable responses to targeted kinase inhibitors.