[1] Her research focuses on innate and adaptive immune mechanisms — in particular, the mobility of proteins in membranes, lymphocyte cell surface molecules, T cell signalling, leukocyte adhesion, and macrophages in lung inflammation.
[3] She was a post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute in California, US under the supervision of Ian Trowbridge and at the MRC Cellular Immunology Unit at the University of Oxford, U.K. under the supervision of Alan F. Williams[4] before joining the faculty at the University of British Columbia in 1991.
[2] Johnson helped to establish the function of CD45 as a critical protein tyrosine phosphatase in T cell activation[5] and defined the mechanisms regulating the interactions of the cell adhesion molecule CD44 with the matrix component, hyaluronan.
[6] Her research in 2020 uses mouse models of lung disease to study the function of macrophages and the cell matrix in infection, inflammation, and cancer.
[1] She held an MRC Scientist Award and was Co-Director of the Infection, Inflammation and Immunity Research Group at the Life Science Institute at UBC (2003-2009).