We study the mechanisms that generate neuronal diversity in fly eyes (left) and human retinal organoids (right).
“These organoids take nine months to develop just like a human baby’s eye. We are really studying human development by studying these organoids.”
— Robert J. Johnston, Developmental biologist
“We are using the fly eye as a paradigm to elucidate the mechanisms controlling stochastic gene expression during development. Similar to the human color vision system, the photoreceptors of the fly eye randomly express several light-detecting Rhodopsin proteins (Rhodopsin3 =blue; Rhodopsin4 = red).”
— Robert J. Johnston, Developmental biologist
Announcements
Congratulations to Allie for being awarded an NRSA predoctoral fellowship!!
We are excited to welcome three new undergrads, Alessia, Tanya and Megan, to the lab!!
Congratulations to Christina who finished her public thesis defense!!
The Johnston Lab is celebrating as Rina is going to start her Ph.D. at Columbia University!
Congratulations to Simon who gave a fantastic talk at ARVO 2024!
Congratulations to Tye, who was awarded the NSF GRFP fellowship, and Emma, who received an honorable mention!
Congratulations to Marina for being awarded the 2024 Summer Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award (PURA)!
Congrats to the lab for being named as a finalist in the 2024 JHU President’s Frontier Award! Check it out here!
Congratulations to Jo, who was awarded the NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award! Her future lab will study the evolutionary and developmental mechanisms in the primate retina.
Congrats to the lab for two new publications:
Retinoic acid signaling regulates spatiotemporal specification of human green and red cones in PLOS Biology
Transcriptional priming and chromatin regulation during stochastic cell fate specification in Phil. Trans. B, The Royal Society
Check them out!
The lab had a great holiday party this year!
We are excited to welcome a new undergrad, Katalina (Katie) Li, to the lab!
Congratulations to Ryan for being awarded the Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award (PURA)!
We are thrilled to welcome Allie Taylor (neuroscience grad student) and Marina Curchitser (undergrad) to the lab!
Congratulations to Emma and Tye for passing their GBOs!!
The Johnston Lab wishes Yani the best of luck as she starts her Ph.D. at Harvard. We’ll miss you!
We are excited to welcome McKaily Adams to the lab as our new lab manager and tech!
The Johnston Lab had a great time in Chicago for the 2023 SDB Conference. Congrats to Jo for giving a fantastic talk!
The Johnston Lab had an amazing time during the annual lab dinner at Cypriana!
We are thrilled to welcome Tye Chicha and Emma Steinson as new graduate students in the Johnston Lab!!
Congratulations to Rina!! She received the 2023 William D. McElroy Award for outstanding undergraduate research in the Department of Biology.
The Johnston Lab was awarded the 2023 Johns Hopkins University Discovery Award!!
Simon and Joyce attended The Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology (ARVO) 2023 Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Simon presented a poster showing his work on RGC cell generation and loss in human retinal organoids.
Congratulations to Jo! She won the Best Postdoctoral Scholar Talk Award at the 2023 Mid-Atlantic SDB Meeting!
The Johnston Lab gave outstanding presentations at the 2023 Mid-Atlantic SDB Meeting!
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Jo Hagen
Post-doc
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Christina McNerney
Graduate student
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Ali Ordway
Post-doc
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Rina Helt
Undergraduate student
