Dr Simon Johnston

PhD

Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease

Senior Research Fellow

s.a.johnston@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 2301

+44 114 222 2702 (lab)

Firth Court

Full contact details

Dr Simon Johnston
Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
Firth Court
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN

Profile

2018 - Senior Research Fellow. Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease, Bateson Centre, University of Sheffield.
2012 - 2018 Medical Research Council - Career Development Award Fellow, Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease, MRC Centre for Developmental and Biomedical Genetics. (2012-2014) and Bateson Centre (2014), University of Sheffield.
2012 - 2017 Krebs Institute - Fellow, Krebs Institute, University of Sheffield.
2011 - 2012 Lister Institute Post-Doctoral Research Associate, University of Birmingham, Birmingham.
2010 - 2011 Wellcome Trust - Post-Doctoral Research Associate, University of Birmingham, Birmingham.
2007 - 2010 Medical Research Council - Post-Doctoral Research Associate, University of Birmingham, Birmingham.
2003 - 2007 PhD Cell Biology, University of Birmingham.
2000 - 2003 BSc (Hons) Biochemistry, University of Birmingham.

Research interests

My research group is focused on the study infectious disease to improve patient treatment and to further our fundamental understanding of how the immune system functions. We use a multidisciplinary approach in collaboration with biologists, clinicians, engineers and physicists. In this way we aim to use the best experimental model to answer the specific research question at hand.

We have a particular interest in opportunistic fungal infections in immunocompromise. One example is Cryptococcus neoformans, which is a fungal pathogen of humans and causes hundreds of thousands of deaths in the severely immunocompromised world-wide each year.

Most life-threatening infections are in individuals with AIDS in Africa where it is the most common cause of meningo-encephalitis and the cause of 15% of AIDS-related deaths. In our studies of cryptococcal disease my group has contributed to how the immune system is defective in responding to cryptococcal infection in immunocompromise and what features of cryptococci drive their virulence.

Currently, we have three research priorities:

Macrophage mediated immunity to opportunistic infection
Central nervous system pathology in infection and immune system disease
Mechanisms and regulation of phagocytosis

Publications

Show: Featured publications All publications

Featured publications

Journal articles

Evans RJ, Pline K, Loynes CA, Needs S, Aldrovandi M, Tiefenbach J, Bielska E, Rubino RE, Nicol CJ, May RC , Krause HM et al (2019) 15-keto-prostaglandin E2 activates host peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) to promote Cryptococcus neoformans growth during infection. PLoS Pathogens, 15(3). View this article in WRRO
Watkins RA, Andrews A, Wynn C, Barisch C, King JS & Johnston SA (2018) Cryptococcus neoformans escape from Dictyostelium amoeba by both WASH-mediated constitutive exocytosis and vomocytosis. Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 8. View this article in WRRO
van Leeuwen LM, Evans RJ, Jim KK, Verboom T, Fang X, Bojarczuk A, Malicki J, Johnston SA & van der Sar AM (2018) A transgenic zebrafish model for the in vivo study of the blood and choroid plexus brain barriers using claudin 5. Biology Open, 7(2), bio030494-bio030494. View this article in WRRO
Ballou ER & Johnston SA (2017) The cause and effect of Cryptococcus interactions with the host.. Curr Opin Microbiol, 40, 88-94. View this article in WRRO
Gilbert AS, Seoane PI, Sephton-Clark P, Bojarczuk A, Hotham R, Giurisato E, Sarhan AR, Hillen A, Velde GV, Gray NS , Alessi DR et al (2017) Vomocytosis of live pathogens from macrophages is regulated by the atypical MAP kinase ERK5. Science Advances, 3(8). View this article in WRRO
Bojarczuk A, Miller KA, Hotham R, Lewis A, Ogryzko NV, Kamuyango AA, Frost H, Gibson RH, Stillman E, May RC , Renshaw SA et al (2016) Cryptococcus neoformans Intracellular Proliferation and Capsule Size Determines Early Macrophage Control of Infection. Scientific Reports, 6(1), 21489-21489. View this article in WRRO
Johnston SA, Voelz K & May RC (2016) Cryptococcus neoformans Thermotolerance to Avian Body Temperature Is Sufficient For Extracellular Growth But Not Intracellular Survival In Macrophages. Scientific Reports, 6. View this article in WRRO
Gibson JF & Johnston SA (2015) Immunity to Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii during cryptococcosis. Fungal Genetics and Biology, 78, 76-86. View this article in WRRO
Voelz K, Johnston SA, Smith LM, Hall RA, Idnurm A & May RC (2014) ‘Division of labour’ in response to host oxidative burst drives a fatal Cryptococcus gattii outbreak. Nature Communications, 5, 5194-5194. View this article in WRRO
Johnston SA & May RC (2013) Cryptococcus interactions with macrophages: evasion and manipulation of the phagosome by a fungal pathogen.. Cell Microbiol, 15(3), 403-411.
Johnston SA & May RC (2010) The human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans escapes macrophages by a phagosome emptying mechanism that is inhibited by arp2/3 complex- mediated actin polymerisation. PLoS Pathogens, 6(8), 27-28.

All publications

Books

Heitman J (2011) Cryptococcus From Human Pathogen to Model Yeast. Amer Society for Microbiology.

Journal articles

Gibson JF, Prajsnar TK, Hill CJ, Tooke AK, Serba JJ, Tonge RD, Foster SJ, Grierson AJ, Ingham PW, Renshaw SA & Johnston SA (2020) Neutrophils use selective autophagy receptor Sqstm1/p62 to target Staphylococcus aureus for degradation in vivo in zebrafish. Autophagy. View this article in WRRO
Prajsnar TK, Serba JJ, Dekker BM, Gibson JF, Masud S, Fleming A, Johnston SA, Renshaw SA & Meijer AH (2020) The autophagic response to Staphylococcus aureus provides an intracellular niche in neutrophils. Autophagy. View this article in WRRO
Evans RJ & Johnston SA (2020) PPAR-gamma fun(gi) with prostaglandin. Nuclear Receptor Signaling, 17. View this article in WRRO
Jones D, Hagen F, Donaldson C, Rudman J, Canedo J & Johnston S (2019) Investigating a novel commensal strain of Candida famata within Daniorerio. Access Microbiology, 1(9).
Rudman J, Evans RJ & Johnston SA (2019) Are macrophages the heroes or villains during cryptococcosis?. Fungal Genetics and Biology, 132, 103261-103261.
Roddie HG, Armitage EL, Coates JA, Johnston SA & Evans IR (2019) Simu-dependent clearance of dying cells regulates macrophage function and inflammation resolution. PLOS Biology, 17(5). View this article in WRRO
Evans RJ, Pline K, Loynes CA, Needs S, Aldrovandi M, Tiefenbach J, Bielska E, Rubino RE, Nicol CJ, May RC , Krause HM et al (2019) 15-keto-prostaglandin E2 activates host peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) to promote Cryptococcus neoformans growth during infection. PLoS Pathogens, 15(3). View this article in WRRO
Duvenage L, Walker LA, Bojarczuk A, Johnston SA, MacCallum DM, Munro CA & Gourlay CW (2019) Inhibition of Classical and Alternative Modes of Respiration in Candida albicans Leads to Cell Wall Remodeling and Increased Macrophage Recognition.. mBio, 10(1). View this article in WRRO
Fehri H, Gooya A, Lu Y, Meijering E, Johnston SA & Frangi AF (2019) Bayesian Polytrees with Learned Deep Features for Multi-Class Cell Segmentation. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 1-1. View this article in WRRO
Probert M, Zhou X, Goodall M, Johnston SA, Bielska E, Ballou ER & May RC (2019) A glucuronoxylomannan epitope exhibits serotype-specific accessibility and redistributes towards the capsule surface during Titanisation of the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans.. Infection and Immunity. View this article in WRRO
Gow NAR, Amin T, McArdle K, Brown AJP, Brown GD, Warris A & the WTSA-MMFI Consortium (2018) Strategic Research Funding: A Success Story for Medical Mycology. Trends in Microbiology. View this article in WRRO
Watkins RA, Andrews A, Wynn C, Barisch C, King JS & Johnston SA (2018) Cryptococcus neoformans escape from Dictyostelium amoeba by both WASH-mediated constitutive exocytosis and vomocytosis. Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 8. View this article in WRRO
van Leeuwen LM, Evans RJ, Jim KK, Verboom T, Fang X, Bojarczuk A, Malicki J, Johnston SA & van der Sar AM (2018) A transgenic zebrafish model for the in vivo study of the blood and choroid plexus brain barriers using claudin 5. Biology Open, 7(2), bio030494-bio030494. View this article in WRRO
Ballou ER & Johnston SA (2017) The cause and effect of Cryptococcus interactions with the host.. Curr Opin Microbiol, 40, 88-94. View this article in WRRO
Watkins RA, King JS & Johnston SA (2017) Nutritional Requirements and Their Importance for Virulence of Pathogenic Cryptococcus Species.. Microorganisms, 5(4). View this article in WRRO
Gilbert AS, Seoane PI, Sephton-Clark P, Bojarczuk A, Hotham R, Giurisato E, Sarhan AR, Hillen A, Velde GV, Gray NS , Alessi DR et al (2017) Vomocytosis of live pathogens from macrophages is regulated by the atypical MAP kinase ERK5. Science Advances, 3(8). View this article in WRRO
Farrer RA, Voelz K, Henk DA, Johnston SA, Fisher MC, May RC & Cuomo CA (2016) Microevolutionary traits and comparative population genomics of the emerging pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus gattii. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 371(1709), 20160021-20160021. View this article in WRRO
Evans RJ, Voelz K, Johnston SA & May RC (2016) Using Flow Cytometry to Analyze Cryptococcus Infection of Macrophages.. Methods Mol Biol, 1519, 349-357. View this article in WRRO
Dee CT, Nagaraju RT, Athanasiadis EI, Gray C, Fernandez Del Ama L, Johnston SA, Secombes CJ, Cvejic A & Hurlstone AF (2016) CD4-Transgenic Zebrafish Reveal Tissue-Resident Th2- and Regulatory T Cell–like Populations and Diverse Mononuclear Phagocytes. Journal of Immunology, 197(9), 3520-3530. View this article in WRRO
Buckley CM, Gopaldass N, Bosmani C, Johnston SA, Soldati T, Insall RH & King JS (2016) WASH drives early recycling from macropinosomes and phagosomes to maintain surface phagocytic receptors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(40), E5906-E5915. View this article in WRRO
Bojarczuk A, Miller KA, Hotham R, Lewis A, Ogryzko NV, Kamuyango AA, Frost H, Gibson RH, Stillman E, May RC , Renshaw SA et al (2016) Cryptococcus neoformans Intracellular Proliferation and Capsule Size Determines Early Macrophage Control of Infection. Scientific Reports, 6(1), 21489-21489. View this article in WRRO
Johnston SA, Voelz K & May RC (2016) Cryptococcus neoformans Thermotolerance to Avian Body Temperature Is Sufficient For Extracellular Growth But Not Intracellular Survival In Macrophages. Scientific Reports, 6. View this article in WRRO
Jubrail J, Morris P, Bewley MA, Stoneham S, Johnston SA, Foster SJ, Peden AA, Read RC, Marriott HM & Dockrell DH (2015) Inability to sustain intraphagolysosomal killing of Staphylococcus aureus predisposes to bacterial persistence in macrophages. Cellular Microbiology, 18(1), 80-96. View this article in WRRO
Gibson JF & Johnston SA (2015) Immunity to Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii during cryptococcosis. Fungal Genetics and Biology, 78, 76-86. View this article in WRRO
Voelz K, Johnston SA, Smith LM, Hall RA, Idnurm A & May RC (2014) ‘Division of labour’ in response to host oxidative burst drives a fatal Cryptococcus gattii outbreak. Nature Communications, 5, 5194-5194. View this article in WRRO
Sabiiti W, Robertson E, Beale MA, Johnston SA, Brouwer AE, Loyse A, Jarvis JN, Gilbert AS, Fisher MC, Harrison TS , May RC et al (2014) Efficient phagocytosis and laccase activity affect the outcome of HIV-associated cryptococcosis. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 124(5), 2000-2008.
Johnston SA & May RC (2013) Cryptococcus interactions with macrophages: evasion and manipulation of the phagosome by a fungal pathogen.. Cell Microbiol, 15(3), 403-411.
Carnell M, Zech T, Calaminus SD, Ura S, Hagedorn M, Johnston SA, May RC, Soldati T, Machesky LM & Insall RH (2011) Actin polymerization driven by WASH causes V-ATPase retrieval and vesicle neutralization before exocytosis. Journal of Cell Biology, 193(5), 831-839.
Chayakulkeeree M, Johnston SA, Oei JB, Lev S, Williamson PR, Wilson CF, Zuo X, Leal AL, Vainstein MH, Meyer W , Sorrell TC et al (2011) SEC14 is a specific requirement for secretion of phospholipase B1 and pathogenicity of Cryptococcus neoformans. Molecular Microbiology, 80(4), 1088-1101.
Johnston SA & May RC (2010) The human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans escapes macrophages by a phagosome emptying mechanism that is inhibited by arp2/3 complex- mediated actin polymerisation. PLoS Pathogens, 6(8), 27-28.
Voelz K, Johnston SA, Rutherford JC & May RC (2010) Automated analysis of cryptococcal macrophage parasitism using GFP-tagged cryptococci.. PLoS One, 5(12), e15968.
Ma H, Hagen F, Stekel DJ, Johnston SA, Sionov E, Falk R, Polacheck I, Boekhout T & May RC (2009) The fatal fungal outbreak on Vancouver Island is characterized by enhanced intracellular parasitism driven by mitochondrial regulation.. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 106(31), 12980-12985.
Johnston SA, Bramble JP, Yeung CL, Mendes PM & Machesky LM (2008) Arp2/3 complex activity in filopodia of spreading cells.. BMC Cell Biol, 9, 65.
Machesky LM & Johnston SA (2007) MIM: a multifunctional scaffold protein.. J Mol Med (Berl), 85(6), 569-576.
Legg JA, Bompard G, Dawson J, Morris HL, Andrew N, Cooper L, Johnston SA, Tramountanis G & Machesky LM (2007) N-WASP involvement in dorsal ruffle formation in mouse embryonic fibroblasts.. Mol Biol Cell, 18(2), 678-687.
Zawia A, Arnold ND, West L, Pickworth JA, Turton H, Iremonger J, Braithwaite AT, Cañedo J, Johnston SA, Thompson AAR , Miller G et al () Altered Macrophage Polarization Induces Experimental Pulmonary Hypertension and Is Observed in Patients With Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.
Evans RJ, Pline K, Loynes CA, Needs S, Aldrovandi M, Tiefenbach J, Bielska E, Rubino RE, Nicol CJ, May RC , Krause HM et al () Correction: 15-keto-prostaglandin E2 activates host peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) to promote Cryptococcus neoformans growth during infection. PLOS Pathogens, 16(11), e1009058-e1009058.
Gibson JF, Prajsnar TK, Hill CJ, Tooke AK, Serba JJ, Tonge RD, Foster SJ, Grierson AJ, Ingham PW, Renshaw SA & Johnston SA () Neutrophils use selective autophagy receptor p62/SQSTM1 to target Staphylococcus aureus for degradation in vivo in zebrafish.
Prajsnar TK, Serba JJ, Dekker BM, Gibson JF, Masud S, Fleming A, Johnston SA, Renshaw SA & Meijer AH () The autophagic response toStaphylococcus aureusprovides an intracellular niche in neutrophils.
Rudman J, Marriott HM, Carlin LM & Johnston SA () The mouse lung early cellular innate immune response is not sufficient to control fungal infection with Cryptococcus neoformans.

Chapters

Voelz K, Johnston SA & May RC () Intracellular Replication and Exit Strategies, Cryptococcus (pp. 441-450). ASM Press

Conference proceedings papers

Fehri H, Gooya A, Johnston SA & Frangi AF (2017) Multi-class Image Segmentation in Fluorescence Microscopy Using Polytrees (pp 517-528) View this article in WRRO