ProfessorMichael Johnson, DPhil FRACP FRCP

I am a Professor of Neurology and Genomic Medicine in the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London. I am on the Executive Management Board for the Department of Brain Sciences and Enterprise Lead for Brain Sciences. I have previously acted as Deputy Head of the Centre for Clinical Translation in the Division of Neurosciences, Interim Head of the Division of Neurology and I was co-Lead for the Department of Brain Sciences REF 2021 submission (which ranked Imperial first for Brain Sciences in the UK).

I am an Honorary Consultant Neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust where I remain clinically active. I am Clinical Lead for Advanced Therapeutics and Disease Modification in the UK Epilepsy Research Institute, Member of the Joint International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and American Epilepsy Society (AES) Task Force on Drug Resistant Epilepsy, and Clinical Advisor to the UK Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman. 

I am a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP), Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP), Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), Member of the UK Association of British Neurologists (ABN), Member of the British Medical Association (BMA) and Member of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). 

My research combines advanced integrative analysis of single-cell multiomics and real-world clinical, neuropathological and genomic data to identify disease modifying drug targets and predictive biomarkers for human brain disease and behaviour. 

My research has benefited from grants from the UK research councils, Wellcome Trust, the European Union, the pharmaceutical and biotech industries and various charitable organisations. I have a strong track record of successful commercial collaboration with extensive past and current funding from international Pharma. I am a co-organiser of the popular biennual Target to Patient Conference held at the Wellcome Genome Campus which brings together academic and industry researchers to accelerate translating discoveries into effective treatments.

I am Principal Investigator for the Landmark Study - a large (£8.3 million) public-private partnership to identify disease-modifying drug targets and predictive biomarkers for Parkinson's disease (and neurodegenerative disease more broadly). The consortium is supported by global Pharma (GSK, Roche, UCB, Novartis, Esai) and charitable donations (Parkinson's UK, The Gatsby Foundation, ASAP). The link to my recent podcast on Landmark can be found in the blue margin opposite. I was recently awarded $2M from Spark NS (see link opposite) for early-stage drug development in Parkinson's disease. 

In 2021 I co-founded Cosyne Therapeutics where I am an Advisor. I have previously sat on Scientific Advisory Boards of several global Biotech and Pharma, and have provided consultancy services to pharmaceutical companies in relation to genomics, target discovery and clinical translation.