Reid C. Johnson is a Professor of Biological Chemistry in the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, where he joined the faculty in 1986. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983 and did postdoctoral work at Caltech. Dr. Johnson has had a long standing research interest in mechanisms and control of sequence-specific DNA rearrangements and transposition. An additional focus of his laboratory has concerned the varied functions of abundant nucleoid-associated DNA bending proteins in regulating transcription reactions and chromosome dynamics in microorganisms. This work has included HMGB chromatin-associated proteins in eukaryotic cells, especially yeast.  Recent work has emphasized the role of DNA structure in targeting protein binding.

Awards & Honors

2005                          Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology
2005 – 2015              NIH MERIT Award
1/94 – 12/98             Faculty Research Award: American Cancer Society
7/87 – 6/91               Searle Scholar – The Chicago Community Trust
9/87 – 8/89               Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Award: March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation
9/84 – 9/86               Life Sciences Research Foundation Fellowship
1984                          Proctor and Gamble Fellowship in Biology