Johnson's research makes big strides

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published 02:25 p.m., November 30, 2009

Dr. Jeff Johnson, a 1980 graduate of Fergus Falls High School, is passionate about research on Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The goal is eventual treatment for patients.

To that end Johnson, and his wife, Delinda, oversee a laboratory at the University of Wisconsin in Madison where mice are still a good testbed for ALS and other afflictions.

By the time a ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) patient notices muscle weakness, the neurons that control the muscles have already begun dying. It’s an untreatable process that brings death within two to five years.

Johnson, visiting Friday noon with board members of the 544 Education Foundation, talked about the strides that have been made since one of his researchers, Marcelo Vargas, was able to prolong life and slow nerve deterioration in a mouse with a genetic form of ALS.

Also hearing the update was Loren Woolson, who was the instructor for Johnson at Fergus Falls High School when the researcher took a class at FFHS on human physiology.

“We’re making progress each day through teaching, group meetings and running our lab as a team, said Johnson. “We also work closely with many entities, including the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.”

Fox, an actor, was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991 and disclosed his condition to the public in 1998. Fox semi-retired from acting in 2000 as the symptoms of his disease worsened. He’s since become an advocate for research toward finding a cure.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation, which along with other foundations has financially supported Johnson’s lab work, is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson’s today.

Johnson was named as an inductee in 2008 into the Fergus Falls 544 Education Foundation Board’s hall of fame as a distinguished alumni. He’s currently a professor at the University of Wisconsin where he has established himself as a leader in the field of neuroprotection and neurodegeneration.

Johnson studied biology and pharmacology at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and went on for his doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin. At the University of Washington he gained experience in neuroscience, which brought him to research in neuro-degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.

He credits Woolson and other instructors at Fergus Falls High School for instilling an interest in science, medicine and research. It was at the U of M, Duluth, where Johnson held a summer job at a laboratory, working in research.

“That set the stage for where I am today,” he said.

On Friday he praised his wife, Delinda, as a co-partner in the lab at the University of Wisconsin. She’s a native of Appleton, Wis.

“Soon there will be two Dr. Johnsons,” he said.

Delinda is pursuing a Ph.D. in molecular environmental toxicology at the University of Wisconsin. They have two daughters, Taylor, 17, and Emma Claire, 14. Johnson’s parents are Jim and Pat Johnson who reside north of Fergus Falls. Jeff is the oldest of three sons.

Educational experiences and interests brought him to his faculty position in Wisconsin.

According to the National Institute on Aging, 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common cause of dementia in older adults. The disease is characterized by protein plaques on the brain along with neurofibrillary tangles, which indicate dead or dying nerve cells. Though doctors aren't absolutely sure what causes the disease, some researchers, including Johnson, believe it has to do with the breakdown of a protein called amyloid precursor protein, which is found in the brain.

Drugs that give short-term help to patients, may, said Johnson on Friday, “bring the person back so that he or she can recognize members of the family. However, these drugs currently may not be able to work as we’d like from a therapeutic standpoint.”

In a healthy brain, said Johnson, the two types of proteins are in equal amounts.

“For years, researchers have been attempting to generate a perfect animal model through genetic engineering that imitate the effects of Alzheimer's to test possible therapies,” said Johnson. “By producing several mouse lines, researchers have seen plaque formation in the mice's brains. Many researchers, after seeing this, continued trying to develop better mouse lines.”

Johnson and his team had a different idea.

"I said to myself, everybody is trying to kill neurons in mice to create the Alzheimer's pathology," he said. "And here we have a mouse that has amyloid deposition and plaques, yet no neurons are dying. Let's try to figure out why these mice aren't getting the disease."

He and fellow researcher Thor Stein noticed, when analyzing the brains of mice with plaque formations, that the levels of two specific proteins (transthyretin and IGF-2) had significantly increased. Next, Johnson and Stein performed tests on human brain tissue that was removed during epilepsy surgeries. They noted that what’s called the good cut protein seemed to have prevented damage to the brain tissue.

The University of Wisconsin has patented the findings and Johnson hopes that it may one day lead to potential therapy for Alzheimer's disease. Patents are pending for ALS, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s.

Johnson praised the 544 Education Foundation for its assistance to students within the Fergus Falls public school system.

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