James Johnson

Dr. James Johnson is a professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences and the Department of Surgery within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Since joining UBC in 2004, he has built a distinguished career in fundamental research and preclinical models. Between 2016 and 2018, he served as the inaugural site head at the Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford and vice president at Novo Nordisk Ltd. More recently, Dr. Johnson's instrumental role in steering the UBC Life Sciences Institute to its most successful era of fundraising and core professionalization reflects his proficiency in navigating challenges intrinsic to research institutions.

Dr. Johnson's interdisciplinary research uses a plethora of approaches from fundamental cell physiology to pre-clinical in vivi models, to integrated omics, to clinical trials. His diverse and dynamic laboratory is dedicated to unraveling the intricacies underlying a spectrum of metabolic conditions including: type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, accelerated aging and cancer at a molecular level. There is a specific focus on understanding the causal relationships between simultaneously changing factors such as hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance. 

Guided by the identification of key genes and their interconnected networks associated with disease risk, as well as established risk factors predisposing individuals to the condition, his studies aim to elucidate the etiology of these diseases.