Research Scientist

Contact Information:

Craig Johnson
Veterinary Sciences Building, Room 239C
1971 Commonwealth Ave
St. Paul, MN  55108
Tel:  612-625-1913
Cell:  952-239-1863
Internet: mailcrj@netscape.net

Educational Background

Ph.D., Biophysical Chemistry, University of Colorado at Boulder, August 1992.

M.S., Biophysical Chemistry, University of Colorado at Boulder, August 1992.

B.A., Chemistry, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota, May 1986.

Research Interests

My past research interests concentrated on the structural stability and binding characteristics of biopolymers and the development of new instrumentation and methods to explore the origin of these effects. More recently, upon joining the Murtaugh Laboratory, my focus has changed to reflect the explosion of recent technology developed for the current renaissance occurring in molecular biology. In the past few years it has become a relatively easy exercise to manipulate and characterize nucleic acids as well as generate their protein products. With this in mind we have initiated a number of projects designed to investigate the immunological response of pigs to various pathogens with emphasis on particular components of both the pathogen (ex. PRRSV) and the porcine immune system (ex. Interleukins).

Selected Publications

Yan Xu, Craig R. Johnson and Dorothy Beckett. Thermodynamic Analysis of Small Ligand Binding to the Escherichia Coli Repressor of Biotin Biosynthesis. Biochemistry (1996) 35 (17), 5509-5517.

Francoise Chauvin, Alexey Fomenkov, Craig R. Johnson and Saul Roseman. The N-terminal Domain of Escherichia Enzyme I of the Phosphoenolpyruvate: Glycose Phosphotransferase System: Molecular Cloning and Characterization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA. (1996) 93 (14), 7028-7031.

Craig R. Johnson and Ernesto Freire. Structural Stability of Small Oligomeric Proteins. Techniques in Protein Chemistry VII (1996) Academic Press, San Diego, California.

Craig R. Johnson, Mauro Angeletti, Stefania Pucciarelli and Ernesto Freire. Oxygen Binding to Fallow-Deer (Dama-Dama) Hemoglobin: Stepwise Enthalpies at pH 7.4. Biophysical Chemistry (1996) 59 (1-2), 107-117.

Craig R. Johnson, Paul E. Morin, Cheryl H. Arrowsmith and Ernesto Freire. Thermodynamic Analysis of the Structural Stability of the Tetrameric Oligomerization Domain of p53 Tumor Suppressor. Biochemistry (1995) 34, 5309-5316.

Craig R. Johnson, David W. Ownby, Stanley J. Gill and Kevin S. Peters. Oxygen Binding Constants and Stepwise Enthalpies for Human and Bovine Hemoglobin at pH 7.6. Biochemistry (1992) 31, 10074-10082.

Craig R. Johnson. Oxygen Binding Constants and Stepwise Enthalpies of Oxygen Binding to Human and Bovine Hemoglobin. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Colorado, Boulder (1992).

Craig R. Johnson and Stanley J. Gill. A Thin-layer Microcalorimeter for the Determination of Heat Binding Curves. Analytical Biochemistry (1993) 209, 150-155.

Craig R. Johnson. Thin-layer Microcalorimetric Studies of Oxygen and Carbon Monoxide Binding to Hemoglobin and Myoglobin. M.S. Thesis, University of Colorado, Boulder.

Craig R. Johnson, Stanley J. Gill and Kevin S. Peters. Thin-layer Microcalorimetric Studies of Oxygen and Carbon Monoxide Binding to Hemoglobin and Myoglobin. Biophysical Chemistry (1992) 45, 7-15.

Patrick R. Connelly, Craig R. Johnson, Charles H. Robert, Henk J. Bak and Stanley J. Gill. Binding of Oxygen and Carbon Monoxide to Hemocyanin from the Spiny Lobster. J. Mol. Biol. (1989) 207, 829-832.

Interests and Activities

Demoralizing the Morale officer.