UCLA
Institute of American Cultures

Tracy Johnson

Title:
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor
Cecilia and Keith Terasaki Endowed Chair in the Life Sciences
Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Director, Biomedical Research Minor
Department: Molecular, Cell & Development Biology
Email: tljohnson@ucla.edu

Current Project(s):

  • Tracy Johnson’s research program is focused on understanding the mechanisms of gene regulation, particularly RNA processing and chromatin modification. She developed the University of California, Los Angeles/Howard Hughes Medical Institute Pathways to Success program, a comprehensive strategy to provide students with an authentic research experience early in their academic careers while creating a rigorous, but supportive learning community. Johnson’s program has three key components: a research-based laboratory course called The Collaborative Undergraduate Research Lab (CURL), a mentoring network that integrates peer and hierarchical mentoring called the Pathways Mentor Network, and intensive learning communities called Academic Achievement Workshops.

Available Publications/Books:

  • Leung, C. and T.L. Johnson. 2018. The Exon Junction: The Multi-Tasking Guardian of the Transcriptome. Molecular Cell. 72:799-801. PMID: 30526869
  • Davis-Turak, J., Johnson, T.L., and Hoffmann, A. 2018. Mathematical Modeling identifies potential gene structure determinants of cotranscriptional control of alternative pre-mRNA splicing Nucleic Acids Res. 46:10598-10607. PMID: 30272246
  • Awad, A.*, Venkataraman, S.* Nag, A., Galivanche, A.R, Bradley, M, Neves, L.T. Douglass, S. Clarke, C.F. and T.L. Johnson. 2017. Chromatin remodeling SWI/SNF complex regulates Coenzyme Q6 synthesis and a metabolic shift to respiration in S. cerevisiae via regulation of splicing. J. Biol. Chem. 292:14851-14866. PMID: 28739803.
  • Neves, L.T., Douglass, S., Spreafico, R., Venkataramanan, S., Kress, T.L. and T.L. Johnson. 2017. The Histone Variant H2A.Z promotes efficient cotranscriptional splicing in S. cerevisiae. Genes & Development 31: 702-717. PMID: 28446598
  • Venkataramanan, S., Douglass, S., Galivanche, A.R., and T.L. Johnson. 2017. The chromatin remodeling complex SWI/SNF regulates splicing of meiotic transcripts in S. cerevisiae. Nucleic Acids Res. 45(13):7708-7721. PMID: 28637241
  • Hossain, M.A.*, Claggett, J.C.* (*Co-first authors), Edwards, S.E., Shi, A., Pennebaker, S., Cheng, M. Hasty, J. and T.L. Johnson. 2016. Post-transcriptional regulation of Gcr1 expression and activity are crucial for metabolic adjustment in response to glucose availability. Molecular Cell 62:346-358. PMID: 27153533. PMCID: PMC5117908
  • Johnson, T.L. and M Jr. Ares. 2016. SMITten by the speed of splicing. Cell 165: 265-7. PMID: 27058658


Tagged: STEM, Education