Description of Research Expertise

Dr. Johnson received both her medical degree and PhD from the University of Glasgow, UK. She then pursued a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Douglas H. Smith, M.D. at the Dept. Neurosurgery, University of Pennsylvania and the Penn Center for Brain Injury and Repair.
Her research focuses on the chronic neuropathological sequelae of traumatic brain injury (TBI), including the links between TBI and neurodegenerative disease. Specifically, Dr Johnson has extensive experience in examining post—mortem brain tissue acutely and chronically following TBI in humans. In recent publications, Dr. Johnson and colleagues demonstrated that even a single TBI is associated with an increased incidence of Alzheimer-associated pathologies many years after injury. Moreover, it was identified that a single severe TBI can also induce chronic neuroinflammation, axonal pathology and blood brain barrier (BBB) permeability that can persist for months and even years in some individuals after injury. More recent work endeavors to better understand the specific mechanisms of BBB dysfunction both acutely and chronically post-TBI.
Understanding the temporal changes following TBI by examining both clinical material and utilizing novel model systems, will be critical for the development of treatments for TBI patients.

Selected Publications

Arena JD, Smith DH, Diaz-Arrastia R, Cullen DK, Xiao R, Fan J, Harris DC, Lynch CE, Johnson VE: The Neuropathological Basis of Elevated Neurofilament Light Following Experimental Concussion Acta Neuropathologica Communications : 2024 .

Adam CD, Mirzakhalili E, Gagnon KG, Cottone C, Arena, JD, Ulyanova AV, Johnson VE, Wolf JA.: Disrupted Hippocampal Theta-Gamma Coupling and Spike-field Coherence Following Experimental Traumatic Brain Injury eLife : 2024.

JD Arena, JA Wolf, A Ulyanova, DH. Smith, HI Chen, DK Cullen, VE. Johnson: Comprehensive Neuropathological Evaluation of Potential Biomechanical Vulnerability at the Depths of Cortical Sulci Following Experimental TBI International Neurotrauma Symposium, Cambridge UK (accepted). : 2024.

J Arena, JA Wolf, A Ulyanova1, DH Smith, HI Chen, DK Cullen, VE Johnson: Delayed Vascular Permeability With Associated Cellular Uptake of Serum Proteins Occurs in the Sulcal Depths Acutely Following Experimental TBI National Neurotrauma Symposium 2024 (J Neurotrauma Ahead of Print https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2024.41112.abstracts) : 2024.

J Arena, W Stewart, GG Kovacs, EB Lee, JL Robinson, V M.-Y. Lee, JQ Trojanowski, AL Schneider, DH Smith, VE Johnson: Exposure to Repetitive Head Impacts and Traumatic Brain Injury is Associated with Tau Astrogliopathy International Neurotrauma Symposium Cambridge UK (accepted). : 2024.

Song H, Tomasevich A, Acheampong KK, Schaff DL, Shaffer SM, Dolle JP, Johnson VE, Mikytuck B, Lee EB, Nolan A, Keene CD, Weiss SR, Stewart W, Smith DH.: Detection of blood-brain barrier disruption in brains of patients with COVID-19, but no evidence of brain penetration by SARS-CoV-2 Acta Neuropathol 146 (5): 771-775,2023.

Ulyanova AV, Adam CD, Cottone C, Maheshwari N, Grovola MR, Fruchet OE, Alamar J, Koch PF, Johnson VE, Cullen DK, Wolf JA.: Hippocampal interneuronal dysfunction and hyperexcitability in a porcine model of concussion Commun Biol 6 : 1136,2023.

Sloka S. Iyengar, Laura S. Lubbers, Lauren Harte Hargrove, and CURE Epilepsy Post Traumatic Initiative Advisors and Investigators: A team science approach for the preclinical and clinical characterization and biomarker development for post traumatic epilepsy Epilepsia Open 8 (3): 820–833,2023.

Dams-O'Connor K, Awwad HO, Hoffman S, Pugh MJ, Johnson VE, Keene CD, McGavern L, Mukherjee P, Opanashuk L, Umoh N, Sopko G, Zetterberg H: Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias Summit 2022: National Research Priorities for the Investigation of Post-Traumatic Brain Injury Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias J Neurotrauma 40 (15-16): 1512-1523,2023.

Culkin MC, Bele P, Georges AP, Lopez AJ, Niziolek G, Jacovides CL, Song H, Johnson VE, Kaplan LJ, Smith DH, Pascual JL: Early posttraumatic brain injury tranexamic acid prevents blood-brain barrier hyperpermeability and improves surrogates of neuroclinical recovery J Trauma Acute Care Surg 95 (1): 47-54,2023.

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Academic Contact Information

173 Stemmler Hall,
3450 Hamilton Walk,
Philadelphia, PA 19104