Ashley C. Johnson, PhD, MS

Assistant Professor

Department:
SOM-Cell and Molecular Biology

Email:
acjohnson2@umc.edu

Work Phone:
(601) 984-1629

Biography

Ashley C. Johnson, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. Her research interests include genetic factors that predispose organisms to hypertension, kidney injury and chronic kidney disease. She is also interested in examining physiological effects of epigenetic modifications and transcriptomic changes involved in preeclampsia.

Dr. Johnson is an experienced molecular biologist with training in multiple genomics applications. She has worked within the Molecular and Genomics Core Facility at UMMC since it was established in 2010. Her research endeavors focus on a variety of assays, including bulk and single cell/nuclei RNA sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, methylation and whole-genome sequencing.

After receiving her BS in Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Dr. Johnson began her research career as a lab assistant at Vanderbilt University under Dr. Robert Coffey. Her research experience continued under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Garrett in 2010 at UMMC. She continued her education, receiving her MS in Biomedical Sciences and PhD in Experimental Therapeutics and Pharmacology at UMMC. Her continued research focuses on the genetics of hypertension and preeclampsia, while utilized her vast background in genetic models and next-generation sequencing techniques, to identify biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets.

Education

University of Mississippi Medical Center, PhD, Experimental Therapeutics & Pharmacology	2025
University of Mississippi Medical Center, MS, Biomedical Sciences	2015
University of Wisconsin-Platteville, BS, Biology	2008

Current Positions

Assistant Professor, School of Medicine	07/2025 - Present
The University of Mississippi Medical Center Jackson, Mississippi 39216

Publications

Journal Article
Wu W, Challagundla L, Milner AR, Garrett MR, Johnson AC Systemic and Proximal Tubule Specific Knockout of Arhgef11 and Impact on Hypertension and Kidney Injury Physiological Genomics. 2026 Jun 1. doi: 10.1152/physiolgenomics.00299.2025. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 42222933.	2026
Milner AR, Johnson AC, Attipoe EM, Wu W, Challagundla L, Garrett MR Methylseq, single-nuclei RNAseq, and discovery proteomics identify pathways associated with nephron-deficit CKD in the HSRA rat model Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2025 Apr 1;328(4):F470-F488. doi: 10.1152/ajprenal.00258.2024. Epub 2025 Feb 21. PMID: 39982494; PMCID: PMC12224070.	2025
Turbeville HR, Johnson AC, Garrett MR, Dent EL, Sasser JM Nitric oxide and oxidative stress pathways do not contribute to sex differences in renal injury and function in Dahl SS/Jr rats Physiol Rep. 2020 Jul;8(13):e14440. doi: 10.14814/phy2.14440. PMID: 32652814; PMCID: PMC7354091	2020
Turbeville HR, Johnson AC, Garrett MR, Sasser JM Sildenafil Citrate Does Not Reprogram Risk of Hypertension and Chronic Kidney Disease in Offspring of Preeclamptic Pregnancies in the Dahl SS/Jr Rat Kidney360. 2020 Apr 17;1(6):510-520. doi: 10.34067/KID.0001062020. PMID: 35368603; PMCID: PMC8809312	2020
Johnson AC, Wu W, Attipoe EM, Sasser JM, Taylor EB, Showmaker KC, Kyle PB, Lindsey ML, Garrett MR Loss of Arhgef11 in the Dahl Salt-Sensitive Rat Protects Against Hypertension-Induced Renal Injury. Hypertension 2020 Apr;75(4):1012-1024. doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.14338. Epub 2020 Mar 9. PMID: 32148127; PMCID: PMC8167818	2020
Wang X, Johnson AC, Sasser JM, Williams JM, Solberg Woods LC, Garrett MR Spontaneous one-kidney rats are more susceptible to develop hypertension by DOCA-NaCl and subsequent kidney injury compared with uninephrectomized rats Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2016 May 1;310(10):F1054-64. doi: 10.1152/ajprenal.00555.2015. Epub 2016 Mar 2. PMID: 26936874; PMCID: PMC5002061	2016
Jia Z, Johnson AC, Wang X, Guo Z, Dreisbach AW, Lewin JR, Kyle PB, Garrett MR Allelic Variants in Arhgef11 via the Rho-Rock Pathway Are Linked to Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Contributes to Kidney Injury in the Dahl Salt-Sensitive Rat PLoS One. 2015 Jul 14;10(7):e0132553. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0132553. PMID: 26172442; PMCID: PMC4501567	2015
Wang X, Johnson AC, Williams JM, White T, Chade AR, Zhang J, Liu R, Roman RJ, Lee JW, Kyle PB, Solberg-Woods L, Garrett MR Nephron Deficiency and Predisposition to Renal Injury in a Novel One-Kidney Genetic Model J Am Soc Nephrol. 2015 Jul;26(7):1634-46. doi: 10.1681/ASN.2014040328. Epub 2014 Oct 27. PMID: 25349207; PMCID: PMC4483580	2014
Westbrook L, Johnson AC, Regner KR, Williams JM, Mattson DL, Kyle PB, Henegar JR, Garrett MR Genetic susceptibility and loss of Nr4a1 enhances macrophage-mediated renal injury in CKD J Am Soc Nephrol. 2014 Nov;25(11):2499-510. doi: 10.1681/ASN.2013070786. Epub 2014 Apr 10. PMID: 24722447; PMCID: PMC4214519	2014
Johnson AC, Lee JW, Harmon AC, Morris Z, Wang X, Fratkin J, Rapp JP, Gomez-Sanchez E, Garrett MR A mutation in the start codon of γ-crystallin D leads to nuclear cataracts in the Dahl SS/Jr-Ctr strain Mamm Genome. 2013 Apr;24(3-4):95-104. doi: 10.1007/s00335-013-9447-1. Epub 2013 Feb 13. PMID: 23404175; PMCID: PMC3628938	2013
Williams JM, Johnson AC, Stelloh C, Dreisbach AW, Franceschini N, Regner KR, Townsend RR, Roman RJ, Garrett MR Genetic variants in Arhgef11 are associated with kidney injury in the Dahl salt-sensitive rat Hypertension. 2012 Nov;60(5):1157-68. doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.112.199240. Epub 2012 Sep 17. PMID: 22987919; PMCID: PMC3505884	2012

Honors, Awards, and Recognition