Miles Johnston, PhD

2011 Discovery Science Award Recipient

2011 Established Investigator

TITLE: Professor Emeritus of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, Senior Scientist, University of Toronto

GOAL: Hydrocephalus and lymphatic cerebrospinal fluid absorption.

Overview:

Miles Johnston, BSc, PhD, received a BS in physiology/pharmacology and a PhD in the Division of Experimental Pathology and Department of Pathology at the University of Toronto. He subsequently completed his Doctoral Training at the A.R.C Institute of Animal Physiology in Cambridge, England. Dr. Johnston has been the Senior Scientist of Clinical Integrative Biology at the Sunnybrook Research Institute and Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Johnston received an Established Investigator award in 2011 for his study, Hydrocephalus and lymphatic cerebrospinal fluid absorption.

His research investigated CSF transport and testing the hypothesis that discontinuity between CSF compartment and extracranial lymphatic vessels leads to hydrocephalus. The major objective of this research is to test if the lymphatic vessels responsible for CSF absorption respond to pharmacological agents. If the results are in the affirmative, this raises the intriguing possibility that we may be able to modulate lymphatic pumping activity to facilitate CSF removal from the subarachnoid space and in doing so, stop or reverse ventricular expansion in hydrocephalus with pharmaceutical approaches.