Ian Johnston, PhD Miltenyi Biotec

Dr. Ian Johnston is currently project and development lead responsible for certain TCR T and CAR T cell gene therapies being prepared for clinical application. Since joining Miltenyi Biotec in 1999, Dr. Johnston has developed a number of reagents and procedures to improve the efficiency of genetic modification of primary cells such as human T and stem cells.

A number of these procedures have been fully automated on a functionally closed cell processing platform – the CliniMACS® Prodigy. In addition, Dr. Johnston has lead development of numerous products for magnetic isolation of cells, molecules, organelles and for use in the field of HIV research. He has been Principle Investigator on a number of European consortium grants focused on the genetic modification of stem cells, most recently Cell-PID and SCIDNET.

Prior to joining Miltenyi, he studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University where he also completed a PhD studying immunopathological mechanisms in the CNS. This was followed by postdoctoral research at Würzburg University with Prof. Volker ter Meulen working with recombinant measles virus systems, supported by two fellowships from the Wellcome Trust and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.