Biosketch and Research Interests
Kari Johnson is a graduate student in the Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  She joined the Conn laboratory as a research assistant in November 2004.  Kari enrolled in graduate school in August 2006 and returned to the Conn laboratory in January 2007.  Her current research interests include elucidating the therapeutic potential of different subtypes of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease.  To achieve this goal, she uses small animal models of Parkinson’s Disease in combination with subtype-selective drugs for the receptors of interest.  She has also assisted in high-throughput screening efforts, as well as in vitro pharmacological characterization of novel classes of drugs targeting Group III mGluRs.  As a research assistant, Kari assisted in developing assays for evaluating the function of several G protein-coupled receptors that are now used regularly in the group’s drug discovery efforts.  Kari hopes to apply her translational pharmacology skills to identifying and evaluating novel targets for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. 

Selected Publications                      
Niswender C.M., Johnson K.A., Luo Q., Ayala J.E., Kim C., Conn P.J., Weaver C.D.  (2008) A novel assay of Gi/o-linked G protein coupled receptor coupling to potassium channels provides new insights into the pharmacology of the group III metabotropic glutamate receptors. Mol Pharmacol. 2008 Jan 2; [Epub ahead of print]

Shirey J.K., Xiang Z., Orton D., Brady A.E., Johnson K.A., Williams R., Ayala J.E., Rodriguez A.L., Wess J., Weaver D., Niswender C.M., Conn P.J.  (2008) An allosteric potentiator of M4 mAChR  modulates hippocampal synaptic transmission.  Nat Chem Biol. 4(1):42-50.