Rate My Professor Andrea Johns

Dr. Andrea Johns is an Adjunct Associate Lecturer in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy within the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biotechnology with first class Honours from the University of Technology Dresden, Germany, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics from the University of Newcastle, completed in 2016. Following her doctoral studies, Dr. Johns pursued postdoctoral research training in the Reproductive Science group at the University of Newcastle. Subsequently, she joined the Gastrointestinal Research Group as a postdoctoral researcher at the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI), working under Associate Professor Simon Keely to elucidate the mechanisms that contribute to colorectal cancer development. In 2018, she joined the Hunter Cancer Research Alliance (HCRA) team to establish a Genomics Facility at HMRI Level 3 West, offering services such as sample preparation, Illumina microarrays, and sequencing to internal and external researchers.

Dr. Johns' research interests include DNA methylation, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, gene expression, microRNA, and tissue culture. She has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications demonstrating her contributions to cancer genomics and gastrointestinal research. Key publications include: Fortuno C et al., 'Unrecognised actionability for breast cancer risk variants identified in a national-level review of Australian familial cancer centres', European Journal of Human Genetics (2024); Pariyar M et al., 'Copy number variation in triple negative breast cancer samples associated with lymph node metastasis', Neoplasia (2021); Burns GL et al., 'TRAV26-2 T-Cell Receptor Expression Is Associated With Mucosal Lymphocyte Response to Wheat Proteins in Patients With Functional Dyspepsia', Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology (2023); Burns GL et al., 'Type 2 and type 17 effector cells are increased in the duodenal mucosa but not peripheral blood of patients with functional dyspepsia', Frontiers in Immunology (2023); and Goggins BJ et al., 'Pharmacological HIF-1 stabilization promotes intestinal epithelial healing through regulation of α-integrin expression and function', American Journal of Physiology-Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology (2021). Dr. Johns has held her postdoctoral researcher position in the Faculty of Health and Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, since November 2016.