Julie Johnson, Pharm.D., dean and distinguished professor in the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, was presented the 2021 Precision Medicine World Conference, or PMWC, Luminary Award on Sept. 23 in Pittsburgh. The award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to accelerate precision medicine within the clinical setting and is regarded as one of the most prestigious in the precision medicine field.
Johnson’s selection acknowledges her work as an early leader in pharmacogenomics discovery research and its clinical implementation. She joins an elite group of national health care experts as Luminary Award winners. Other recipients include Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institutes of Health, and James Allison, Ph.D., a 2018 Nobel Prize award winner and chair of Immunology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, among many other awardees.
“To be included among this group of incredibly distinguished scientists and clinicians is truly an honor, and I’m humbled that the Precision Medicine World Conference selected me for this award,” Johnson said. “It’s been incredibly rewarding to contribute toward the clinical implementation of precision medicine in mainstream health care and know there are countless patients every day benefitting from improved drug therapy regimens.”
Johnson is recognized as one of the nation’s leading pharmacogenomics and precision medicine researchers. She was the founding director of the UF Health Precision Medicine Program and leads a National Institutes of Health-funded program in precision medicine implementation and a genomic training grant. She has authored more than 300 original research articles, secured more than $50 million in funding as a principal investigator and was a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher each year from 2015-18, an honor indicating she is in the top 1% of authors of the most highly cited papers in the previous decade.
The PMWC Luminary Award adds another distinguished recognition to Johnson’s career. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2014, one of the nation’s three national academies. She has also won awards considered among the highest honors in pharmacy, including the Paul Parker Medal from the American College of Clinical Pharmacy for outstanding contributions to the profession, and the Volwiler Research Achievement Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, considered the highest research award in academic pharmacy.
PMWC is the largest and original annual conference dedicated to precision medicine. PMWC’s conferences bring together recognized leaders, top global researchers, medical professionals and innovators across the health care and biotechnology sectors to showcase practical content that helps close the knowledge gap between the different entities.