Endocrine Abstracts

Desmond G Johnston, Campus Dean, St Mary’s Hospital Campus, Imperial College London, London, UK Director, UK Diabetes Research Network Abstract

Professor Johnston trained in Edinburgh and Southampton where, as an MRC Training Fellow, he did his PhD with Professor George Alberti. His work at that time investigated metabolic disturbances in liver disease and metabolic aspects of endocrinology.

In 1986 he was appointed to the Chair of Clinical Endocrinology at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, which became part of the Imperial College School of Medicine in 1996. He was appointed Dean (Clinical) of Imperial College London in 2004 and in 2006 he was appointed Campus Dean for the St Mary’s Campus of Imperial College.

His major interests currently are in the pathogenesis of Type 2 diabetes. He is investigating early, metabolic changes that are observed in people predisposed to develop Type 2 diabetes, but before the onset of the disorder. The rationale of this approach is that such early changes may represent primary abnormalities that are causative. In July 2005, he was appointed Director of the UK Diabetes Research Network.