Teresa Johnson, PhD
Growing up in the New River Valley, I have had a personal goal throughout my career of increasing the awareness of healthcare challenges in rural communities and working to address some of those challenges. This mission has included helping students from the area develop into scientists and physicians that would focus on health-related issues in rural and underserved communities (ideally coming back to the area to practice) and focusing on health-related research questions that would address needs of these communities.
1. Teaching - I teach medical students at VCOM, incorporating the osteopathic principles of approaching patients and diseases from a holistic perspective and implementing evidenced-based approaches to their diagnosis and treatment. More importantly, the mission of VCOM is to train physicians who will practice in rural and medically underserved communities - a mission that overlaps with my personal mission.
2. Research - the overarching theme of my research interests and projects is disease pathogenesis, including autoimmune and infectious diseases, with a particular focus on dysregulated immune-mediated responses leading to immunopathology. This incorporates a holistic approach to look at the "big picture" in trying to understand the multitude of factors (both host and pathogen) contributing the disease process. More specifically, the goals are to understand the pathogenic processes for better understanding of what is happening in the patient and, secondly, to enable the development of safe and effective vaccines and therapies and improved diagnostics.