Remembering Clinical Professor Murray Johnstone, MD
Murray Johnstone, MD, Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology for the past 15 years, passed away on April 11 at age 86.
“Murray was a true gentleman and beloved by generations of patients. As a colleague, he was an endless source of good humor coupled with a phenomenal drive to understand complex science completely,” said Bucey Memorial Chair and Professor Russ Van Gelder, MD, PhD. “He was an outstanding mentor to a number of our faculty. His dedication to our profession and vision science was truly exemplary, and we will greatly miss his great collegiality.”
Dr. Johnstone was a native of the Pacific Northwest and attended college at the University of Puget Sound, followed by medical school at Washington University in St. Louis. After completing internship at Harborview, Murray completed his ophthalmology residency and glaucoma fellowship at Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School.
During fellowship, Dr. Johnstone did research in the Howe lab under the tutelage of glaucoma pioneer Morton Grant, MD, which stimulated a lifelong passion for understanding ocular fluid dynamics. He returned to Seattle in 1973 and subsequently founded Glaucoma Consultants Northwest, the pre-eminent glaucoma practice in the Seattle area.
Dr. Johnstone’s passion for research remained bright, and he secured NEI funding for his ultrastructural studies of the trabecular meshwork even while running a busy private practice. Murray retired from clinical practice in 2009 and joined the UW Ophthalmology faculty as a Clinical Professor in 2010, where he continued his research on the mechanisms of trabecular outflow.
His scientific accomplishments are numerous. He established a dynamic model for trabecular mesh outflow, widely viewed as foundational for understanding aqueous outflow from the eye. His seminal papers from his time working with Dr. Grant have been cited hundreds of times, and over a dozen of his papers have been cited 100 times or more in the literature (and are still being cited).
Dr. Johnstone made the seminal observation that prostanoid glaucoma drops induce growth of the eyelashes. He patented this finding (US Patent 6,262,105), which was central to developing the glaucoma medication Latisse. After joining the faculty, he continued his cutting-edge research on trabecular outflow, developing a phase-OCT method for visualizing trabecular outflow with colleague Professor and Kren Chair Dr. Ricky Wang.
Dr. Johnstone was a charter member of the American Glaucoma Society (and was honored as the AGS keynote lecturer in 2006 and with the AGS Innovator Award in 2022), was involved in establishing the glaucoma surgery curriculum at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, was a frequent course instructor at American Academy of Ophthalmology, earned the Senior Honor Award of the Academy, and gave numerous named lectures throughout the country.
Within the department, he served on the Ophthalmology Technology Assessment Committee and shared his knowledge of technology commercialization with our faculty. Dr. Johnstone and his wife Jeannie have been generous donors to the Department of Ophthalmology. They have supported travel grants for residents to attend scientific meetings and the Murray and Jeanie Johnstone Travel Grant at ARVO.