Rose Johnstone

Rose Mamelak Johnstone FRSC (14 May 1928 – 3 July 2009) was a Canadian biochemist who is known for her discovery of exosomes, the cellular structures that transport proteins, lipids and RNA. She was the first woman to hold the Gilman Cheney Chair in Biochemistry (1985) and the first and only woman chair of the Department of Biochemistry in McGill University's Faculty of Medicine (1980-1990).

Johnstone was a pioneer for women in science and an advocate for gender equality. She enrolled in biochemistry at a time when women were rarely accepted into it and went on to complete a BSc degree with first class honours and a PhD. As a professor at McGill University, she served on the Committee on the Status of Women, which resulted in recommended actions to end sexual discrimination and the improvement of working conditions for women in science and academia. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Rose Johnstone (née Mamelak) was the second of four siblings born to Jacob Mamelak and Esther Rotholz, a Jewish family who emigrated from Poland to Montreal, Canada in 1936. Rose's mother encouraged her to apply for a scholarship, which allowed Rose to attend high school despite her family's poverty. She worked as a nurses' aide at the Montreal Neurological Institute during the summers and planned to pursue a career as a technical assistant. However, she was drawn to research and enrolled at McGill University, studying microbiology.

Rose then changed to biochemistry. She completed her undergraduate BSc degree with first-class honours in 1950. She was able to support herself by securing a series of scholarships. She obtained her PhD in 1953 under the supervision of Juda Hirsch Quastel at the McGill-Montreal General Hospital Research Institute. She completed post-doctoral training in the United Kingdom at the National Institute of Medical Research in Mill Hill, the Chester Beatty Research Institute in London and the Strangeways Research Laboratory in Cambridge, with a fellowship from the National Cancer Institute of Canada.

Rose Johnstone was recruited to McGill's Department of Biochemistry in 1961. During her career, Johnstone authored 132 peer-reviewed publications and her work has been cited over 4,600 times.

Throughout her career, Johnstone was concerned about sexism in academia. In the 1970s, she helped improve working conditions for women in science and academia through her service on the Committee on the Status of Women at McGill. Reporting to the university's senate, the committee recommended actions to end sexual discrimination, most of which were implemented. At McGill University, Rose was the first woman to hold the Gilman Cheney Chair in Biochemistry and the first and only woman chair of the Department of Biochemistry in McGill's Faculty of Medicine.

Johnstone served as the president of the Montreal Physiological Society (1978–79) and the Canadian Biochemical Society (1985–86). She was secretary treasurer of the International Association for Women Bioscientists (1985–88) as well.

She retired as professor emerita in 1995.