Faculty A-Z

A

• Rosemary Akhurst, PhD studies the role of signaling molecules and genetic modifiers in vasculogenesis, the formation of the vascular network, during development.
• Tamara Alliston, PhD studies mechanisms of differentiation of bone-depositing cells and the regulation of bone quality.
• Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, PhD studies the origin of the adult brain's stem cells, the migration of young neurons from their site of birth to their final destinations, the functional contribution of neurons born in the adult brain, and whether brain tumors originate from neural stem cells. He has initiated studies exploring progenitor cell transplants for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.
• Mark Anderson, MD, PhD studies immune tolerance and the role of the thymus in type 1 diabetes and autoimmune disease.

B

• Allan Balmain, PhD focuses on the role of stem cells and cancer, and thereby specifically aims to identify the critical target cells of origin for different tumor types in the skin and lung. Identification of these target cells, and the mechanisms by which they become transformed, will be important both for stem cell therapy and for cancer therapy.
• Scott Baraban, PhD studies mouse mutants featuring gene deletions identified in children with malformation-associated epilepsies, and exploring how seizures develop. He also examines the potential of embryonic progenitor cells to inhibit epilepsy following transplantation.
• Michael Beattie, PhD does basic and translational research aimed at enhancing the treatment of brain and spinal cord injuries.
• Hilary Beggs, PhD studies the molecular mechanisms that underlie a number of significant eye diseases, including microphthalmia, cataracts, and retinal dengeneration/dysplasia.
• Mitchel Berger, MD studies the correlative biology and outcome of patients with both low-grade and high-grade gliomas
• Sigurd Berven, MD an orthopedic spine surgeon, has research to evaluate the use of mesenchymal stem cells in an animal model of disc degeneration for potential repair mechanisms.
• Daniel Bikle, MD, PhD studies the mechanisms by which hormones, especially vitamin D, insulin like growth factor-I (IGF-I), and parathyroid hormone PTH), regulate calcium homeostasis. He is currently working in two main areas: Skeletal: role of IGF-I in mediating the skeletal effects of PTH, in mediating the skeletal response to mechanical load, and in mediating cell-cell communication during fracture repair; Skin: mechanisms by which calcium and vitamin D regulate keratinocyte differentiation and epidermal cancer formation.
• Robert Blelloch, MD, PhD Studies the molecular basis of stem cell elf-renewal, differentiation and cancer and is an expert in animal SCNT.
• Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD is the Director of the Diabetes Center and conducts basic and clinical research on the causes and cures for Diabetes.
• Benjamin Braun, MD studies intracellular signaling pathways involved in leukemia, focusing primarily on Ras pathways and mouse models. Dr. Braun also cares for children with blood disorders and cancer.
• Jacqueline Bresnahan, PhD does basic and translational research aimed at enhancing the treatment of brain and spinal cord injuries
• Katja Brückner, PhD studies the ability of epithelial cells to transdifferentiate in to mesenchymal cells in Drosophila. The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition is an important and initial step in invasion of epithelial cells, both in normal development and in invasion of cancer cells, leading to metastasis.
• Benoit Bruneau, PhD studies the transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of cardiogenesis.

C

• Marcelle Cedars, MD is the Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and the UCSF Reproductive Health Clinic, and studies ovarian aging, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and assisted reproductive methods in clinical and basic studies.
• Benjamin Cheyette, MD, PhD studies signal scaffold proteins in embryonic and neural development, including stem cells.
• Pao-Tien Chuang, MD, PhD Hedgehog Signaling in Mammalian Embryogenesis and Postnatal Physiology
• Bruce Conklin, MD Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease Departments of Medicine and Pharmacology, Mission Bay UCSF Dr. Conklin’s research focuses genes involved in “Sudden Death” due to abnormal heart rhythm, as well as genes involved in heart failure from cardiomyopathy. His research is focused on rebuilding the heart with new cells, finding heart better drugs and personalized medicine. Dr. Conklin’s laboratory works with induced pluripotent (iPS) cells are derived from patients with disease, or have been engineered to test the role of genetic changes on disease. Dr. Conklin began his research career working for two years with Nobel Laureate Julius Axelrod, Ph.D., at the National Institutes of Health. He then completed his residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Henry Bourne, M.D. at UCSF. In 1995 Dr. Conklin joined the Gladstone Institutes and the UCSF faculty where he has advanced to become a Senior Investigator at Gladstone, and a Professor at UCSF. Dr. Conklin is the founder of several public stem cell and genomics projects including BayGenomics, GenMAPP, AltAnalyze and WikiPathways. Dr. Conklin pioneered the field of using designer G protein coupled receptors (RASSLs) for tissue engineering. He was the founding director of the Gladstone Genomics Core and the Gladstone Stem Cell Core. He is a member of several honorary societies including the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and is a Fellow in the California Academy of Sciences.
• Marco Conti, MD focuses on signal transduction required for germ cell development.
• Joseph Costello, PhD studies the onset of tumorigenesis with an emphasis on discovering the mechanisms by which genes accumulate changes that may activate or inactivate tumor genes.
• Jason Cyster, PhD studies lymphocyte trafficking and homeostasis.

D

• Graeme Davis, PhD studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neuronal development and plasticity.
• Pamela Den Besten, DDS studies the development of ameloblasts, the cells that deposit enamel on developing teeth, and explores the development of stem cells derived from tooth pulp in the reconstruction of teeth.
• Rik Derynck, PhD is the Co-Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research. He studies signaling mechanisms that regulate the generation of bone, muscle and fat cells and how these cells derive from mesenchymal stem cells. This knowledge is used to direct mesenchymal stem cells and pre-adipocytes toward the generation of bone and muscle tissues.
• Tejal Desai, PhD focuses on the design, fabrication, and use of advanced micro/nano biosystems.

F

• Donna Ferriero, MD is Director of the Neonatal Brain Disorders Center and studies the pathobiology of hypoxic-ischemic injury in the developing nervous system.
• Steven Finkbeiner, MD, PhD studies molecular mechanisms of plasticity and neurodegeneration. He is unraveling how an inherited genetic mutation leads to neuronal dysfunction and degeneration in ALS, Frontotemporal dementia, Huntington’s and Parkinson's disease.
• Susan Fisher, PhD studies mechanisms whereby human placental cells invade the uterus during pregnancy and uses this knowledge to study the behavior during cell differentiation. She also studies the early steps of differentiation and the maintenance of human embryonic stem cells.

G

• Elena Gates, MD is the Director of the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Tissue Bank and is an obstetrician/gynecologist at the UCSF Women’s Health Offices. She has a special interest in the medical ethics relating to women’s health care, reproduction and stem cell biology.
• Michael German, MD studies the cascade of gene activation underlying the development of the beta-cells from less differentiated cells during embryogenesis or from stem cells in the adult pancreas, and how these genes function in the mature beta-cell.
• Ruby Ghadially, MD is a dermatologist with research interests in skin stem cells and their use for in vivo expension of keratinocytes for autologous burn and wound therapy.
• Stephen Gitelman, MD is the Director of the UCSF Pediatric Diabetes Program, and has active clinical research interests in diabetes, particularly in the prevention of type 1 diabetes mellitus.
• Linda Giudice, MD, PhD is the Chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences and is a specialist in assisted reproduction. She studies human uterine receptivity in pregnancy and embryo development and has initiated studies on human somatic cell nuclear transfer and human embryonic stem cells differentiating into placental cells.
• Andrei Goga, MD, PhD studies genetic approaches to understanding cell cycle control and applications to human malignancy, and seeks to develop mouse model systems to study basic cell cycle regulation in normal and tumor cells and to facilitate the development of cell cycle inhibitors as therapeutics.
• Dieter Gruenert, Ph.D. Cell and molecular biology studies that focus on the generation, characterization and directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells for the study of disease processes and the development of new therapies for inherited diseases (e.g. cystic fibrosis and hemoglobinopathies) and cancer.
• Su Guo, PhD uses molecular genetic approaches in zebrafish to identify novel genes involved in fate determination of dopaminergic neurons.

H

• Matthias Hebrok, PhD studies how undifferentiated epithelial cells develop into functional endocrine cells, specifically insulin-producing beta-cells.
• Michelle Hermiston, MD, PhD focuses on elucidating the impact of immune dysregulation on hematologic disease and translating these findings into clinical use.
• Serena Hu, MD studies disc degeneration and its interaction with pain.
• Eric Huang, MD, PhD studies the transcriptional control of neural development.

J

• Yuh Nung Jan, PhD identifies genes involved in maintaining adult neural stem cells in mice, with the intent of defining their precise functions. His overall goal is to determine the function of adult neural stem cells in humans, in order to develop strategies to treat brain disorders including Parkinson’s disease.

K

• Shingo Kajimura, PhD studies molecular control of adipose cell development and energy homeostasis.
• Hubert Kim, MD studies the modulation of secondary injury cascades and the application of stem cells in the treatment of traumatic injuries, particularly injury to tissues that have poor intrinsic healing.
• Ophir Klein, MD, PhD studies the use of teeth as a feasible prototype for stem cell (SC) based organ regeneration.
• Scott Kogan, MD studies leukemia stem cells in mouse models and is interested in devising better therapies that target these cells.
• Thomas Kornberg, PhD uses Drosophila to investigate mechanisms, especially cell-cell signaling, that assign cells to their developmental fates. He also directs the UCSF Tetrad Program in Genetics.
• Arnold Kriegstein, MD, PhD is the Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research and uses rodent models to study how embryonic neural stem and progenitor cells produce neurons. He studies developmental brain disorders such as autism and explores the application of progenitor cell grafts to the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
• Matthew Krummel, PhD uses in situ imaging of the proximal molecular events in the thymus to determine how signaling proceeds in the context of the tissues and organs.

L

• Diana Laird, PhD studies the development and regulation of Primordial Germ Cells (PGCs), stem cells in the embryo that give rise to egg or sperm.
• Lewis Lanier, PhD analyzes the regulation of T cell and NK cell immune responses by activating and inhibitory receptors.
• Andrew Leavitt, MD studies megakaryocytopoiesis and platelet formation and the development of hematopoietic stem cells using both murine and human embryonic stem cells.
• Janice Lee, MD, DDS is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon who studies the potential use of dental pulp stem cells as an autologous source of cells for bone repair.
• Randall Lee, MD, PhD an adult electrophysiologist, is interested in tissue engineering approaches to target stem cell therapies to the heart including use of antibodies and biopolymers.
• Jae-Woo Lee, MD Dr. Lee studies the potential therapeutic role of both adult and embryonic stem cells in acute lung injury and sepsis. He is particularly interested in the role of microvesicles released by stem cells as one underlying mechanism.
• Daniel Lim, MD, PhD studies the role of chromatin remodeling factors in the regulaton of neural stem cell fate. His overall goal is to define the genetic programs and molecular mechanisms of neurogenesis in the adult brain and to translate these discoveries into cell and gene therapies for neurodegenerative diseases and injury.
• Bernard Lo, MD is the Director of the Program in Medical Ethics at UCSF and is the Chair of the UCSF GESCR (Gamete, Embryo and Stem Cell Research) Committee. He studies the process of establishing guidelines for human research with special emphasis on genetic testing and stem cells.
• Mignon Loh, MD uses human patient samples to better understand the pathogenesis of human leukemias with a particular focus on the role of PTPN11 mutations.
• Jeffrey Lotz, PhD studies the use of stem cells, growth factors, and synthetic matrices for tissue engineered regeneration and healing of vertebral discs. His focus is on defining the biomechanical and inflammatory factors that cause back pain, and on cell culture and animal models of disc degeneration.
• Clifford Lowell, MD, PhD studies the role of the Src-family and Syk tyrosine kinase in signal transduction pathways within hematopoietic cells.
• Tom Lue, MD studies adipose tissue derived stem/progenitor cells.

M

• Tippi MacKenzie, MD Studies in utero tranplantation in the fetal mouse model with the goal of elucidating mechanisms of engraftment and tolerance induction.
• Sharmila Majumdar, PhD is working on developing imaging techniques to track stem-cells in vivo.
• Geoffrey Manley, MD, PhD works with the UCSF Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC) to promote collaborative basic, translational and clinical studies on injuries to the brain and spinal cord.
• Ralph Marcucio, PhD studies the molecular and cellular events that underlie development and regeneration of the skeleton.
• Grayson W. Marshall, PhD studies the structure-properties relationships of calcified matrices, in particular enamel and dentin, using biophysical techniques, and evaluates how these properties change with disease.
• Gail Martin, PhD studies mechanisms that govern early steps of vertebrate development, thereby focusing on the role of FGF signaling in patterning and in the early stages of organ development.
• Michael Matthay, MD is interested in stem cell treatment for acute lung injury, a major cause of acute respiratory failure characterized by pulmonary edema, inflammation, arterial hypoxemia, and the need for mechanical ventilation.
• Frank McCormick, PhD is the Director of the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center and studies differences in normal and cancer cells that could be exploited for therapeutic intervention.
• Joseph M. McCune, MD, PhD evaluates HIV-induced effects on multi-lineage hematopoiesis, as studied in the SCID-hu mice and in patient-oriented studies at the General Clinical Research Center at San Francisco General Hospital.
• Martin McMahon, PhD investigates the ability of telomerase to immortalize human cells without promoting the loss of differentiated characteristics as an approach to the long term culture of human slets and pancreatic ductal epithelial cells.
• Michael McManus, PhD studies biological processes relating to RNA interference pathways, using the mouse as a model. This includes the study of small regulatory RNAs of biological significance that regulate development in mammals.
• Synthia Mellon, PhD studies neural development and steroidogenesis.
• Theodore Miclau, MD studies cellular molecular mechanisms of fracture repair, particularly related to the roles of inflammation, angiogenesis, and mechanical influences on healing. He has developed models of mandibular and tibial fracture repair.
• Takashi Mikawa, PhD studies development of the cardiac conduction system during early embryogenesis and the signals that distinguish conduction cells from working myocytes using the chick system.

N

• Sarah Nelson, PhD focuses on the development of techniques for acquisition, reconstructing and quantitative analysis of imaging and spectral data.
• Robert Nissenson, PhD studies the role of signaling pathways in the development of bone depositing osteoblasts.
• Linda Noble, PhD studies oxidative stress and neurogenesis.
• Todd Nystul, PhD studies epithelial stem cells and their associated niche in the Drosophila ovary.

O

• Michael C. Oldham, PhD studies the organization of the transcriptome in the developing and adult human brain, and how this organization differs among primate species and brains affected by disease.
• Jeffrey Olgin, MD Director of the Adult Cardiac Electrophysiology Division, studies the cardiac conduction system and its coordination and integration with introduced stem cells.

P

• Barbara Panning, PhD studies how RNA containing complexes modulate chromatin structure and gene expression.
• Emmanuelle Passegué, PhD studies differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells and how deregulation of key steps gives rise to hematopoietic cancer stem cells that drive the development and progression of leukemia.
• Claudia Petritsch, PhD studies the molecular basis of asymmetrical cell division in neuronal stem and progenitor cells.
• Samuel Pleasure, MD, PhD studies the development of the brain, in particular the mechanisms regulating cell proliferation, migration and axon guidance during prenatal development.

R

• Miguel Ramalho-Santos, PhD, MSc studies the genetic regulation of embryonic stem pluripotency and somatic cell reprogramming.
• Katherine A. Rauen, MD, PhD studies germline mutations in genes associated with the Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway and the application of array CGH in clinical genetics.
• Louis Reichardt, PhD studies neural cell fates in development.
• Jeremy Reiter, MD, PhD focuses on identifying novel intercellular signals that direct the differentiation of embryonic stem cells along defined lineages.
• Paolo Rinaudo, MD a clinical reproductive endocrinologist, studies the culture of mammalian embryos and potential consequences to long term health due to culture.
• Jason Rock, PhD studies how resident epithelial and stromal cell populations of the lung are specified during development and how they maintain the organ over a lifetime.
• Mitchell Rosen, MD a clinical reproductive endocrinologist, studies the genetic basis of unexplained infertility and clinical outcomes of reproductive practices.
• Steven Rosen, PhD studies the molecular mechanisms of lymphocyte homing to inflamed islets.
• David H. Rowitch, MD, PhD is interested in brain tumor stem cells and disorders of white matter.
• John Rubenstein, MD, PhD studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms of embryogenesis, and the genetic control of forebrain development. He explores the origin of inhibitory interneurons in the brain, and their possible utility in cell-based therapy for brain disorders such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.
• James Rubenstein, MD, PhD is working to define the molecular features of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) of the central nervous system (CNS) using microarray technology.
• Eric Rulifson, PhD studies the development of insulin producing cells using Drosophilia as model system. The insulin producing cells in Drosophilia represent a simple and ancestral organ representative of the pancreas in mammals.

S

• Richard Schneider, PhD studies the development of neural crest, a mesenchymal cell population, and its role in patterning of the craniofacial organization.
• Neil Shah, MD, PhD is an expert in developing molecularly targeted therapies for chronic myeloid leukemia and other hematologic malignancies.
• Nirao Shah, MD, PhD studies how sex-specific behaviors, such as mating, nursing, and aggression are encoded by neural circuits
• Kevin Shannon, MD studies signaling mechanisms that regulate the growth and differentiation of normal and leukemic stem cells. His laboratory is particularly interested in the genetic and biochemical basis of inherited leukemia predispositions and the regulation of growth of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells by Ras signaling.
• Shehua Shen, MD is a clinical embryologist who specializes in gamete and embryo micromanipulation and microinjection and advancement of laboratory IVF procedures.
• Dean Sheppard, MD, PhD studies the role of integrins and signaling mechanisms in cell and tissue interactions in the lung, and specifically in lung injury and fibrosis.
• Jun S. Song, PhD, MASt
• Matthew Springer, PhD studies cell and gene therapies for ischemic diseases, to aid in tissue revascularization, preservation, and potentially regeneration. Other interests involve vascular endothelial function, including its response to diet and cigarette smoke exposure.
• David Sretavan, MD, PhD studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the formation of retinal gan-glion cell axon projections, the major axon path-ways conveying visual information from the eyes to the CNS targets.
• Deepak Srivastava, MD, PhD is the Director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and studies the causes of heart disease with a goal of using knowledge of the cardiac developmental pathways to devise novel therapeutics for human cardiac disorders.
• Hua Su, MD studies gene and cell based therapies for cerebral vascular diseases, including stroke.

T

• Thea Tlsty, PhD studies the identity and role of cancer stem cells in the development and progression of breast cancer. She also has a research program on the characterization of genomic instability in cancer initiation and progression.

U

• Erik Ullian, PhD studies the cell extrinsic and intrinsic mechanisms that regulate synapse number and function, particularly the role of glial cells in regulating neuronal synapse formation and function.

V

• Ron Vale, PhD studies how cells move organelles, proteins, chromosomes and mRNAs within their cytoplasm.
• Karin Vargervik, DDS is the director of the UCSF Center for Craniofacial Anomalies and has a special interest in the etiology and development, as well as therapeutic modalities, of cleft palate and lip.
• Eric Verdin, MD studies stem cell pluripotency and self-renewal.
• Saul Villeda, PhD studies how molecular immune-related changes in old blood impair stem cell function and cognitive processes in the brain during aging, and conversely how young blood can reverse these impairments.
• Thiennu Vu, MD, PhD is interested in the role of the vasculature during organogenesis.

W

• Rong Wang, PhD studies cell signaling in mammalian angiogenesis and arterial venous differentiation in embryos, ischemia, stroke and cancer.
• Valerie Weaver, PhD focuses on several areas of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) development and architecture.
• William Weiss, MD, PhD is interested in developing and characterizing mouse models that faithfully recapitulate the biology and genetics of human tumors of the nervous system.
• Zena Werb, PhD studies the role of proteases in the interaction of tissues with the extracellular matrix, thereby focusing on bone formation, fat development, epithelial-mesenchymal interactions in mammary gland development, and cancer progression.
• Holger Willenbring, MD is exploring the way liver cells differentiate and regenerate, with the goal to correct liver diseases with cells derived from stem cells or from reprogramming of hematopoietic cells.

Y

• Keith Yamamoto, PhD is interested in mechanisms by which gene transcription is regulated in different cell types and physiological (or pathological) settings. He studies the activity of the intracellular receptors (IRs), including receptors for glucocorticoids (GR), androgens (AR) and thyroid hormone (TR) in signal transduction and trancsriptional control.
• Shinya Yamanaka, PhD studies stem-cell pluripotency.
• Yerem Yeghiazarians, MD an adult interventional cardiologist, studies embryonic and adult stem cells introduced into rodent and swine hearts after injury and is involved in numerous clinical trials using interventional catheter approaches.