Oscar Aguilar Afaro
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Dr. Aguilar was born in El Salvador, but due to a civil war, his family seeked asylum in Canada. He was raised in Ottawa, Ontario where he completed his B.Sc in Biochemistry and a M.Sc. with Prof. Ken Storey at Carleton University. He then completed his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto working with Prof. James Carlyle. For his Post-Doctoral training, he joined Prof. Lewis Lanier’s lab at UCSF and was later recruited as faculty. His lab studies natural killer (NK) cells, which are critical members of our immune system tasked with protecting us from viral infections and cancers. They are innate lymphocytes that use cell surface NK receptors to distinguish between self and non-self (or altered-self). If a target cell has been identified as harmful, NK cells release cytotoxic granules that directly kill the target cell. The NK field has greatly advanced our understanding of these cells however, there remain many outstanding questions. The Aguilar lab is working to fill in some of these gaps.
Mark Ansel
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Mark Ansel is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. He is a co-founder of the Bakar ImmunoX Initiative, a new UCSF initiative to harness immunology to improve human health. His laboratory in the Sandler Asthma Basic Research Center focuses on the regulation of gene expression in the immune system. MicroRNAs (miRNA), RNA binding proteins (RBP), transcription factors, and epigenetic regulation shape the gene expression programs that determine cell identity and function. The Ansel lab studies how these molecular mechanisms work together to control lymphocyte development, differentiation, and function in immunity. We use in vitro cell differentiation systems, biochemistry, mouse genetics, disease models, and gene expression analyses in cells from human clinical samples to unravel the regulatory networks that underlie immunity and immune pathology, especially allergy and asthma.
Paola Betancur
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Dr. Paola Betancur is an expert in gene regulation and genomics. She is interested in understanding the mechanisms encoded in the DNA by which cancerous cells avoid being detected and destroyed by the host’s immune system. Toward this goal, her lab examines the interactions between epigenetic modifiers, transcription factors and the genomic enhancers of target genes that in response to inflammation abnormally activate the immune escape program within tumor or damaged cells during aging, after radiation and in response to infectious diseases. To accomplish our goal, she has long lasting collaborations across campus, at Stanford University and other recognized national and international institutions.
Elizabeth Crouch
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Dr. Elizabeth Crouch is a neuroscientist, a vascular biologist, and a physician in Neonatal-Perinatal medicine. Her lab, the Neurovascular Development lab, studies how brain blood vessels grow and interact with other brain cells, in part, inspired from preterm babies she cares for clinically. Approximately 20% of preterm babies born between 24-28 gestation weeks will develop germinal matrix hemorrhage (GMH). This hemorrhage can cause hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, and death, with no available treatments. The Crouch Lab uses neuropathological specimens, flow cytometry (FACS), bioinformatics, and cell culture, including organoid models, to interrogate brain vascular biology. Projects in the lab resolve around the basic biology of vascular stem cells in the developing brain, disease amioration, and technology development.
Corey Harwell
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Dr. Corey Harwell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology. He is interested in understanding how the extensive morphological, molecular and functional diversity of neural cell types is achieved during development of the central nervous system. His lab studies the forebrain, with particular attention to the cortex and the septal nucleus of the basal forebrain. The Harwell Lab's long-term goal is to understand how genetic and epigenetic programs associated with a progenitor cells spatial and temporal identity dictates their fate choice. Dr. Harwell is also interested in understanding how these diverse groups of neurons and glia coordinate to assemble the precise circuitry of the mammalian forebrain.
Ryan Hernandez
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Dr. Ryan Hernandez is a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences. His research focuses on computational genomics and complements the department’s emerging strengths in quantitative sciences and genomics: First, he seeks to characterize the patterns of genetic variation within and between populations using large-scale genome resequencing data. A second branch of research in his lab focuses on developing novel population genetic simulation techniques. Such simulations are used to lend insight into the plausible evolutionary forces that have shaped patterns of genetic variation, including the implications of complex interactions among selected alleles in non-stationary demographic environments. His third branch of research seeks to exploit population genetic models of demographic history and natural selection to interrogate the genetic basis of disease. By capitalizing on recent theoretical advances, Dr. Hernandez is constructing models of population dynamics that will utilize genomic re-sequencing data to discover novel regions of the genome that underlie genetic susceptibility to disease and drug response.
Todd Nystul
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Todd Nysul is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Anatomy and OB/GYN. The Nystul laboratory uses the Drosophila ovary as a model for studying the fundamental properties of epithelial stem cells, their associated niche, and the connection between epithelial stem cells and cancer. The follicular epithelium in the Drosophila ovary is an ideal model for the study of epithelial biology. It possesses many classical epithelial features, such as a columnar cell shape, apical/basal polarity, and canonical cell adhesion complexes, and yet is a relatively simple tissue and is highly tractable for molecular and cell biological analysis. Combined with the powerful genetic tools available in Drosophila, this allows us to address questions in epithelial stem cell and tissue biology with single-cell resolution in the natural, in vivo context.
Sam Pleasure
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Dr. Samuel J. Pleasure is a neurologist who specializes in caring for patients with multiple sclerosis. The Pleasure Lab works on mechanisms controlling development of the cortex and hippocampus. The focus has been on the roles of morphogenic and developmental signaling pathways on the stem cell behavior, cell fate, migration and axon guidance during embryonic and postnatal development. In this area, previous work focused on the roles of Wnt, chemokines and BMP signaling pathways in the developing cortex. More recently, this work has focused on the role of the Sonic Hedgehog pathway in cortical and hippocampal development and function. Dr. Pleasure is the Glenn W. Johnson, Jr. Memorial Endowed Chair in Neurology at UCSF.
Roberto Ricardo-Gonzalez
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Dr. Roberto R. Ricardo-Gonzalez serves as faculty in UCSF's graduate program in biomedical sciences and is an investigator at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network. The goal of his lab's research is to decipher how inflammation affects the skin, with a focus on dissecting how essential components of the tissue such as fibroblasts, endothelial cells, lymphatics, and others are individually affected during states of acute and chronic inflammation. We leverage our expertise in tissue biology, immunology, microscopy, and multi-omics analyses to perform assays that test physiologic functions of barrier tissues to uncover new insights into tissue homeostasis. In addition, we use models of adoptive transfer of ILCs to evaluate their therapeutic potential and determine how these cells can promote beneficial tissue inflammation or serve as adjuvant therapies against cancer. Finally, we aim to discover novel ways to manipulate detrimental immune-'niche' crosstalk to develop therapeutic interventions to ameliorate chronic inflammatory diseases.
Bjoern Schwer
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Bjoern is a core faculty member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, member of the Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, and Principal Investigator at the UCSF Brain Tumor Center. Bjoern received his medical degree and doctorate from the University of Heidelberg. His lab seeks to gain mechanistic insight into how interrelated processes - namely DNA repair, chromatin regulation, and transcriptional regulation - affect the physiology and pathophysiology of the brain, particularly genome instability and chromosomal rearrangements that give rise to brain cancers and how DNA repair and genome maintenance affect brain aging.
Matthew Spitzer
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Matthew Spitzer is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Microbiology & Immunology and an investigator of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. His research how immune cells communicate with one another to decide when to initiate an immune response, how to carry it out, and when to shut it down and return to homeostasis. In order to understand these properties of the immune system, Dr. Spitzer's lab uses systems immunology techniques including single-cell analysis, blending experimental and computational approaches to understand the complex circuits and regulatory processes that guide our immune systems to make decisions.
Michael Wilson
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Michael Wilson is a Professor of Neurology in the Division of Neuroimmunology and Glial Biology and directs the UCSF Center for Encephalitis and Meningitis. After finishing med school at UCSF and neurology residency at Harvard, he did two years of postdoctoral training in neurovirology with WP Duprex at BU's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Labs before returning to UCSF. His lab uses genomic technologies and comprehensive viral antibody and autoantibody assays based on phage display to better understand the underlying causes of central nervous system inflammatory disorders. Using human samples collected at disease onset, his lab identifies infectious agents, novel antibodies and characterize B and T cell responses with the aim of better understanding infectious and/or autoimmune mechanisms of disease.