Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling

The UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center is an interdisciplinary initiative that combines basic science, clinical research, epidemiology/cancer control, and patient care throughout the University of California, San Francisco. The Center's mission is the discovery and evolution of new ideas and information about cancer, from basic research to clinical implementation.


UCSF's long tradition of excellence in cancer research includes, notably, Nobel Prize-winning work of J. Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus, who discovered cancer-causing oncogenes. Their work opened new doors for exploring genetic mistakes that cause cancer and formed the basis for some of the most important cancer research happening today.


Basic scientific research underpins all of our efforts to design and evaluate new tools to treat cancer patients everywhere. Hence, cancer research at UCSF encompasses studies on the regulation of the eukaryotic cell division cycle, exploration of the machinery and the control of programmed cell death (apoptosis), regulation of cellular lifespan and the acquisition of cellular immortality, the control of DNA repair, the role of the immune system in cancer initiation and progression, tumor angiogenesis, cell invasion and metastasis and the design and application of mouse models of human cancer. Information of the broad range of cancer research activities can be found at the Cancer Center webpage.

 

Participating Faculty

Manish Aghi, MD, PhD, MAS

Primary Thematic Area: 
Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling
Secondary Thematic Area: 
Vascular & Cardiac Biology
Research Summary: 
Defining the interaction between tumor cells and the microenvironment in glioblastoma, including during therapeutic resistance

Rosemary Akhurst, PhD

Primary Thematic Area: 
Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling
Secondary Thematic Area: 
Developmental & Stem Cell Biology
Research Summary: 
Growth factors and genetic modifiers in vascular biology and cancer

Bassem Al-Sady, PhD

Primary Thematic Area: 
Developmental & Stem Cell Biology
Secondary Thematic Area: 
Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling
Research Summary: 
Mechanisms of formation and maintenance of epigenetic elements
Mentorship Development: 

3/2019 - Promoting Student Mental Health
4/2019 - Sharpening your Mentoring Skills (SyMS)
6/2019 - Implicit Bias Workshop
Initiated the faculty peer-to-peer training effort of the Graduate Mentor Development Program
9/2020 - DEI Champions Training
2/2021 - Three Truths and Three Tries: Facing and Overcoming Critical Social Justice Challenges at the Micro, Mezzo, and Macro Levels
11/2021 - Defining Distance Traveled: A Working Session
1/2022 Equity Based Interview Practices
5/2022 Effective Strategies for IDPs

Gregory Allen, MD, PhD

Primary Thematic Area: 
Immunology
Secondary Thematic Area: 
Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling
Research Summary: 
Our group develops and applies advances in synthetic biology to better understand biological systems and then to re-engineer these systems to tackle disease.

Tamara Alliston, PhD

Primary Thematic Area: 
Tissue / Organ Biology & Endocrinology
Secondary Thematic Area: 
Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling
Research Summary: 
Our research focuses on the molecular pathways controlling mesenchymal stem cell differentiation
Mentorship Development: 

10/20/20    Gathering in Community: a Training for Faculty and Staff
11/10/20    Optimizing the Efficiency of Your Lab
2/18/21    Three Truths and Three Tries: Facing and Overcoming Critical Social Justice Challenges at the Micro, Mezzo, and Macro Levels

Steven Altschuler, PhD

Primary Thematic Area: 
Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling
Secondary Thematic Area: 
None
Research Summary: 
Investigate how complex biological networks regulate precise cellular behaviors and how dis-regulation leads to disease.
Mentorship Development: 

4/26/19    Sharpening your Mentoring Skills (SyMS) with Sharon Milgram (Mission Bay)
2/16/21    Three Truths and Three Tries: Facing and Overcoming Critical Social Justice Challenges at the Micro, Mezzo, and Macro Levels

Mark Ansel, PhD

Primary Thematic Area: 
Immunology
Secondary Thematic Area: 
Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling
Research Summary: 
RNA Regulation in the Immune System

Judith Ashouri Sinha, MD

Primary Thematic Area: 
Immunology
Secondary Thematic Area: 
Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling
Research Summary: 
Pathogenic Antigen-activated T cells in Autoimmune Disease

Serine Avagyan, MD, PhD

Primary Thematic Area: 
Developmental & Stem Cell Biology
Secondary Thematic Area: 
Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling
Research Summary: 
We study the origins of clonal blood disorders with focus on developmental hematopoiesis and forces driving clonal competition in the context of inherited cancer predisposition conditions.

Allan Balmain, PhD

Primary Thematic Area: 
Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling
Secondary Thematic Area: 
None
Research Summary: 
Mouse models for the study of human cancer susceptibility and cancer progression

Sourav Bandyopadhyay, PhD

Primary Thematic Area: 
Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling
Secondary Thematic Area: 
None
Research Summary: 
Computational and experimental approaches to guide the development of new precision medicines for cancer
Mentorship Development: 

11/10/20    Optimizing the Efficiency of Your Lab

Diane Barber, PhD

Primary Thematic Area: 
Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling
Secondary Thematic Area: 
Developmental & Stem Cell Biology
Research Summary: 
We investigate basic cell biology and how it is dysregulated in diseases. We bridge structural and cell biology to resolve cell behaviors relevant to cancer, stem cells and neurodegeneration.

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