Current Members
Barbara Malynn, PhD -- Barbara co-leads the lab with Averil. She trained in immunology and molecular biology, working with Henry Wortis and Fred Alt. She helped lead a molecular oncology program with Stan Korsmeyer before coming to UCSF.
Chris Bowman, MD PhD -- Chris is a molecular and cell biologist and GI pathologist who is studying innate and type 3 intestinal immunity.
Adam Blaisdell, MD PhD -- Adam is an immunologist and gastroenterologist interested in the regulation of anti-tumor immunity.
Alex Zilinskas, PhD -- Alex is a microbiologist and immunologist who is using synthetic biology and CRISPR engineering to modulate immunity
Zhenzhou Liang, PhD -- Zhenzhou is a molecular and cell biologist studying the molecular regulation and ubiquitination of signaling proteins
Rommel Advincula -- Rommel is our expert mouse colony manager and mouse whisperer
Nika Lenci -- Nika is a UCSD grad who manages the lab and runs cool experiments while preparing for med school
Manu Prabandham -- Manu hails from Pomona, helps run the lab, and does experiments while preparing for med school
Lab Alumni (partial)
Note to alumni: please send updates/corrections/etc...
Bahram Razani, MD PhD -- Bahram is the most recent alumnus from the Ma lab. Together with Mike Whang, he described a surprisingly dominant non-catalytic function for the A20 protein (Razani et al, Nature Immunology). He now directs his own R01 funded lab in the Dermatology Department at UCSF studying skin immunology.
Michael Kattah, MD PhD -- Mike worked with Ling to define an epistatic relationship of the A20 and ABIN-1 proteins (Kattah et al, JEM). They developed the first profound spontaneous model of IEC death. Mike started his own lab in Gastroenterology at UCSF studying intestinal epithelial cells and human IEC organoids in IBD research.
Ling Shao, MD PhD -- Ling started his lab in Gastroenterolgy at USC studying A20 and ABIN-1 in intestinal epithelial cells and IBD
Mike Whang, PhD -- Mike worked on A20 and TXBP1 in the Ma lab (Razani, Whang, et al, Nature Immunology; Whang et al, Immunity). After working in the Ma lab, Mike moved to NKarta, where he studies CAR-NK cells.
Mabel Chan, PhD -- Mabel studied macrophage metabolism in the Ma lab. After her postdoc, she moved to Asther Biotherapeutics
Albert Lee -- Albert completed his MD/PhD in the Ma lab, and moved to U Chicago for internal medicine residency.
Mihir Pendse -- After working in the Ma lab, Mihir went to graduate school at UTSW, doing his PhD thesis with Lora Hooper. He is now a postdoc at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Michio Onizawa, MD PhD -- Michio worked with Shigeru Oshima to discover an epistatic role for RIP3 mediated necroptosis in A20 deficient cells (Onizawa et al, Nature Immunology). Michio moved back to Japan and is now a Professor at Fukushima.
Tim Lu, MD PhD -- Tim defined biochemical functions of A20 motifs (Lu et al, Immunity 2013) during his tenure in the Ma lab. He then moved to Genentech, and has subsequently led two other biotech companies as CMO.
Tammy Wu -- Tammy worked as a research associate in the Ma lab before moving on the medical school at USC
Shigeru Oshima, MD PhD -- Shigeru discovered critical functions of the ABIN-1 protein (Oshima et al, Nature) as well as working with Michio to discover A20's role in necroptosis (Onizawa et al, Nature Immunology). He subsequently returned to Tokyo Medical Dental Univ.
Joe Callahan -- Joe defined roles for ABIN-1 in psoriasis pathophysiology (Callahan et al, JI) during his PhD thesis work in the Ma lab. After graduation, Joe moved to Genentech.
Paul Su, MD -- Paul did postdoctoral work in the Ma lab, and is now an Assistant Professor in Anesthesiology at UCSF studying pain modulation
Gianna Hammer, PhD -- Gianna defined critical roles for A20 in dendritic cells (Hammer et al, Nature Immunology) during her postdoc in the Ma lab, and subsequently took a faculty position at Duke. She is now a Professor in Microbiology and Pathology at U of Utah.
Erwan Mortier, PhD -- Erwan described a surprising role for IL-15Ra as an intracellular chaperone for IL-15 in myeloid cells, leading to its transpresentation of IL-15 at the cell surface (Mortier et al, JEM) as well as cell specific roles for IL-15Ra (Mortier et al, Immunity). He then returned to Nantes, France, where he is a CNRS funded senior investigator.
Rita Taveras -- Rita discovered role for the A20 protein in B cells (Tavares et al, Immunity) during her PhD thesis work in the Ma lab. She subsequently studied neurobiology at Mt Sinai.
Alex Agelides -- Alex worked as a research associate before moving to the U of Illinois as an MD/PhD student
Emre Turer -- Emre completed his MD/PhD training in the Ma lab (Boone, Turer et al, Nature Immunology; Turer et al, JEM; Hammer, Turer et al, Nature Immunology, and did postdoctoral training with Bruce Beutler at UTSW. Emre is now an Associate Professor gastroenterologist and immunologist using forward screens to find regulators of intestinal homeostasis in his R01 funded lab. Emre was recently elected to ASCI.
David Boone, PhD -- After driving some of the earliest seminal studies of A20 biology (Lee et al, Science; Boone et al, Nature Immunology), David moved to the U Chicago for his first faculty position. He now runs an Ro1 funded lab at U Indiana
Paula Gibson -- Paula did her PhD thesis in the Ma lab, conducted postdoctoral work at Johns Hopkins, and is now a Professor studying cancer biology at Vanderbilt.
Pat Burkett -- Pat completed his MD/PhD thesis in the Ma lab defining unusual transpresentation of IL-15 signals (Burkett et al, PNAS; Burkett et al, JEM). Pat did his residency and postdoctoral work at Harvard before moving to Moderna.
Rima Koka -- Rima did her PhD thesis work in the Ma lab (Koka et al, JEM), postdoctoral work at John Hopkins, and is now in the Pathology Dept at U Maryland
Marcia Chien -- Marcia worked as a research associate in the Ma lab before moving on to veterinary school in Chicago, where she currently works as a vet
Regina-Celeste Ahmad -- RC completed her MD/PhD thesis work in the Ma lab, and moved on to Stanford where she trained in pediatric dermatology and continues to practice there.
James Lodolce -- James described the first in vivo functions of IL-15R during his PhD thesis (Lodolce et al, Immunity), did his postdoc with David Boone, and is now a Senior Lecturer of Cell Biology and Genetics at Loyola University. James recently published his first book: Becker's World of the Cell.
Eric Lee -- Eric described the first in vivo function of A20 (Lee et al, Science) during his PhD thesis. He subsequently went to law school at UVa, and is now senior in-house Counsel specializing in patent law at Roche.
Sophia Chai -- was the first member of the Ma lab. She used molecular biology and gene targeting to generate multiple lines of IL-15Ra and A20 targeted mice. She moved on to graduate school in photographic art, and established herself as an artist in New York City before settling in Rochester, MN.