About
Dr. Rivera Gelsinger is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Genetics, with a secondary appointment in the Division of Digestive Diseases at UCLA. A Los Angeles native, he earned a B.S. in Microbiology from SFSU and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, where he studied stress resistance in extremophilic microbiomes with fieldwork in the Himalayas and the Atacama Desert. He then completed his postdoctoral training with Drs. Samuel Sternberg and Harris Wang at Columbia University, where he developed a platform for CRISPR-based in situ editing of native gut bacteria.
The Rivera Gelsinger Lab engineers microbial communities in their native context to define the genetic factors at the host-microbiome interface and to develop novel therapeutics, with applications spanning the gut, soil, and other complex microbiomes. Dr. Rivera Gelsinger is passionate about mentoring and has extensive experience training students at all levels.