The biomedical challenges of the 21st Century will be solved by scientific communities – networks of scientists with common interests but diverse skills and expertise.
In order to align our research enterprise with this scientific landscape, The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA has established six Unified Research Themes to stimulate interaction between UCLA’s top scientists and clinicians. These outstanding researchers are dedicating their careers to the same problems but have historically had little interaction due to relics of 20th century University organizational structure.
Under the umbrella of the Unified Research Themes, UCLA scientists and clinicians are doing pioneering research for the benefit of humanity.
The UCLA scientists and clinicians in these themes are expanding the boundaries of human knowledge and developing the next generation of treatments and cures in order to alleviate human suffering.
Michael A. Teitell, MD, PhD
Cancer Theme Chair
Dr. Teitell is a molecular immunologist and biochemist who joined the faculty at UCLA as an assistant professor and chief of the Division of Pediatric and Neonatal Pathology in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in 1999. Dr. Teitell serves currently as chief of the Division of Pediatric and Neonatal Pathology, with board certification in anatomic, clinical and pediatric pathology. He is a Scholar and Stohlman Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigators in 2004 and to the Association of American Physicians in 2017.
Theme Contact Information:
Phone: (310) 825-5268
Contact via email
The UCLA Cancer Research Theme through the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) includes over 400 members who conduct basic and translational cancer research and clinicians who provide state of the art cancer care. The JCCC has a 20 year history of successfully translating research into new cancer treatments. Work led by JCCC members has resulted in 6 new FDA approv ed drugs over the course of the past two years. Adult cancer care at UCLA was ranked 5th in the nation in the most recent US News & World Report survey.
Theme Leadership
Arjun Deb, MD
Cardiovascular Theme Chair
Dr. Arjun Deb seeks to develop methods to augment wound healing and decrease scarring in the heart following heart attacks, and his lab is interested in developing therapueitcs targeting molecular mechanisms that perpetuate scarring and worsen heart failure. Learn More >
Theme Contact Information:
Phone: (310) 206-9153
Contact via email
The UCLA Cardiovascular Research Theme's mission is to pioneer innovation and discovery to prevent, detect and cure cardiovascular diseases. Driven by a visionary team of research scientists and physicians, the Cardiovascular Research Theme will revolutionize treatments through precision medicine—one person at a time.
Theme Leadership
Helena Hansen, MD, PhD
HETSS Theme Co-Chair
Dr. Hansen will lead the Translational Social Science component of this new Research Theme. She is internationally recognized for her research on opioids and race, as well as for her development of structural competency as an approach to clinical training and practice.
Rochelle A. Dicker, MD
HETSS Theme Co-Chair
Dr. Dicker will be leading the Health Equity component of this Theme. She has dedicated much of her career to addressing the root causes and social determinants of violence through the development of hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs).
The UCLA Health Equity and Translational Social Science Research Theme is born out of a joint mission of the UCLA Health System and DGSOM to collaboratively study and promote equitable health care. Through multidisciplinary methodologies and translation of social theories, this Theme will build collaborations among social scientists on the Arts and Sciences campus, life scientists, clinicians and clinical researchers at DGSOM, as well as develop demonstration projects within the UCLA Health System and throughout the greater Los Angeles community, that integrate social interventions with medical care.
Theme Leadership
Gay M. Crooks, MD
Immunity, Inflammation, Infection, & Transplantation (I3T) Theme Chair
Gay M. Crooks, MD, is the leader of the Immunity, Inflammation, Infection, and Transplantation (I3T) Theme in the David Geffen School of Medicine. Dr. Crooks is director of the JCCC Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Program area, co-chair of the Basic and Translational COVID-19 Research Task Force, and co-director of BSCRC. Learn More >
Theme Contact Information:
Phone: (310) 825-9744
Contact via email
The UCLA I3T Research Theme's' goal is to promote interactions between researchers in fundamental immunology, cancer immunology, immuno-metabolism, transplant immunology, infectious diseases, and inflammatory/autoimmune diseases. With 70+ faculty members spanning basic, translational, and clinical applications, I3T focuses on the core mission of expanding our knowledge of immune regulation and developing novel disease therapies.
Theme Leadership
Orian Shirihai, MD, PhD
Metabolism Theme Chair
Dr. Orian Shirihai, MD, PhD, chair of UCLA’s Metabolism Theme, leads a large and growing group of investigators whose work explores the challenges of decoding the intricacies of human metabolism. Problems with metabolic processes can be a factor in diseases of aging, diabetes, and cancer. UCLA’s Metabolic Research Theme brings together researchers, clinicians and resources to understand how the body’s tiniest workings affect health and disease. With these efforts, researchers aim to gain greater understanding of how metabolism contributes to human disease, and how best to use that understanding to develop treatments for, and possilby cure, diseases like diabetes and cancer.
Theme Contact Information:
Phone: (310) 825-9163
Contact via email
The UCLA Metabolism Theme is an initiative that aims to facilitate campus wide interdisciplinary research in the field of metabolism involving basic, clinical and industry collaborations. The far reaching implications this work could have has the translational potential to change lives.
Theme Leadership
Larry Zipursky, PhD
Neuroscience Theme Chair
S. Lawrence Zipursky, PhD, chair of UCLA’s Neuroscience Theme, has made fundamental contributions to understanding brain development. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Theme Contact Information:
Phone: (310) 825-2834
Contact via email
The UCLA Neuroscience Theme is well-situated in both clinical and basic science departments to maximize interdisciplinary approaches to studying the brain. More than 500 neuroscience faculty reside in the clinical departments of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience or in the basic sciences in the School of Medicine, the School of Engineering, and the College. The central goals of the Neuroscience Theme are to understand how the brain develops, functions and ages, to apply this knowledge to uncovering mechanisms of brain disease and to translate findings into new and effective therapies.
Theme Leadership
Thomas A. Rando, MD, PhD
Regenerative Medicine Theme Chair
Thomas A. Rando, MD, PhD is a Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology.
Learn More >
The UCLA Regenerative Medicine Theme is committed to a multi-disciplinary, campus-wide, integrated, collaboration of scientific, academic, and medical disciplines to understand the links between human development, aging, and repair. By characterizing the natural processes of cell turnover and replacement, we can better understand resulting diseases. The Broad Stem Cell Research Center (BSCRC) serves as a catalyst for research activity in this space. Our faculty have a strong history of translational research, bringing research from the laboratory to the bedside.
