Founder
Esteban Burchard, MD, MPH
Principal Investigator, Retired
He championed complex gene-environment interactions in health, disease, and drug response; identifying risk factors for asthma in ethnically diverse populations, including social, environmental, and genetic factors that contribute to health disparities
Assistant Professors
| Who, Years Mentored | Now | Main Research |
| Marquitta White (2019-2020) | Program Officer in the Division of Lung Disease at NHLBI | Asthma pharmacogenetics |
| Neeta Thakur (2011–2017) | Assistant Professor, UCSF | Defining mechanisms of social and environmental stressors in asthma, health disparities in asthma, pulmonary diseases, development of targeted interventions to address social determinants of asthma |
| Joshua Galanter (2007–2016) | Senior Safety Scientist, Genentech | Pulmonary diseases and clinical pharmacology, genetic and environmental determinants of asthma in minority populations |
| Dara Torgerson (2011–2013) | Assistant Professor, McGill University | Analytical strategies for identifying genetic contributions to complex disease in diverse populations, molecular evolution, statistical genetics, applied population genetics |
UCSF clinical research post-doctoral fellows
| Who, Years Mentored | Now | Main Research |
| Ty Elliot (2018-2019) | Physician, UCSF | Gene-environment interactions and epigenetic factors in the development of asthma, pulmonary function testing in admixed populations, and health disparities research |
| Harriet Corvol (2007–2008) | Assistant Professor, Pediatric Pulmonology and Critical Care, Hôpital Trousseau, Paris, France | asthma pharmacogenetics |
| Shannon Thyne (2002–2007) | Professor, Pediatrics, UCSF | clinical asthma research |
| Yuhjung J. Tsai (2005–2006) | Physician, Johns Hopkins Medical Center | genetics, admixture, and asthma |
UCSF PhD research post-doctoral fellows
| Who, Years Mentored | Now | Main Research |
| Chih-hao (James) Chang (2021-2023) | UCSF Department of Medicine Postdoctoral Scholar | Molecular and genetic epidemiology, next-generation sequencing analysis of complex traits, precision genomic medicine |
| Marquitta White (2014-2020) | Program Officer in the Division of Lung Disease at NHLBI | Asthma Pharmacogenetics |
| Kevin Keys (2016-2020) | Senior Scientist, Ambys Medicines | Ancestry and Gene Expression |
| Angel Mak (2015-2021) | Senior Scientist, Bioinformatics, CytomX Therapeutics | Asthma Pharmacogenetics |
| Lesly Samedy Bates (2017-2020) | NIH/NICHD-Program officer and Children's National Hospital Clinical Pharmacist | Racial Differences in Drug Response |
| Maria Pino-Yanes (2012–2014) | Assistant Professor, University of La Laguna, Tenerife | Genetic basis of asthma and related phenotypes, admixture mapping, genome-wide association studies, identification of new genes associated with asthma and IgE levels in Latinos |
| Meghan McGarry (2012–2015) | Postdoctoral Fellow, UCSF Pediatrics | Clinical differences in drug response affecting asthma control and exacerbations among urban minority youths, health disparities in asthma, pediatric pulmonary diseases, drug response in cystic fibrosis patients |
| Nicolas E. Barcelo (2014) | resident in psychiatry, UCLA | Social stress, discrimination, violence, and asthma; obesity and inflammation; mental health; race disparities in health; humanities in medicine. |
| Melinda Aldrich (2007–2010) | Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University | genetic admixture and lung function in African Americans |
| Marc Via (2007–2010) | Assistant Professor, University of Barcelona | genetics, admixture, and asthma |
| Shweta Choudhry (2003–2009) | Assistant Professor, UCSF | genetics, admixture, and asthma |
| Clarence Gillett (2006–2008) | Research Scientist, DOW Chemical | genetics, admixture, and asthma |
| Hui Ju Tsai (2003–2006) | Assistant Professor, Northwestern University | genetics, admixture, and asthma |
| Natasha Coyle (2003–2004) | Research Scientist, Applied Bio Systems | genetics, admixture, and asthma |
Graduate students
| Who, Years Mentored | Now | Main Research |
| Andreas Neophytou (2015–2017) | Postdoctoral, fellow | Environmental and genetic risk factors for common chronic diseases, effects of air pollution exposures on childhood asthma |
| Sonia Carlson (2015) | Medical Resident, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine | Social and environmental stress, biomarkers of inflammation, and asthma; health disparities in asthma |
| Melissa Spear (2012–2014) | PhD Student, Biomedical Sciences | Genetics of complex traits, genome-wide association studies, pharmacogenetics, statistical genetics, population genetics, admixture mapping |
| Smriti Singh (2014) | Medical Student | Socioeconomic, genetic, and environmental factors of health influencing asthma outcomes in minority populations; increasing access to healthcare for underrepresented populations in urban areas; health economics |
| Katherine Nishimura (2011–2014) | Senior Biostatistician at Cancer Research and Biostatistics | Environmental and genetic risk factors for common chronic diseases, effects of air pollution exposures on childhood asthma |
| Christopher Gignoux (2008–2013) | Associate Professor, University of Colorado Denver | population genetics |
| Katherine Drake (2006–2012) | in industry | genetics, admixture, and asthma |
| Max Seibold (2004–2008) | Associate Professor, NJH | genetics of lung disease |
| Anthony De Giacomo (2006–2008) | Orthopedic Surgery, Boston University | genetics, admixture, and asthma |
| Ronnie Sebro (2005–2008) | Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania | genetics, admixture, and asthma |
Undergraduate students
| Who, Years Mentored | Now | Main Research |
| Priscilla Zhang (2020-2022) | Clinical Research Coordinator, UCSF | Molecular and genetic epidemiology, genetic and epigenetic factors in the development of different forms of asthma, epigenetic effects on mother and infant from maternal stressors during pregnancy |
| Brian Plotkin (2018-2019) | Undergraduate, Case Western Reserve University | Asthma and viral-infections in admixed populations |
| Annie Li (2017-2019) | Undergraduate, University of Michigan | Asthma in admixed populations; drug response; gene-gene interactions, and genetic variant associations |
| Andy Zeiger (2016-2019) | Medical Student, Thomas Jefferson University | Gene-environment interactions, population genetics, health disparities in clinical research, genetic determinants of telomere length |
| Oona Risse-Adams (2016-2018) | Undergraduate, UC Santa Cruz | Asthma in admixed populations; drug response; gene-gene interactions, and genetic variant associations |
| Pagé Goddard (2015–2018) | Graduate student, Stanford University | Genetics of complex traits, asthma and drug response in admixed populations, differential gene expression and genetic variant associations |
| Elizabeth Castellanos (2010–2014) | Medical Student, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine | social and environmental determinants of asthma in minority youth, clinical recruitment |
| Natalie Battle (2004–2006) | Physician, Washington University | asthma pharmacogenetics |
| Vanessa Aguilera (2009) | Director of Enterprise Operations, Semler Scientific, Inc | genetics, admixture, and asthma |
| Mariam Naqvi (2004–2006) | Ob-gyn Physician, Stanford University | asthma pharmacogenetics |
| Keyan Salari (2003–2005) | Urology Physician, Stanford | genetics, admixture, and asthma |
| Stacy Ly (2001–2003) | Physician, Davis, California | genetics, admixture, and asthma |
Staff
| Who, Years Mentored | Now |
| Leandro Guerrero (2016) | Hitachi Chemical Advanced Therapeutics Solutions, LLC |
| Joan Balayan (2012–2015) | Pharmacy Student, UCSD |
| Lisa Caine, RT (2006–2015) | Respiratory Therapist, Study Coordinator, Kaiser |
| Sandra Salazar (2009-2022) | Grant Specialist, UCSF |