Alexander Marson, MD, PhD
Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

415-502-2611

Our lab's goal is to understand the genetic circuits that control human immune cell function in health and disease. We have begun to identify how genetic risk variants for autoimmune diseases disrupt immune cell circuits (Farh and Marson et al., Nature 2015; Simeonov et al., Nature, 2017), and how pathogenic circuits may be targeted with novel therapeutics (Xiao et al., Immunity 2014).

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My lab has developed new tools for efficient CRISPR genome engineering in primary human T cells (Schumann et al., PNAS 2015; Roth et al., Nature 2018; Nguyen et al. Nature Biotech 2020). Now we are pursuing a comprehensive strategy to test how coding and non-coding genetic variation control essential programs in the human immune system (Simeonov et al. Nature, 2017; Shifrut et al., Cell 2018; Roth et al., Cell 2020; Cortez et al., Nature 2020; Schumann et al., Nature Immunology 2020). Genome engineered human T cells hold great potential for the next generation of cell-based therapies for cancer, autoimmunity and infectious diseases.

Awards

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  • Elected Member of Association of American Physicians (AAP), 2022
  • CRI Lloyd J. Old STAR Career Award, 2019
  • Elected Member of American Society of Clinical Investigators (ASCI), 2019
  • Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator, 2017
  • American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) Young Physician-Scientist Award, 2016
  • Burroughs Wellcome Foundation Career Award for Medical Scientists, 2016
  • NIDA/NIH Avenir New Innovator Award, 2016
  • Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Project Member, 2016

Education & Training

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  • M.D. Medicine Harvard Medical School 2010
  • Ph.D. Biology Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 2008
  • M.Phil Biological Sciences University of Cambridge 2003
  • A.B. Biology Harvard College 2001

Websites

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Grants and Projects

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Publications (100)

Top publication keywords:
RibonucleoproteinsT-LymphocytesCell- and Tissue-Based Therapyras GTPase-Activating ProteinsGene Regulatory NetworksGene EditingReceptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-deltaGenes, RegulatorInterleukin-2Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha SubunitClustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic RepeatsCRISPR-Cas SystemsAutoimmunityT-Lymphocytes, RegulatoryLymphocyte Activation

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