Richard Schneider, PhD
Professor
Orthopaedic Surgery
School of Medicine

Both of his graduate thesis projects focused on skeletal development and evolution in birds and mammals. Rich also studied embryology at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, and at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, NY. For his Postdoctoral work at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), Rich investigated molecular mechanisms that pattern the craniofacial skeleton. In 2001, Rich joined the faculty of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCSF and he is currently Director of the Laboratory for Developmental and Evolutionary Skeletal Biology. He was a founder and a Director of the Graduate Program in Developmental & Stem Cell Biology (DSCB) at UCSF from 2009 to 2013, and he also served as a Director of the Embryology Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA from 2015 to 2019.

Rich's research has been focused on understanding how individual components of the craniofacial complex achieve their proper size, shape, and functional integration during development and evolution. To address this question, Rich has created a surgical transplantation system that involves two distinct species of birds (quail and duck), which differ considerably in their growth rates and anatomy. The experimental approach involves exchanging stem cells that give rise to craniofacial structures between quail and duck embryos. This causes faster developing quail cells and relatively slower maturing duck cells to interact with one another continuously within chimeric "quck" and "duail" embryos. Also, chimeras are challenged to integrate species-specific differences in size and shape between the donor and host. By looking for donor-induced changes to the formation of bone, cartilage, muscle, tendon, nerves, and other tissues, Rich has been able to identify molecular and cellular mechanisms that pattern the craniofacial complex. A goal is to devise novel therapies for regenerating tissues affected by birth defects, disease, and trauma. Rich's work has also helped elucidate the role of development in evolution.

For over 20 years, Rich has been vigorously engaged in issues related to scholarly communication, academic publishing, and open access (OA). He has spent multiple terms serving as Chair of both the UCSF and the UC System-wide Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication (UCOLASC) of the Academic Senate, and he led the effort to create and unanimously pass an OA Policy for UCSF faculty in 2012. In addition, he helped draft a UC System-wide OA Policy in 2013 and a Presidential OA Policy in 2015. Rich also spearheaded the effort by UCSF to become a signatory to the OA2020 initiative, and he galvanized the Academic Senate to endorse a "Declaration of Rights and Principles to Transform Scholarly Communication," which he devised as Chair of UCOLASC in order to make scholarly communication more open, fair, transparent, and sustainable when applied by UC during license negotiations with journal publishers. Most recently, Rich has been serving on the UC team that is negotiating transformative open access agreements with publishers and he has been deeply involved in outreach to faculty.

• Stable integration of an optimized inducible promoter system enables spatiotemporal control of gene expression throughout avian development.
  Biology open 2020 Chu D, Nguyen A, Smith SS, Vavrušová Z, Schneider RA
• Morphological diversity of integumentary traits in fowl domestication: Insights from disparity analysis and embryonic development.
  Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists 2019 Núñez-León D, Aguirre-Fernández G, Steiner A, Nagashima H, Jensen P, Stoeckli E, Schneider RA, Sánchez-Villagra MR
• Molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the evolution of form and function in the amniote jaw.
  EvoDevo 2019 Woronowicz KC, Schneider RA
• Negotiating with scholarly journal publishers: A toolkit from the University of California
  Negotiating with scholarly journal publishers: A toolkit from the University of California 2019 Anderson I, MacKie-Mason J, Amin K, Antelman K, Grandstaff T, Houghton S, Nusbaum J, Ong N, Schneider R, Setzer D, Steel V, Waibel G, Watters Westbrook D, Willmott M
• The Society for Craniofacial Genetics and Developmental Biology 41st Annual Meeting.
  American journal of medical genetics. Part A 2019 Taneyhill LA, Moody SA, Cox T, Klein OD, Marcucio R, Schneider RA, Trainor PA
• Cellular Control of Time, Size, and Shape in Development and Evolution.
  Cells in Evolutionary Biology 2018 Richard A. Schneider
• Cells in Evolutionary Biology: Translating Genotypes into Phenotypes – Past, Present, Future (Hall, BK and Moody, S, editors)
  Cellular Control of Time, Size, and Shape in Development and Evolution 2018 Schneider, RA
• Neural crest and the origin of species-specific pattern.
  Genesis (New York, N.Y. : 2000) 2018 Schneider RA
• FGF and TGFβ signaling link form and function during jaw development and evolution.
  Developmental biology 2018 Woronowicz KC, Gline SE, Herfat ST, Fields AJ, Schneider RA
• What’s behind OA2020? Accelerating the transition to open access with introspection and repurposing funds.
  College & Research Libraries News 2018 Rachael Samberg, Richard A. Schneider, Anneliese Taylor, Michael Wolfe
• It's time for the US to get serious about funding open access
  Nature Index 2018 Samberg R, Schneider RA, Taylor, A, Wolfe, M
• The London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Impact Blog
  A variety of strategies and funding approaches are required to accelerate the transition to open access 2018 Samberg R, Schneider RA, Anderson I, MacKie-Mason J
• Engineered Tissue Folding by Mechanical Compaction of the Mesenchyme.
  Developmental cell 2017 Hughes AJ, Miyazaki H, Coyle MC, Zhang J, Laurie MT, Chu D, Vavrušová Z, Schneider RA, Klein OD, Gartner ZJ
• The Domestic Dog, J Serpell (Editor)
  Evolution of working dogs 2017 Lord, K, Schneider, RA, Coppinger, RP
• The taming of the neural crest: a developmental perspective on the origins of morphological covariation in domesticated mammals.
  Royal Society open science 2016 Sánchez-Villagra MR, Geiger M, Schneider RA
• Secondary Chondrogenesis on The Coronoid Process of The Mandible Requires Both FGF And TGFß Signaling.
  The FASEB Journal 2016 Katherine C Woronowicz, Danielle Z Jaul, Safa T Herfat, Aaron J Fields, Jeffrey C Lotz, Richard A Schneider
• Neural crest-mediated bone resorption is a determinant of species-specific jaw length.
  Developmental biology 2015 Ealba EL, Jheon AH, Hall J, Curantz C, Butcher KD, Schneider RA
• Regulation of Jaw Length During Development, Disease, and Evolution.
  Current topics in developmental biology 2015 Schneider RA
• miR-302 Is Required for Timing of Neural Differentiation, Neural Tube Closure, and Embryonic Viability.
  Cell reports 2015 Parchem RJ, Moore N, Fish JL, Parchem JG, Braga TT, Shenoy A, Oldham MC, Rubenstein JL, Schneider RA, Blelloch R
• Divergence of craniofacial developmental trajectories among avian embryos.
  Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists 2015 Smith FJ, Percival CJ, Young NM, Hu D, Schneider RA, Marcucio RS, Hallgrimsson B
• Assessing species-specific contributions to craniofacial development using quail-duck chimeras.
  Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE 2014 Fish JL, Schneider RA
• Embryonic bauplans and the developmental origins of facial diversity and constraint.
  Development (Cambridge, England) 2014 Young NM, Hu D, Lainoff AJ, Smith FJ, Diaz R, Tucker AS, Trainor PA, Schneider RA, Hallgrímsson B, Marcucio RS
• Multiple developmental mechanisms regulate species-specific jaw size.
  Development (Cambridge, England) 2014 Fish JL, Sklar RS, Woronowicz KC, Schneider RA
• Neural Crest Cells: Evolution, Development and Disease. P. Trainor (editor)
  Neural Crest-Mediated Tissue Interactions During Craniofacial Development: The Origins of Species-Specific Pattern 2014 Fish J, Schneider RA
• Evolution of a developmental mechanism: Species-specific regulation of the cell cycle and the timing of events during craniofacial osteogenesis.
  Developmental biology 2013 Hall J, Jheon AH, Ealba EL, Eames BF, Butcher KD, Mak SS, Ladher R, Alliston T, Schneider RA
• A simple PCR-based strategy for estimating species-specific contributions in chimeras and xenografts.
  Development (Cambridge, England) 2013 Ealba EL, Schneider RA
• Smad3 binds Scleraxis and Mohawk and regulates tendon matrix organization.
  Journal of orthopaedic research : official publication of the Orthopaedic Research Society 2013 Berthet E, Chen C, Butcher K, Schneider RA, Alliston T, Amirtharajah M
• Reshaping Scholarly Communication: Why Faculty are Adopting Institutional Open-Access Policies
  Science Editor 2013 Schneider RA
• Molecular and cellular changes associated with the evolution of novel jaw muscles in parrots.
  Proceedings. Biological sciences 2012 Tokita M, Nakayama T, Schneider RA, Agata K
• Structured bilaminar coculture outperforms stem cells and disc cells in a simulated degenerate disc environment.
  Spine 2012 Allon AA, Butcher K, Schneider RA, Lotz JC
• Structured coculture of mesenchymal stem cells and disc cells enhances differentiation and proliferation.
  Cells, tissues, organs 2012 Allon AA, Butcher K, Schneider RA, Lotz JC
• Structured three-dimensional co-culture of mesenchymal stem cells with chondrocytes promotes chondrogenic differentiation without hypertrophy.
  Osteoarthritis and cartilage 2011 Cooke ME, Allon AA, Cheng T, Kuo AC, Kim HT, Vail TP, Marcucio RS, Schneider RA, Lotz JC, Alliston T
• Timing of ossification in duck, quail, and zebra finch: intraspecific variation, heterochronies, and life history evolution.
  Zoological science 2011 Mitgutsch C, Wimmer C, Sánchez-Villagra MR, Hahnloser R, Schneider RA
• Mesenchymal and mechanical mechanisms of secondary cartilage induction.
  Developmental biology 2011 Solem RC, Eames BF, Tokita M, Schneider RA
• NBCe1 in mouse and human ameloblasts may be indirectly regulated by fluoride.
  Journal of dental research 2011 Zheng L, Zhang Y, He P, Kim J, Schneider R, Bronckers AL, Lyaruu DM, DenBesten PK
• Examination of Bone Ossification Markers in Cochlear Development.
  The Laryngoscope 2011 Jolie Chang, Kristin Butcher, Omar Akil, Rich Schneider, Lawrence Lustig, Tamara Alliston
• Tissue-specific calibration of extracellular matrix material properties by transforming growth factor-β and Runx2 in bone is required for hearing.
  EMBO reports 2010 Chang JL, Brauer DS, Johnson J, Chen CG, Akil O, Balooch G, Humphrey MB, Chin EN, Porter AE, Butcher K, Ritchie RO, Schneider RA, Lalwani A, Derynck R, Marshall GW, Marshall SJ, Lustig L, Alliston T
• Ameloblast differentiation in the human developing tooth: effects of extracellular matrices.
  Matrix biology : journal of the International Society for Matrix Biology 2010 He P, Zhang Y, Kim SO, Radlanski RJ, Butcher K, Schneider RA, DenBesten PK
• Mesenchymal regulation of mineralization and bone mineral density in the jaw skeleton.
  Developmental Biology 2009 Jane A. Yu, A.H. Jheon, B.F. Eames, R.A. Schneider
• Co-culture of Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Nucleus Pulposus Cells in Bilaminar Pellets for Intervertebral Disc Regeneration.
  The International Journal of Spine Surgery 2009 Aliza A. Allon, Richard A. Schneider, Jeffrey C. Lotz
• Developmental origins of species-specific muscle pattern.
  Developmental biology 2009 Tokita M, Schneider RA
• The cells that fill the bill: neural crest and the evolution of craniofacial development.
  Journal of dental research 2009 Jheon AH, Schneider RA
• The genesis of cartilage size and shape during development and evolution.
  Development (Cambridge, England) 2008 Eames BF, Schneider RA
• Mesenchyme-dependent BMP signaling directs the timing of mandibular osteogenesis.
  Development (Cambridge, England) 2008 Merrill AE, Eames BF, Weston SJ, Heath T, Schneider RA
• Other chimeras: quail-duck and mouse-chick.
  Methods in cell biology 2008 Lwigale PY, Schneider RA
• The TGF-β Family. Derynck and Miyazono (Editors)
  Chapter 21: TGF-β family signalling in mesenchymal differentiation 2008 Derynck R, Piek E, Schneider RA, Choy L, Alliston T
• Skeletogenesis in the swell shark Cephaloscyllium ventriosum.
  Journal of anatomy 2007 Eames BF, Allen N, Young J, Kaplan A, Helms JA, Schneider RA
• How to tweak a beak: molecular techniques for studying the evolution of size and shape in Darwin's finches and other birds.
  BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology 2007 Schneider RA
• Amelogenins in human developing and mature dental pulp.
  Journal of dental research 2006 Ye L, Le TQ, Zhu L, Butcher K, Schneider RA, Li W, Besten PK
• BMP signaling and the temporal control of mandibular osteogenesis.
  Developmental Biology 2006 Amy E. Merrill, Brian F. Eames, Scott J. Weston, Thayer Heath, Richard A. Schneider
• Patterns of infantile hemangiomas: new clues to hemangioma pathogenesis and embryonic facial development.
  Pediatrics 2006 Haggstrom AN, Lammer EJ, Schneider RA, Marcucio R, Frieden IJ
• Neural crest cells and the community of plan for craniofacial development: historical debates and current perspectives.
  Advances in experimental medicine and biology 2006 Noden DM, Schneider RA
• Developmental mechanisms facilitating the evolution of bills and quills.
  Journal of anatomy 2005 Schneider RA
• Quail-duck chimeras reveal spatiotemporal plasticity in molecular and histogenic programs of cranial feather development.
  Development (Cambridge, England) 2005 Eames BF, Schneider RA
• Bone Regeneration and Repair: Biology and Clinical Applications. Lieberman and Friedlaender (Editors)
  Common molecular mechanisms regulating fetal bone formation and adult fracture repair 2005 Miclau T, Schneider RA, Eames BF, Helms JA
• Bone remodeling during prenatal morphogenesis of the human mental foramen.
  European journal of oral sciences 2004 Radlanski RJ, Renz H, Lajvardi S, Schneider RA
• Cranial skeletal biology.
  Nature 2003 Helms JA, Schneider RA
• The cellular and molecular origins of beak morphology.
  Science (New York, N.Y.) 2003 Schneider RA, Helms JA
• Eur J Oral Sci
  Prenatal morphogenesis of the human mental foramen. 2002 Radlanski RJ, Renz H, Müller U, Schneider RA, Marcucio RS, Helms JA.
• The LIM-only protein FHL2 interacts with beta-catenin and promotes differentiation of mouse myoblasts.
  The Journal of cell biology 2002 Martin B, Schneider R, Janetzky S, Waibler Z, Pandur P, Kühl M, Behrens J, von der Mark K, Starzinski-Powitz A, Wixler V
• Orthopaedics. Fitzgerald, Kaufer, and Malkani (Editors)
  Embryology of Bone 2002 Schneider RA, Miclau T, Helms JA
• Local retinoid signaling coordinates forebrain and facial morphogenesis by maintaining FGF8 and SHH.
  Development (Cambridge, England) 2001 Schneider RA, Hu D, Rubenstein JL, Maden M, Helms JA
• Craniofacial Surgery: Science and Surgical Technique. Lin, Ogle, and Jane (Editors)
  Morphogenesis of the Face 2001 Cordero D, Schneider RA, Helms JA
• Genetic and teratogenic approaches to craniofacial development.
  Critical reviews in oral biology and medicine : an official publication of the American Association of Oral Biologists 2000 Young DL, Schneider RA, Hu D, Helms JA
• Neural crest can form cartilages normally derived from mesoderm during development of the avian head skeleton.
  Developmental biology 1999 Schneider RA
• From head to toe: conservation of molecular signals regulating limb and craniofacial morphogenesis.
  Cell and tissue research 1999 Schneider RA, Hu D, Helms JA
• Development and regeneration of the musculoskeletal system.
  Current Orthopaedic Practice 1998 Richard A. Schneider, Jill A. Helms
• Have gene knockouts caused evolutionary reversals in the mammalian first arch?
  BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology 1998 Smith KK, Schneider RA
• The Domestic Dog. Serpell J (Editor)
  Evolution of working dogs 1995 Coppinger RP, Schneider RA