Ophir Klein, PhD, MD

Professor
Orofacial Sciences
+1 415 502-2517
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Ophir Klein is Professor of Orofacial Sciences and Pediatrics, the Larry L. Hillblom Distinguished Professor in Craniofacial Anomalies, and the Charles J. Epstein Professor of Human Genetics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He serves as Chief of the Division of Medical Genetics, Chair of the Division of Craniofacial Anomalies, Interim Director of the Institute for Human Genetics, and Director of the Program in Craniofacial Biology.
The Klein laboratory focuses on understanding how organs form in developing embryos and how they regenerate in adults. When developmental and regenerative processes go awry, then birth defects, cancer and other diseases can result. The group's research is centered on understanding how development and regeneration normally occur in the hope of one day treating diseases that result from abnormalities in these processes.
A central focus in the lab is craniofacial and dental development, as malformations in these organs are among the most common congenital abnormalities and have profound impacts on the lives of patients and their families. The maintenance, repair and growth of many adult organs, such as the bone marrow, skin, brain, and gastrointestinal tract, depend on tissue-specific populations of stem cells. The lab uses the rodent incisor, which grows continuously throughout the life of the animal, as a model system to understand adult stem cells. We intend to use the insights provided by our experiments in mice to guide us in the use of stem cells in regenerating dental and craniofacial tissues as a paradigm for developing replacement organs.
Another major area of study is regeneration of the gastrointestinal tract. The amazing ability of the mammalian gastrointestinal epithelium to renew has long fascinated biologists. Our research aims to address fundamental questions in this field, including the identity, regulation and plasticity of intestinal stem cells.
Finally, the laboratory is interested in how positive and negative modulators of signaling affect development, homeostasis and cancer. We are studying the roles of these molecules in the patterning and outgrowth of teeth, taste papillae, the oral mucosa, and other tissues and organs.

Publications

NOTCH3 drives meningioma tumorigenesis and resistance to radiotherapy.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology

Choudhury A, Cady MA, Lucas CG, Najem H, Phillips JJ, Palikuqi B, Zakimi N, Joseph T, Birrueta JO, Chen WC, Bush NAO, Hervey-Jumper SL, Klein OD, Toedebusch CM, Horbinski CM, Magill ST, Bhaduri A, Perry A, Dickinson PJ, Heimberger AB, Ashworth A, Crouch EE, Raleigh DR

Author Correction: MusMorph, a database of standardized mouse morphology data for morphometric meta-analyses.

Scientific data

Devine J, Vidal-García M, Liu W, Neves A, Lo Vercio LD, Green RM, Richbourg HA, Marchini M, Unger CM, Nickle AC, Radford B, Young NM, Gonzalez PN, Schuler RE, Bugacov A, Rolian C, Percival CJ, Williams T, Niswander L, Calof AL, Lander AD, Visel A, Jirik FR, Cheverud JM, Klein OD, Birnbaum RY, Merrill AE, Ackermann RR, Graf D, Hemberger M, Dean W, Forkert ND, Murray SA, Westerberg H, Marcucio RS, Hallgrímsson B

MusMorph, a database of standardized mouse morphology data for morphometric meta-analyses.

Scientific data

Devine J, Vidal-García M, Liu W, Neves A, Lo Vercio LD, Green RM, Richbourg HA, Marchini M, Unger CM, Nickle AC, Radford B, Young NM, Gonzalez PN, Schuler RE, Bugacov A, Rolian C, Percival CJ, Williams T, Niswander L, Calof AL, Lander AD, Visel A, Jirik FR, Cheverud JM, Klein OD, Birnbaum RY, Merrill AE, Ackermann RR, Graf D, Hemberger M, Dean W, Forkert ND, Murray SA, Westerberg H, Marcucio RS, Hallgrímsson B

FaceBase 3: analytical tools and FAIR resources for craniofacial and dental research.

Development (Cambridge, England)

Samuels BD, Aho R, Brinkley JF, Bugacov A, Feingold E, Fisher S, Gonzalez-Reiche AS, Hacia JG, Hallgrimsson B, Hansen K, Harris MP, Ho TV, Holmes G, Hooper JE, Jabs EW, Jones KL, Kesselman C, Klein OD, Leslie EJ, Li H, Liao EC, Long H, Lu N, Maas RL, Marazita ML, Mohammed J, Prescott S, Schuler R, Selleri L, Spritz RA, Swigut T, van Bakel H, Visel A, Welsh I, Williams C, Williams TJ, Wysocka J, Yuan Y, Chai Y

Automated syndrome diagnosis by three-dimensional facial imaging.

Genetics in medicine : official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics

Hallgrímsson B, Aponte JD, Katz DC, Bannister JJ, Riccardi SL, Mahasuwan N, McInnes BL, Ferrara TM, Lipman DM, Neves AB, Spitzmacher JAJ, Larson JR, Bellus GA, Pham AM, Aboujaoude E, Benke TA, Chatfield KC, Davis SM, Elias ER, Enzenauer RW, French BM, Pickler LL, Shieh JTC, Slavotinek A, Harrop AR, Innes AM, McCandless SE, McCourt EA, Meeks NJL, Tartaglia NR, Tsai AC, Wyse JPH, Bernstein JA, Sanchez-Lara PA, Forkert ND, Bernier FP, Spritz RA, Klein OD

An integrated clinical program and crowdsourcing strategy for genomic sequencing and Mendelian disease gene discovery.

NPJ genomic medicine

Haghighi A, Krier JB, Toth-Petroczy A, Cassa CA, Frank NY, Carmichael N, Fieg E, Bjonnes A, Mohanty A, Briere LC, Lincoln S, Lucia S, Gupta VA, Söylemez O, Sutti S, Kooshesh K, Qiu H, Fay CJ, Perroni V, Valerius J, Hanna M, Frank A, Ouahed J, Snapper SB, Pantazi A, Chopra SS, Leshchiner I, Stitziel NO, Feldweg A, Mannstadt M, Loscalzo J, Sweetser DA, Liao E, Stoler JM, Nowak CB, Sanchez-Lara PA, Klein OD, Perry H, Patsopoulos NA, Raychaudhuri S, Goessling W, Green RC, Seidman CE, MacRae CA, Sunyaev SR, Maas RL, Vuzman D, Undiagnosed Diseases Network, Brigham and Women’s Hospital FaceBase Project, Brigham Genomic Medicin

Body size and allometric variation in facial shape in children.

American journal of physical anthropology

Larson JR, Manyama MF, Cole JB, Gonzalez PN, Percival CJ, Liberton DK, Ferrara TM, Riccardi SL, Kimwaga EA, Mathayo J, Spitzmacher JA, Rolian C, Jamniczky HA, Weinberg SM, Roseman CC, Klein O, Lukowiak K, Spritz RA, Hallgrimsson B

JCI insight

Dual epithelial and immune cell function of Dvl1 regulates gut mircobiota composition and intestinal homeostasis.

Belinson H, Savage AK, Fadrosh D, Kuo YM, Lin D, Valladares R, Nusse Y, Wynshaw-Boris A, Lynch SV, Locksley RM, Klein OD.

A genome-wide association study identifies susceptibility loci for nonsyndromic sagittal craniosynostosis near BMP2 and within BBS9.

Nature genetics

Justice CM, Yagnik G, Kim Y, Peter I, Jabs EW, Erazo M, Ye X, Ainehsazan E, Shi L, Cunningham ML, Kimonis V, Roscioli T, Wall SA, Wilkie AO, Stoler J, Richtsmeier JT, Heuzé Y, Sanchez-Lara PA, Buckley MF, Druschel CM, Mills JL, Caggana M, Romitti PA, Kay DM, Senders C, Taub PJ, Klein OD, Boggan J, Zwienenberg-Lee M, Naydenov C, Kim J, Wilson AF, Boyadjiev SA

Genotype-phenotype analysis of the branchio-oculo-facial syndrome.

American journal of medical genetics. Part A

Milunsky JM, Maher TM, Zhao G, Wang Z, Mulliken JB, Chitayat D, Clemens M, Stalker HJ, Bauer M, Burch M, Chénier S, Cunningham ML, Drack AV, Janssens S, Karlea A, Klatt R, Kini U, Klein O, Lachmeijer AM, Megarbane A, Mendelsohn NJ, Meschino WS, Mortier GR, Parkash S, Ray CR, Roberts A, Roberts A, Reardon W, Schnur RE, Smith R, Splitt M, Tezcan K, Whiteford ML, Wong DA, Zori R, Lin AE