People

Dara Torgerson, PhD, MSc

Associate Professor
Epidemiology and Biostatistics

I co-lead the Torgerson-Hernandez Lab (THeLab) along with Dr. Ryan Hernandez at UCSF. Our group is focused on developing computational approaches to study the interplay between human evolutionary history and environmental contributions to complex disease in the context of genetic ancestry. My background is in population genetics and bioinformatics, and I have specific expertise in integrative genomic and metabolomic studies of respiratory disease in diverse human populations.

Jessie Turnbaugh, PhD

Director, Gnotobiotics
Hooper Foundation

Peter Turnbaugh, PhD

Professor
Microbiology and Immunology

I lead an interdisciplinary group of microbiome researchers committed to understanding host-associated microbes, reducing these complex microbial ecologies to molecular mechanism, and applying these lessons to improve the practice of medicine. Our three major topics of interest right now are pharmacology, nutrition, and phage biology. While we love sequencing and gnotobiotic mice, our work is question-driven not limited to a specific approach.

Vaibhav Upadhyay, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor
Medicine

I'm a K08 funded physician scientist studying impact of gut microorganisms on human health and applying multi-omic technologies to the study of chronic diseases with clinical focus in pulmonary medicine.

Martin Valdearcos, PhD

Assistant Professor
Diabetes Center

Microglia are emerging as critical regulators of brain homeostasis with an expanding array of functions beyond their established roles as immune sentinels such as synaptic remodeling, neuronal excitability, and myelin plasticity. These highly dynamic cells continuously monitor their microenvironment for alterations, and distinct populations and activation states have been identified based on brain anatomical location, sex, and age.

Erin Van Blarigan, ScD

Associate Professor
Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Archana Venkataraman, PhD

Postdoc
Cellular Molecular Pharmacology

Alan Venook, MD

Professor of Clinical Medicine
Medicine

Dr. Venook is a Medical Oncologist with expertise in Gastrointestinal cancers. He leads that program in the UCSF
Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. The program boasts a robust clinical trials portfolio primarily for patients in need of new options.

Sofia Verstraete, MD

Associate Professor
Pediatrics

Alessandro Villa, DDS, MPH, PhD

Associate Professor
Orofacial Sciences

Slavena Vylkova, PhD

Scientific Communications Manager
Medicine

Dr. Slavena Vylkova manages the scientific communications for the Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine (BCMM). Her responsibilities include assisting with pre-award research funding operations, scientific writing/editing and project development.

Robert Wachter, MD

PROFESSOR AND CHAIR
Medicine

Robert M. Wachter, MD is Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). In 2022, the Department was ranked the best internal medicine department in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Wachter is author of 300 articles and 6 books. He coined the term “hospitalist” in 1996 and is often considered the “father” of the hospitalist field, the fastest growing medical specialty in the U.S. history. He is past president of the Society of Hospital Medicine and past chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

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