Alexander Marson

Dr. Marson’s research goal is to understand the genetic circuits that control human immune cell function. Dr. Marson and colleagues have developed new tools to accomplish efficient genome engineering in primary human immune cells with CRISPR. With this technology scientists can now readily re-write specific sequences in human cells and interrogate the biological effects. These advances in genome editing will accelerate fundamental insights into how immune cells are "wired" and have potential to enhance the next generation of cell-based immunotherapies for cancer, infectious diseases, organ transplantation and autoimmune diseases.

Dr. Marson completed his MD/PhD training at Harvard/MIT, Internal Medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s and Infectious Diseases fellowship at UCSF. Alex was a UCSF Sandler Faculty Fellow from 2013-2016. He is now a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, with joint appointments in the Department of Medicine and the UCSF Diabetes Center. He is also the Scientific Director of Biomedicine at the Innovative Genomics Institute and a member of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Marson has been recognized with the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) Young Physician-Scientist Award, the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation Career Award for Medical Scientists, and the NIDA/NIH Avenir New Innovator Award. He was recently named one of the inaugural Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigators. He is also a member of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy