Dr. Siavash Kurdistani, associate director of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center's Gene Regulation Program, has been appointed chair of the UCLA Department of Biological Chemistry, beginning July 1.
As part of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the Department of Biological Chemistry focuses on doing research in diverse fields such as stem cell biology, development, gene regulation, cell signaling, cancer biology, neurobiology, genetic variation and disease.
Dr. Kurdistani’s laboratory addresses the function of histone post-translational modifications in regulating gene expression. Several of his discoveries have changed the way we view the role of epigenetics in normal and cancer cells. His work has been recognized with an HHMI Early Career Award and the NIH Director’s Innovator Award. Kurdistani has received funding from the National Cancer Institute, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the American Cancer Society.
Nationally, he has served on multiple NIH study sections and scientific advisory boards and as external consultant to the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation and the City of Hope Cancer Center.
Kurdistani received a B.S. degree in biochemistry at UCLA, where he studied in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Donald J. Cram in the Department of Chemistry. After receiving his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, he returned to UCLA for a short residency in pathology and a postdoctoral fellowship in chromatin biology with Professor Michael Grunstein in the Department of Biological Chemistry. He joined the UCLA faculty in 2004 and became a full professor in 2014.
