PhD

Professor of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco

Heather and Melanie Muss Endowed Chair

Head of Laboratory, Brain Tumor Research Center

Dr. Arturo Alvarez-Buylla is an internationally recognized researcher and a key scientist in neurogenesis research. After training under Dr. Nottebohm at The Rockefeller University, Alvarez-Buylla now studies adult neurogenesis in mammals.   Alvarez-Buylla performed substantial research on neuronal proliferation in the adult brain as well as comparing  adult neurogenesis to embryonic neurogenesis.   His work has also focuses on function and regulation of neural stem cells.

In the future, his work could lead to the development of stem cell therapies for neurodegenerative diseases (diseases resulting from losing neuronal structure or function, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s Disease).  As part of the Brain Tumor Research Center, Alvarez-Buylla’s lab currently focuses on studying the possible connection between adult neurogenesis and brain tumors and the potential of using neurogenesis to replace neurons in brain areas outside of the olfactory bulb.

EDUCATION:

1983 Licenciado in Biomedical Research, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
1988 PhD, The Rockefeller University

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
1995-2000 Associate Professor, Head of Laboratory, Rockefeller University
2000-present Professor of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco; Principal Investigator, Brain Tumor Research Center

AWARDS:

1992 Robert L. Sinsheimer Award in Molecular Biology
2000 Jacob Javits Award
2002 Neuronal Plasticity Prize (shared with Dr. R. McKay and Dr. S. Weiss). Fondation IPSEN, France.
2007 Catedra Ramón y Cajal, Sociedad Española de Neurología, Spain

An interview with Alvarez-Buylla : http://www.scivee.tv/node/10083

Alvarez-Buylla’s  speech at CIRM: http://www.cirm.ca.gov/Spotlight_BasicResearch_AlvarezBuylla

Acknowledgements

UCSF webpages:

http://neurosurgery.ucsf.edu/index.php/about_us_faculty_alvarez_buylla.html

http://neurosurgery.ucsf.edu/index.php/research_BTRC_alvarez-buylla.html

Photo: http://neurosurgery.ucsf.edu/tl_files/NS_Main/Faculty/Alvarez_Buylla.jpg

Page by Chelsea Michael