Research Summary

I am an Associate Professor in the UCSF Department of Microbiology & Immunology, and a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar. My laboratory in the Sandler Asthma Basic Research Center at the UCSF Parnassus campus studies the molecular basis of immune cell programming, with a particular focus on post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in T cells. My laboratory is part of the Sandler Asthma Basic Research Center (SABRe), an investigative unit dedicated to basic discovery in asthma research. The SABRe Center’s advanced technology cores and connections with clinical research centers create an advantageous environment for marrying basic discoveries and technological innovation in RNA biology with translational approaches to apply fundamental research to advance the prevention and treatment of human disease. Our connections with other HDFCCC investigators have led to synergistic collaborations and joint funding to investigate miRNA homeostasis and function in cancer and immunity.

Research Funding

Education

Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA), B.S., 1992-1996, Biochemistry
University of California, San Francisco, Ph.D., 1996-2001, Biomedical Sciences
Immune Disease Institute, Harvard Medical School, 2001-2007, Immunology

Honors & Awards

  • 1997 - 2001
    Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowship
  • 2001 - 2004
    Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • 2005 - 2007
    Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Special Fellow
  • 2006 - 2012
    Burroughs Wellcome Career Award in Biomedical Sciences
  • 2007
    International Cytokine Society Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow
  • 2009 - 2012
    Dana Foundation Human Immunology Scholar
  • 2012
    American Association of Immunologists Young Investigator Travel Award
  • 2012 -
    Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar

Selected Publications

  1. Allen J, Abdiwahab E, Morris MD, Le Saux CJ, Betancur P, Ansel KM, Hernandez RD, Nystul TG. PROPEL: a scalable model for postbaccalaureate training to promote diversity in the biomedical workforce. J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2024 Dec 12; 25(3):e0012224.  View on PubMed
  2. Khoroshkin M, Asarnow D, Zhou S, Navickas A, Winters A, Goudreau J, Zhou SK, Yu J, Palka C, Fish L, Borah A, Yousefi K, Carpenter C, Ansel KM, Cheng Y, Gilbert LA, Goodarzi H. A systematic search for RNA structural switches across the human transcriptome. Nat Methods. 2024 Sep; 21(9):1634-1645.  View on PubMed
  3. Wheeler BD, Gagnon JD, Zhu WS, Muñoz-Sandoval P, Wong SK, Simeonov DS, Li Z, DeBarge R, Spitzer MH, Marson A, Ansel KM. The lncRNA Malat1 inhibits miR-15/16 to enhance cytotoxic T cell activation and memory cell formation. Elife. 2023 Dec 21; 12.  View on PubMed
  4. Zhu WS, Litterman AJ, Sekhon HS, Kageyama R, Arce MM, Taylor KE, Zhao W, Criswell LA, Zaitlen N, Erle DJ, Ansel KM. GCLiPP: global crosslinking and protein purification method for constructing high-resolution occupancy maps for RNA binding proteins. Genome Biol. 2023 12 07; 24(1):281.  View on PubMed
  5. Johansson K, Gagnon JD, Zhou SK, Fassett MS, Schroeder AW, Kageyama R, Bautista RA, Pham H, Woodruff PG, Ansel KM. An essential role for miR-15/16 in Treg suppression and restriction of proliferation. Cell Rep. 2023 10 31; 42(10):113298.  View on PubMed
  6. Fassett MS, Braz JM, Castellanos CA, Salvatierra JJ, Sadeghi M, Yu X, Schroeder AW, Caston J, Munoz-Sandoval P, Roy S, Lazarevsky S, Mar DJ, Zhou CJ, Shin JS, Basbaum AI, Ansel KM. IL-31-dependent neurogenic inflammation restrains cutaneous type 2 immune response in allergic dermatitis. Sci Immunol. 2023 10 20; 8(88):eabi6887.  View on PubMed
  7. Zhu WS, Wheeler BD, Ansel KM. RNA circuits and RNA-binding proteins in T cells. Trends Immunol. 2023 10; 44(10):792-806.  View on PubMed
  8. Sprenkle NT, Winn NC, Bunn KE, Zhao Y, Park DJ, Giese BG, Karijolich JJ, Ansel KM, Serezani CH, Hasty AH, Pua HH. The miR-23-27-24 clusters drive lipid-associated macrophage proliferation in obese adipose tissue. Cell Rep. 2023 08 29; 42(8):112928.  View on PubMed
  9. Wheeler BD, Gagnon JD, Zhu WS, Muñoz-Sandoval P, Wong SK, Simeonov DR, Li Z, Debarge R, Spitzer MH, Marson A, Ansel KM. The lncRNA Malat1 Inhibits miR-15/16 to Enhance Cytotoxic T Cell Activation and Memory Cell Formation. bioRxiv. 2023 Jul 29.  View on PubMed
  10. Guo L, Salian S, Xue JY, Rath N, Rousseau J, Kim H, Ehresmann S, Moosa S, Nakagawa N, Kuroda H, Clayton-Smith J, Wang J, Wang Z, Banka S, Jackson A, Zhang YM, Wei ZJ, Hüning I, Brunet T, Ohashi H, Thomas MF, Bupp C, Miyake N, Matsumoto N, Mendoza-Londono R, Costain G, Hahn G, Di Donato N, Yigit G, Yamada T, Nishimura G, Ansel KM, Wollnik B, Hrabe de Angelis M, Mégarbané A, Rosenfeld JA, Heissmeyer V, Ikegawa S, Campeau PM. Null and missense mutations of ERI1 cause a recessive phenotypic dichotomy in humans. Am J Hum Genet. 2023 07 06; 110(7):1068-1085.  View on PubMed
  11. Nguyen TTT, Lu W, Zhu WS, Ansel KM, Liang HE, Weiss A. Stimulation of ectopically expressed muscarinic receptors induces IFN-γ but suppresses IL-2 production by inhibiting activation of pAKT pathways in primary T cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023 06 20; 120(25):e2300987120.  View on PubMed
  12. Johansson K, Gagnon JD, Zhou S, Fassett MS, Schroeder AW, Kageyama R, Bautista RA, Pham H, Woodruff PG, Ansel KM. An essential role for miR-15/16 in Treg suppression and restriction of proliferation. bioRxiv. 2023 Mar 26.  View on PubMed
  13. Dölz M, Hasiuk M, Gagnon JD, Kornete M, Marone R, Bantug G, Kageyama R, Hess C, Ansel KM, Seyres D, Roux J, Jeker LT. Forced expression of the non-coding RNA miR-17∼92 restores activation and function in CD28-deficient CD4+ T cells. iScience. 2022 Nov 18; 25(11):105372.  View on PubMed
  14. Ricardo-Gonzalez RR, Kotas ME, O'Leary CE, Singh K, Damsky W, Liao C, Arouge E, Tenvooren I, Marquez DM, Schroeder AW, Cohen JN, Fassett MS, Lee J, Daniel SG, Bittinger K, Díaz RE, Fraser JS, Ali N, Ansel KM, Spitzer MH, Liang HE, Locksley RM. Innate type 2 immunity controls hair follicle commensalism by Demodex mites. Immunity. 2022 10 11; 55(10):1891-1908.e12.  View on PubMed
  15. Burnett CE, Okholm TLH, Tenvooren I, Marquez DM, Tamaki S, Munoz Sandoval P, Willmore A, UCSF COMET Consortium, Hendrickson CM, Kangelaris KN, Langelier CR, Krummel MF, Woodruff PG, Calfee CS, Erle DJ, Ansel KM, Spitzer MH. Mass cytometry reveals a conserved immune trajectory of recovery in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Immunity. 2022 07 12; 55(7):1284-1298.e3.  View on PubMed
  16. Stelekati E, Cai Z, Manne S, Chen Z, Beltra JC, Buchness LA, Leng X, Ristin S, Nzingha K, Ekshyyan V, Niavi C, Abdel-Hakeem MS, Ali MA, Drury S, Lau CW, Gao Z, Ban Y, Zhou SK, Ansel KM, Kurachi M, Jordan MS, Villarino AV, Ngiow SF, Wherry EJ. MicroRNA-29a attenuates CD8 T cell exhaustion and induces memory-like CD8 T cells during chronic infection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 04 26; 119(17):e2106083119.  View on PubMed
  17. Bapat SP, Whitty C, Mowery CT, Liang Y, Yoo A, Jiang Z, Peters MC, Zhang LJ, Vogel I, Zhou C, Nguyen VQ, Li Z, Chang C, Zhu WS, Hastie AT, He H, Ren X, Qiu W, Gayer SG, Liu C, Choi EJ, Fassett M, Cohen JN, Sturgill JL, Crotty Alexander LE, Suh JM, Liddle C, Atkins AR, Yu RT, Downes M, Liu S, Nikolajczyk BS, Lee IK, Guttman-Yassky E, Ansel KM, Woodruff PG, Fahy JV, Sheppard D, Gallo RL, Ye CJ, Evans RM, Zheng Y, Marson A. Obesity alters pathology and treatment response in inflammatory disease. Nature. 2022 04; 604(7905):337-342.  View on PubMed
  18. Burnett CE, Okholm TLH, Tenvooren I, Marquez DM, Tamaki S, Sandoval PM, UCSF COMET Consortium, Calfee CS, Hendrickson CM, Kangelaris KN, Langelier CR, Krummel MF, Woodruff PG, Erle DJ, Ansel KM, Spitzer MH. A conserved immune trajectory of recovery in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. bioRxiv. 2022 Mar 16.  View on PubMed
  19. Tsitsiklis A, Zha BS, Byrne A, DeVoe C, Rackaityte E, Levan S, Sunshine S, Mick E, Ghale R, Love C, Tarashansky AJ, Pisco A, Albright J, Jauregui A, Sarma A, Neff N, Serpa PH, Deiss TJ, Kistler A, Carrillo S, Ansel KM, Leligdowicz A, Christenson S, Detweiler A, Jones NG, Wu B, Darmanis S, Lynch SV, DeRisi JL, COMET Consortium, Matthay MA, Hendrickson CM, Kangelaris KN, Krummel MF, Woodruff PG, Erle DJ, Rosenberg O, Calfee CS, Langelier CR. Impaired immune signaling and changes in the lung microbiome precede secondary bacterial pneumonia in COVID-19. medRxiv. 2021 Nov 30.  View on PubMed
  20. Pua H, Ansel KM. RNA regulation in immunity. Immunol Rev. 2021 11; 304(1):5-9.  View on PubMed

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