Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor, Diabetes Center
Phillip received a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford, where he worked with Paul Khavari on how MAP kinase signaling drives skin cancer. He completed an MD-PhD in the UCSF MSTP, where his graduate studies in Hiten Madhani’s laboratory addressed how specificity is achieved by the gene silencing pathways of RNA interference, repressive chromatin, and DNA methylation—the latter work supported by a stint in the laboratory of Geeta Narlikar. Phillip completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Bruce Spiegelman at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. There, he studied how regulated mRNA translation contributes to the evolution and physiological control of mitochondrial biogenesis and oxidative metabolism. Phillip returned to UCSF in 2024 as an Assistant Professor in the Diabetes Center. His research has been supported by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.
Undergraduate Researcher
Eze studies Molecular and Cell Biology and Global Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, he investigated disparities in access to GLP-1 receptor agonist therapies as a Health Equity Research Intern at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Junior Specialist
Sophia studied Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she worked with Andrea Hevener on sex-linked inflammatory phenotypes driven by a mitochondrial polymerase. Previously, she had studied bacterial membrane protein insertion (at the NIH) and used super-resolution microscopy to study mitochondrial inner membrane dynamics (at the University of Tokyo).
Junior Specialist and PROPEL Scholar
Andrew studied Social Welfare and Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked with Andreas Stahl on liver sexual dimorphism and its implications for metabolic disease therapy. Andrew was selected as a UCSF PROPEL Scholar in 2025.