UCSF Autoimmunoprofiler Leadership and the PROMOTE Program

Autoimmunoprofiler Project Administration and Leadership

The Autoimmunoprofiler tEAM Project is led by a distinguished group of scientists and administrators. Matthew 'Max' Krummel, PhD, serves as the Principal Investigator. He is an immunologist whose lab uses live-imaging to find key pathways in biology and has a rich history at the immune-cancer interface, including as the developer of anti-CTLA-4 (ipilimumab/Yervoy) therapeutics. He maintains an active lab that studies the fundamentals of how the immune system functions dynamically in space and time and how cell types integrate to generate fundamental immune states.

The leadership team also includes Jeroen Roose, PhD, who is a Co-Investigator for the Autoimmunoprofiler. Dr. Roose is a tenured Principal Investigator and Vice Chair of Anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco, and a co-founder of UCSF's ImmunoX. Jimmie Ye, PhD, also serving as a Co-Investigator, leads a lab interested in how the interaction between genetics and environment affect human variation at the level of molecular phenotypes. To study these interactions, the Ye lab couples high-throughput sequencing approaches that measure cellular response under environmental challenges with population genetics.

Operational and Strategic Management

Vincent Chan, PhD, is the Senior Scientist/Project Manager who manages the entire UCSF Immunoprofiler Consortium and focuses on colorectal analytics. He oversees all aspects of the consortium and actively participates in analytics and data mining. Nora Hazenbos-Shibata serves as the Project Manager for the UCSF Autoimmunoprofiler Initiative, ensuring the study team achieves project objectives through coordinating sample pipelines and strategic planning.

Strategic growth is managed by Gabriela Fernandez-Cuervo, PhD, the Strategic Alliance Manager. She develops strategic corporate partnerships on behalf of UCSF and manages industry alliances within the UCSF Immunoprofiler Consortium. Additionally, Alexis Combes, PhD, serves as the Disease 2 Biology Director, leading a collaboration-based research lab that focuses on profiling the immune system in various sets of diseases.

Data Science and Specialized Research

Gabriela Fragiadakis, PhD, is the Data Science CoLab Director and an Assistant Professor at UCSF. She leads a computational immunology lab studying states of the human immune system across disease contexts using single-cell methods and data integration. Furthermore, Andrew Gross, MD, a Rheumatologist and Co-Investigator, collaborates with immunology researchers at UCSF to seek new treatments for scleroderma by better understanding how cells of the immune system become deregulated. The administrative support for the project is provided by Isabelle Tingin, the Administrative Analyst Officer for the UCSF Immunoprofiler in the Department of Pathology.

The UCSF PROMOTE Program

The UCSF Program in Resident Opportunities for Mentored Ophthalmic Training in Experimentation (PROMOTE) offers a transformative opportunity for ophthalmology and optometry residents to develop as clinician-scientists. By combining world-class mentorship, cutting-edge research training, and tailored career development, PROMOTE equips participants with the clinical expertise and scientific skills to drive advancements in vision research and care.

Program Objectives and Specialized Tracks

PROMOTE aims to attract talented residents to the clinician-scientist pathway. Participants engage in high-quality mentored research projects and receive formal training in methodology and leadership. Residents choose one of four specialized research tracks:

• Track 1. Epidemiology, RCTs, and Global Health: Focus on large-scale clinical trials and public health initiatives.
• Track 2. Basic and Translational Vision Sciences: Investigate molecular, genetic, and regenerative aspects of vision.
• Track 3. Innovation and Bioengineering: Develop groundbreaking technologies to address unmet clinical needs.
• Track 4. Data science, digital health, AI: Leverage data science, AI, mHealth, and statistical modeling to tackle vision health studies.

Participants dedicate 1-2 years to mentored research (80% research, 20% clinical), complemented by individualized didactics and career development workshops. Key benefits include access to NIH/NEI-funded preceptors and collaboration with UCSF’s renowned Department of Ophthalmology and the Francis I. Proctor Foundation.

Core Project Leadership Roles

The following table summarizes the primary roles within the Autoimmunoprofiler leadership team: