September 2024
13th Structural Birth Defects Meeting
Licia participated in the organization of the 13th Structural Birth Defects Meeting in Baltimore from September 16 to 18, as she serves on the Birth Defects Steering Committee of the Society for Developmental Biology.
Within the "Voice of the Patient" session, Allison D’Ambrosio Bones, mother of Travis, who passed away at the age of four due to undiagnosed Isolated Congenital Asplenia (ICA), gave a touching presentation on the impacts of this congenital disease on the lives of young children, through the experience of her son, Travis.
Allison founded T.E.A.M. 4 Travis (Together Ending Asplenia Mortality) to raise awareness on ICA, advocate for expanded newborn screening and genetic testing, and fund research on this rare but lethal birth defect.
Summer 2024
High School Young Scientists Shadow the Lab!
During their summer internship, our high school young scientists, Erika and Paxton, have learned about mouse, chick, quail, and worm embryos, while enjoying microscopy, PCR, and other lab procedures!
June 2024
Tony presents at the PCB Retreat at the CA Academy of Sciences!
On June 14, Tony (left) delivered a talk at the Program in Craniofacial Biology 5th Biennial Retreat, held at the CA Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.
Viviana (right) was recognized as the 2022-2023 Damsky Award recipient.
June 2024
Lab Luncheon at Lavash
On June 12, we hosted a joint luncheon with Dr. Erica Hutchins's lab to celebrate Brandon's PhD graduation and Nuo attending UCSF Medical School!
May 2024
Craniofacial Morphogenesis and Tissue Regeneration Gordon Research Conference (Castelldefels, Barcelona)
Licia gave a talk at the Craniofacial GRC in Spain within the Session “Emergence of Novelty in the Craniofacial Complex.”
Licia and Filippo Rijli were nominated the next Vice-Chairs of the 2026 Craniofacial GRC and the Chairs of the 2028 Craniofacial GRC - a true honor, a real privilege (maybe also a punishment?…)
March 2024
Viviana presents at the UCSF CCMBM & Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Retreat!
On March 13, Viviana presented a poster at the 2024 UCSF Core Center for Musculoskeletal Biology and Medicine (CCMBM) & Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Scientific Retreat - Fueling MSK Health and Discovery with Data Science, Technology, and Digital Health.
March 2024
On International Women's Day, March 8, Licia spoke on a UCSF "Women in Science" panel!
Featuring insightful discussion with a remarkable and diverse group of women, the panel explored themes of career passion and mentorship, inclusive initiatives at UCSF, personal experiences and challenges, and the importance of belonging and allyship.
February 2024
Viviana and Tatiana present at the IRM Stem Cell Center Retreat in the Presidio!
On February 26, Viviana and Tatiana presented at the annual IRM Stem Cell Center Retreat, held at the Golden Gate Club.
Viviana (left) delivered a talk titled "ESCRT-dependent dysregulation of ceramide metabolism leads to developmental defects in mice."
Tatiana (right) presented a poster titled "T Cell Leukemia Homeobox 1 (TLX1)-positive spleen progenitor cells are essential for spleen development and function."
December 2023
Welcoming the Wu McClains to our lab and the PCB!
On December 4, we welcomed the Wu McClains to tour our lab and the PCB, including a presentation on our research. The visit was followed by a luncheon with the 2023 Wu McClain Awardee, Dr. Brisa Palikuqi.
October 2023
Congratulations Nuo on Early Acceptance to Med School!
Summer 2023
Our Summer Party Picnic in the Presidio!
April 2023
Our new review article "Shaping faces: genetic and epigenetic control of craniofacial morphogenesis" was published in Nature Reviews Genetics on April 24, 2023! We all are thrilled!
You can read the full article from Nature Reviews Genetics here.
March 2023
Licia became Director of the UCSF Program in Craniofacial Biology! A blessing or a punishment?
You can read the full article from the UCSF School of Dentistry here.
T.E.A.M. 4 Travis and Uplifting Athletes Young Investigator Draft
In Feb 2022 Maurizio Risolino was part of the Uplifting Athletes Young Investigator Draft in Philadelphia and was awarded a grant co-funded by T.E.A.M. 4 Travis and Uplifting Athletes for his research on Congenital Asplenia, a rare birth defect.
T.E.A.M. 4 Travis is the only organization in the world dedicated to raising awareness of Isolated Congenital Asplenia, a genetic birth defect in which there is no spleen or the spleen is non functioning. Their mission is to end childhood death from Isolated Congenital Asplenia. By focusing on raising awareness, providing education (for medical and patient communities) and supporting medical research to further understanding about and creation of a diagnostic test this organization is the vanguard of bringing positive change to this under recognized danger.
The Young Investigator Draft is the result of Uplifting Athletes’ ongoing commitment to cultivate resources that accelerate scientific advancements for rare disease treatments and potential cures while facilitating the next generation of rare disease researchers. Young Investigator Draft grants fund collaborative basic bench research in order to positively impact treatments and potential cures for the entire Rare Disease Community.
Founded in 2007, Uplifting Athletes fulfills its mission to inspire the Rare Disease Community with hope through the power of sport with a powerful network of over 20 college football student-athlete led chapters, Uplifting Ambassadors and Team UA participants.
Since its inception, Uplifting Athletes has raised more than $5 million to support the mission of Uplifting Athletes and its charitable programs: Rare Disease Awareness, Rare Disease Research, Uplifting Experiences and Uplifting Leaders.
Link! (It opens in a new window and the youtube video starts at the presentation for Maurizio.)
February 2022
Viviana and Tony awarded Fellowships!
In Feb 2022 Viviana and Tony were awarded fellowships from The Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP). A California program to fund research that spans social, behavioral and biomedical sciences. These two fellowships are to support their respective studies on the mechanisms underlying cleft lip / palate, a birth defect linked to maternal tobacco use.
Three posters out of three that our lab presented won first places - out of a large number of posters that were presented and discussed - at the FaceBase meeting on June 14 2022! Tony received the first place and Brandon and Viviana an even second place - our lab rocks!
FaceBase 2022 Community Forum
Winners of the 2022 Poster Competition!
The following poster presenters received the top three scores for the posters presented at the 2022 FaceBase Community Forum. Congratulations for your high-quality work!
1st place:
First place score was a three-way tie:
- Ching-Fang Chang (Cincinnati Children's Hospital), "Alleviation of Ciliopathic Craniofacial Anomalies by Disrupting Sufu-Gli Interaction"
- Junjun Jing (USC), "Spatiotemporal Single-cell Atlas Reveals Cell Lineage Diversification During Tooth Morphogenesis"
- Tiange Qu (UCSF), "Deconstructing Calcineurin/NFAT Signaling in Species with Distinct Midfacial Outgrowth"
2nd place:
Second place score was a two-way tie:
- Brandon Chacon (UCSF), "Midface Epithelium scRNAseq Reveals Spatiotemporal Dynamics in Cleft Lip/Palate Model"
- Viviana Hermosilla Aguayo (UCSF), "Tissue-specific Roles of ESCRT Machinery Component VPS25 in Craniofacial Morphogenesis"
3rd place:
Third place score was a three-way tie:
- Azeez Alade (Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research), "Shared Genetic Risk Between Cleft Subtypes in the African Population"
- Jifan Feng (USC), "TGF-β Signaling Regulates Pharyngeal Muscle Development via Mediating Cell-cell Interaction"
- Mingyi Zhang (USC), "Arid1b is Indispensable in Regulating Mesenchymal Stem Cell Homeostasis"
UCSF Symposium for PROPEL Post Bac Students
Aug 10 2022
The abstract submitted by Peter Martin in our lab was selected for an oral presentation on roles of ESCRT complex in morphogenesis.
Peter gave a wonderful talk was able to field all questions, for which he received a balloon...
And he was subsequently sent to the Farm to work in the salt mines of Developmental Biology.
August 2022
Brandon was notified by the NIH that he was awarded the F31 fellowship on first submission!
Brandon you rock!
Summer 2022
The labs on HSW 7 had a picnic at Kirby Cove to celebrate the accomplishments of the trainees. Thank you Andrei Goga for organizing this event and being Top Chef!
Alumni News
It has come to our attention that someone (our first graduate student) was awarded tenure from Harvard University in March 2022. Quite a journey of brushing bones as an undergrad at the American Museum of Natural History, to our lab at Weill Cornell in New York, through that farm in Palo Alto, and now at a community college on the Charles River. Congratulations Terry!
