Alex Pollen
Alex Pollen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF). His lab combines advances in single-cell genomics, genome engineering, and primate organoid models to study the specialized features and vulnerabilities of the human brain. This research program builds on a longstanding interest in studying the evolution of brain structure and function. Recently, his lab identified developmental mechanisms contributing to cell type evolution in the primate brain and established a CRISPR-based strategy for discovering human-specific vulnerabilities. Ultimately, the lab aims to illuminate molecular mechanisms contributing to human origins and to identify therapeutic targets in selectively vulnerable neurons.
As an undergraduate at Harvard, Alex studied comparative neuroanatomy among cichlid fish in Lake Tanganyika with Hans Hofmann. Their fieldwork 10 miles from the chimpanzees at Gombe inspired Alex to study human brain evolution. Alex next performed comparative studies of brain development with Zoltan Molnar as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and then pursued training in evolutionary genetics and neuroscience during his PhD studies with David Kingsley at Stanford University. As a postdoctoral fellow, Alex applied single-cell genomics approaches to illuminate molecular mechanisms contributing to cortical expansion with Arnold Kriegstein at UCSF.
His research has been supported by multiple funders, including US agencies and philanthropies.
