Scientific Advisory Board

Hal Chapman, M.D., joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1986 and became Pulmonary and Critical Care Division Chief at UCSF in 2000. Dr. Chapman is also a member of the Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI), UCSF Immunology Graduate Program, and the graduate programs in Biological Sciences (PIBS) and Biomedical Sciences (BMS).

Dr. Chapman holds an M.D. from the University of Alabama and subsequently did his research training in the laboratory of Dr. John Hibbs at the University of Utah.

Dr. Rik Derynck is currently professor in the schools of dentistry and medicine. He also serves as co-director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Biology at UCSF. Dr. Derynck is a pioneer and authority in the biology and signaling mechanisms of TGF-β and the mechanisms through which TGF-β induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition and contributes to disease.

Dr. Derynck received his Dr. Sc. degree at the University of Ghent, Belgium, for the cDNA cloning and expression of fibroblast interferon (interferon-β), which provided the basis for the clinical development of this interferon by Biogen, and its clinical evaluation and use. In 1981, without an intervening postdoctoral position, he moved to Genentech, where he initiated a program aimed at the molecular characterization of the newly discovered “transforming growth factor” activity. This led to the cDNA cloning of TGF-α and TGF-β1, the prototype of the TGF-β family of growth and differentiation factors. In 1991, he moved as professor to the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), where he continued to study the roles of TGF-β in epithelial and mesenchymal differentiation, and discovered that TGF-β induces epithelial-mesenchymal transdifferentiation. Dr. Derynck’s lab has been focusing on the characterization of TGF-β signaling mechanisms through activation of its receptors, Smads and non-Smad pathways, and the roles of the TGF-β-activated pathways in epithelial plasticity and epithelial-mesenchymal transition for the past 20 years. His research has greatly impacted our understanding of TGF-β family signaling mechanisms, with many mechanistic and conceptual advances (and reagents) originating from his lab, and has helped to provide the basis for therapeutic approaches based on inhibition of TGF-β signaling. Among other awards, Dr. Derynck has been elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dean Sheppard, M.D., holds a variety of positions at UCSF, including Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep Medicine, Professor of Medicine and a member of the cell biology, biomedical sciences, immunology and pharmaceutical sciences, and pharmacogenomics graduate programs. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying pulmonary (and other organ) fibrosis, asthma and acute lung injury. One aim of his research is to identify new therapeutic targets to ultimately improve the treatment of each of these common diseases. The work begins with basic investigation of how cells use members of the integrin family to detect, modify and respond to spatially restricted extracellular clues and how these responses contribute to the development of common lung diseases. Utilizing mice with global or conditional knockouts of four integrins, the epithelial-restricted integrin, avß6, and the widely expressed integrins a9ß1, avß1, avß5 and avß8, Dr. Sheppard’s lab has identified important roles for these integrins in models of each common lung disease and key steps upstream and downstream of the integrins that provide potential therapeutic targets.

Dr. Sheppard holds an A.B. in social studies from Harvard College and an M.D. from SUNY at Stony Brook. He trained in internal medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle and in pulmonary medicine at UCSF. He has been on the faculty of UCSF since 1980, and was appointed the Founding Director of the Lung Biology Research Center in 1986.