Alexander Marson

Alexander Marson, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), School of Medicine, Department of Medicine. His research focuses on understanding genetic circuits controlling human immune cell function in health and disease, developing CRISPR-based tools for genome engineering in primary immune cells, and advancing cell-based therapies for cancer, autoimmunity, and infectious diseases. His lab has pioneered methods for efficient editing of T cells and identified genetic variants underlying autoimmune diseases.

Education:

• AB in Biology, Harvard College, 2001
• M.Phil in Biological Sciences, University of Cambridge, 2003
• PhD in Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008
• MD, Harvard Medical School, 2010

Research Interests: Dr. Marson's work integrates genetics, genomics, and immunology to dissect immune cell circuits. Key areas include CRISPR technologies, regulatory T cell biology, HIV latency mechanisms, and the translation of engineered immune cells into clinical therapies. His lab employs cutting-edge tools like Perturb-seq and single-cell analysis to map gene regulatory networks.

Selected Achievements:

• Developed CRISPR tools for editing primary human T cells (Schumann et al., PNAS 2015; Roth et al., Nature 2018)
• Discovered genetic variants linked to autoimmune diseases (Farh et al., Nature 2015)
• Advanced engineered T cell therapies via SEED-Selection and CRISPRoff approaches

Awards:

• 2022: Elected Member of Association of American Physicians
• 2019: CRI Lloyd J. Old STAR Career Award
• 2019: Elected Member of American Society of Clinical Investigators

Grants & Funding: NIH grants (P01AI138962, R01DK119979) and support from the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy highlight his leadership in translational immunology.