Arturo Álvarez-Buylla

Dr. Arturo Álvarez-Buylla is a Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, where he also serves as the Heather and Melanie Muss Endowed Chair and Principal Investigator in the Brain Tumor Research Center. Dr. Álvarez-Buylla’s research specializes in developmental neuroscience and stem cell neurobiology with special interests in neurogenesis in the adult mammalian brain, the assembly of the brain circuits, origin of brain tumors, and interneuron transplantation. His research identified the neural stem cells in the adult brain, their origin in the embryo, long-range neuronal migration in the postnatal brain and new mechanisms of neuronal translocation. His laboratory also identified the medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) as a source of young neurons that after transplantation can migrate and integrate in the postnatal and adult brain. In collaboration with other groups at UCSF, his laboratory has shown that MGE cells can induce new periods of brain plasticity, ameliorate epileptic seizures and increase pain thresholds. An ongoing interest of the Álvarez-Buylla Lab is understanding how adult neural stem cells are regulated, studying how cells derived from these progenitor cells integrate into the adult brain and which populations of MGE-derived neurons can be used therapeutically. Dr. Álvarez-Buylla joined the UCSF faculty in 2000. Prior to that he was head of lab at Rockefeller University. Dr. Álvarez-Buylla obtained his Ph.D. degree at Rockefeller University in 1988 and a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Research at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico City, Mexico) in 1983. Dr. Álvarez-Buylla has received numerous awards including the Robert L. Sinsheimer Award in Molecular Biology, the Jacob Javits Award and the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research.