Ali Brivanlou

Dr. Brivanlou received his doctoral degree in 1990 from the University of California, Berkeley, after receiving his MS in Biochemistry from the Universite des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc. He joined Rockefeller University in 1994 as Assistant Professor after postdoctoral work in Douglas Melton’s lab at Harvard University.

Among his many awards are the Irma T. Hirschl/ Monique Weill-Caulier Trusts Career Scientist Award, the Searle Scholar Award, the James A. Shannon Director’s Award from the NIH and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. He is currently the Robert and Harriet Heilbrunn Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Molecular Embryology at Rockefeller University, as the head of the University’s laboratory. Dr. Brivanlou also held research positions at International Genetic Engineering Inc. and the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA. Dr. Brivanlou has received over 20 research funding awards and grants, and is the recipient of, among numerous other honors, the Rockefeller University Teaching Award, the John Merck Award, The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and the Wilson S. Stone Memorial Award. He is currently a board member of the Research Foundation to Cure Aids, a member of the Scientific Advisory Council Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance, a member of the Postdoctoral Awards Review Committee at Rockefeller University, the Director of the Tri-Institutional (Memorial Sloan Kettering, Cornell Medical School and Rockefeller University) Human Embryonic Stem Cell Derivation Unit as well as the Chair of the Institute’s Steering Committee, amongst many other leadership positions at stem-cell focused initiatives.

The Brivanlou Laboratory at Rockefeller University, in partnership with Eric Siggia, has laid the groundwork for RUMI’s transformative technology. The lab was among the first groups to work directly with human embryonic stem cells (hESCs,) and derived several hESC lines that have led to several discoveries under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health, and collaboration with Dr. Siggia, the first scrutiny of stem cell differentiation using high-resolution techniques derived from physics.