Biography
The lab is led by Dr. Tariq Rana, a Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. As a multidisciplinary scientist, Dr. Rana explores the fundamental mechanisms of disease and applies his discoveries to develop innovative therapies for various human illnesses. Fundamental rules for RNA chemical modifications to stabilize functional RNAs in vivo and prevent undesired immune activation, RNA-targeting small molecules, and delivery technologies developed by his group have been licensed by pharmaceutical companies leading to several approved medicines and clinical trials. Students and postdoctoral fellows receive broad training in his laboratory, and many have successfully established independent careers and hold leadership positions in both academia and industry.
Dr. Rana earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Davis, and was an American Cancer Society fellow in the Laboratory of Chemical Biodynamics and the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He has held several leadership roles, including Head of Genetics, V/C for Innovation and Therapeutics, and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. Previously, Dr. Rana was a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and the founding director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-funded Chemical Biology Initiative at UMass Medical School. In this role, he led efforts to establish diverse research groups and advanced capabilities in high-throughput screening, drug discovery, structure-based drug design, and medicinal chemistry for lead compound development. After relocating to San Diego, he founded the Center for RNA Biology, developing state-of-the-art functional genomics, genome editing, and high-throughput sequencing facilities while recruiting a team of investigators. His current research continues to uncover critical links between RNA regulation and various disease states.
Dr. Rana has served as a member or chair of several scientific advisory boards and numerous institutional, national, and international committees, and has received multiple teaching and research awards. Some of his awards include the Presidential Talent Award, a Research Career Award from the National Institutes of Health, Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from Nature and Johnson & Johnson, and NIH Director’s Avant-Garde Award which is given to individual scientists of exceptional creativity with high-impact research that opens new areas of HIV/AIDS research and cure. Dr. Rana is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and the AAAS for “distinguished contributions to the field of chemical biology, particularly using chemistry to study RNA regulation and gene silencing to treat human disease.”