Bruce Conklin, MD University of California, San Francisco

Bruce R. Conklin MD, is an Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes and a Professor in the UCSF Division of Genomic Medicine. Dr. Conklin’s research focuses on human genetics that lead to cardiovascular diseases, such as cardiac arrhythmias and cardiomyopathy. His major model system is induced pluripotent (iPS) cells that are engineered to test the role of specific genetic changes on disease. Dr. Conklin began his research career by working for two years with Julius Axelrod, Ph.D., (Nobel Laureate) at the National Institutes of Health. He then completed his residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Henry Bourne, M.D. at UCSF. In 1995 Dr. Conklin joined the Gladstone Institutes and the UCSF faculty where he has advanced to become a Senior Investigator at Gladstone, and a Professor at UCSF. Dr. Conklin is also the Gladstone Scientific Officer for Technology and Innovation. Dr. Conklin is the founder of several public stem cell and genomics projects including BayGenomics, GenMAPP, AltAnalyze and WikiPathways.  Dr. Conklin pioneered the field of using designer G protein coupled receptors (RASSLs) for tissue engineering. He was the founding director of the Gladstone Genomics Core and the Gladstone Stem Cell Core.  Dr. Conklin leads the Gladstone Stem Cell Training Program, is the principal investigator on multiple research grants from NIH and serves on multiple advisory boards. He is a member of several honorary societies including the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and is a Fellow in the California Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Conklin’s research focuses using genome engineering to find therapies for life threatening human genetic diseases. Current projects us human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to model cardiac, hepatic and retinal diseases. The Conklin lab has recently developed a method that significantly increases the ability of preform scarless single-base genome editing to induce or revert disease mutations. The Conklin lab has also developed CRISPR-inhibition cell lines for high throughput gene inactivation screens.  These studies allow the construction of robust in vitro human disease models, and also provide a path towards precision medicine and therapeutic genome editing.

Dr. Conklin is focused on the genetic causes severe human disease such as cardiomyopathy and cardiac arrhythmia. His uses genome engineering methods to test the role of specific genetic changes in induced pluripotent cell (iPSC)-derived models of disease. These engineered human tissues are leading to safer drugs, and better drug therapies. He is also developing methods for therapeutic genome editing in select tissues. He is a Founding Director of both the Gladstone Stem Cell Core and the Gladstone Genomics Core Laboratory. His honors include the Scientific American SciAm 50 Award and membership in the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Dr. Conklin earned a bachelor’s degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed his medical training at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. During medical school, he spent two years as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholar in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Julius Axelrod, PhD, at the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Conklin completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and he did his postdoctoral training in molecular pharmacology with Henry Bourne, MD, at UCSF.