Ryan O'Connell, Ph.D.

I am currently a Professor at the University of Utah in the Department of Pathology. My postdoctoral studies were performed in David Baltimore’s laboratory at the California Institute of Technology where I began working in the area of microRNAs following my graduate training in Immunology at UCLA (mentored by Genhong Cheng). My research has since been focused on studying the roles of microRNAs in regulating both physiological and pathological hematopoietic development in mammals, with a focus on inflammation and cancer. My work, which has led to the publication of many high impact primary research manuscripts and several review articles on this topic, has contributed to our current understanding of how microRNAs influence the development and function of immune cells. Since moving to the University of Utah in August of 2011, I have established an independent research program in the Division of Microbiology and Immunology (within the Department of Pathology) and am currently an investigator at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. We are working towards a greater understanding of how noncoding RNAs regulate inflammatory responses, with an emphasis on pathways that are relevant to human disease including cancer.