People

Nidhi Navaratna

Staff Research Associate

M_PEDS-RHEUMATOLOGY

I graduated from UC Berkeley in May 2019 with my undergraduate degree in Molecular and Cell Biology (Immunology) and a minor in Global Poverty and Practice. As an undergraduate, I first grew interested in immunology research at Dr. Ellen Robey's lab, where I studied the mechanisms behind positive selection of T-cell progenitors in the thymus. My interest in autoimmune disorders brought me to UCSF, where I now research immune tolerance mechanisms and T-cell maturation and regulation.

Michael Waterfield, MD, PhD

Assoc Professor In Residence

M_PEDS-RHEUMATOLOGY

Autoimmune disease affects up to 5% of the population and can cause significant morbidity and mortality. Our labs main focus is to understand the basic mechanisms by which immune tolerance is broken in order to identify novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. We utilize a variety of mouse models to study both central tolerance and peripheral tolerance. Central tolerance is the process by which autoreactive T cells are deleted in the thymus through negative selection.