Stephen Smale

Professor, MIMG, University of California Los Angeles

Professor, Medicine, University of California Los Angeles

(310) 206-4777

Laboratory Address:
6-535 MRL
675 Charles E. Young Drive South
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Lab Number:
(310) 206-4946

Mailing Address:
UCLA MIMG
Box 951489
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Office Address:
6-730 MRL
675 Charles E. Young Drive South
Los Angeles, CA 90095

UC Profile

Stephen T. Smale is a molecular immunologist and molecular biologist who arrived at UCLA in 1990 as an Assistant Professor. In 1999, he was promoted to Professor and, in 2014, to Distinguished Professor, in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, which spans the UCLA College of Letters and Science and the David Geffen School of Medicine. From 1990 to 2007, he was also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Dr. Smale graduated Magna Cum Laude from Cornell University, with Honors and Distinction in Chemistry. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Tjian. He then was a Helen Hay Whitney Foundation postdoctoral fellow with Nobelist Dr. David Baltimore at the Whitehead Institute, MIT. At UCLA, Dr. Smale previously served as Vice Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, Director of Basic and Translational Research for the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science Education Program at UCLA, Director of the UCLA-Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program, and founding Chair of the School of Medicine's Research Initiative in Immunity, Inflammation, infection, and Transplantation (I3T). From 2015-2021, he served as Vice Dean for Research in the David Geffen School of Medicine. He currently serves as Senior Scientific Officer for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, as well as a member of the editorial advisory boards for the journals Immunity, Genes & Development, and Trends in Immunology. The research in Dr. Smale's lab is diverse and spans the areas of gene regulation, inflammation, molecular immunology, stem cell biology, and leukemogenesis. A major interest is the molecular mechanisms of pro-inflammatory gene regulation, with an emphasize on the genomic logic through which signaling pathways, transcription factors, and chromatin structure orchestrate selective inflammatory and innate immune responses to a broad range of microbial and environmental threats.

 

Affiliations

Sherie L. and Donald G. Morrison Chair, Molecular Immunology
 

Research Interests

The research in our laboratory is diverse and revolves around our interests in gene regulation, molecular immunology, stem cell biology, and oncogenesis/leukemogenesis. One major area of interest is the molecular mechanisms of pro-inflammatory gene regulation, with an emphasis on transcriptional cascades induced by inflammatory stimuli and the contributions of chromatin structure to the selective regulation of pro-inflammatory genes. A second interest is the selective functions of the five members of the NF-κB family of transcription factors. We also study the mechanisms by which Ikaros family proteins regulate lymphocyte development and leukemogenesis, and the mechanisms by which developmentally regulated genes acquire competence for transcriptional activation in embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells.

Awards and Honors

  • Life Sciences Excellence Award in Educational Innovation, UCLA Division of Life Sciences, College of Letters and Science, 2016.
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Helen Hay Whitney Foundation, 1986-1989.
  • Keynote Speaker, European Macrophage and Dendritic Cell Society Annual Meeting, Debrecan, Hungary, 2010.
  • Sherie L. and Donald G. Morrison Chair in Molecular Immunology, UCLA, 2014-pres.
  • Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2020.
  • Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1990-2007.
  • Graduate Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation, 1982-1986.
  • Keynote Speaker, Instituto di Ricerca in Biomedicina Alumni Symposium, Bellinzona, Switzerland, 2014.
  • Keynote Speaker, Keystone Symposium, “Transcription and RNA Regulation in Inflammation and Immunity,” Tahoe City, CA, 2019.

Publications