School of Medicine
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David M Garcia
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Chemical and Systems Biology
Bio I received a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UC Santa Cruz, with one year of my bachelor's spent at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Returning to the Bay Area where I grew up, I worked briefly at the VA Medical Center, San Francisco. I then did my Ph.D. studies at MIT, in David Bartel’s lab at the Whitehead Institute. I discovered new features of microRNA recognition sequences that were so predictive of mRNA repression that they were integrated into a major update of TargetScan.org, a microRNA target prediction program that receives ~20,000 visitors per month. I became interested in the link between protein homeostasis and RNA regulation, and joined Dan Jarosz’s lab at Stanford to study novel prion-like states of RNA binding proteins. My interest in prions also led me to a collaboration with Jon Clardy of Harvard, in which we identified for the first time an example of a bacterially secreted molecule that potently induces a prion. I continue to be fascinated with the biologically beneficial roles of prions, how they are induced in nature and the resulting physiological consequences, as well as their characteristic molecular features. Once I complete my training at Stanford I look forward to leading my own research group. In addition to research, I have longstanding interests in science communication for the public (see publications) and celebrating diversity in the academy through outreach opportunities.
