Alliston Lab

Tamara Alliston

Biography

Tamara N. Alliston, Ph.D., is a Professor in the University of California San Francisco Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. She pursued her undergraduate education in Biology at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Alliston earned her doctoral degree in Cell Biology from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas in 1998, working under the guidance of Dr. JoAnne Richards. After receiving her doctorate, Dr. Alliston was named an Arthritis Foundation Fellow, working as a post-doctoral scientist in the lab of Dr. Rik Derynck at UCSF. In 2002, she was appointed an Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Department of Cell and Tissue Biology at UCSF.

Since 2006, she has led her own laboratory in the UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. She currently holds the position of Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCSF, in addition to Adjunct Professor positions in both the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at UCSF. Dr. Alliston is a faculty member in the UC Berkeley/UCSF Graduate Program in Bioengineering and the UCSF Graduate Programs in Biomedical Sciences, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, and Developmental and Stem Cell Biology. She is also affiliated with the Program in Craniofacial Biology and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research.

Dr. Alliston is co-Director of the Skeletal Biology Core of the NIH P30-supported UCSF Core Center in Musculoskeletal Biology and Medicine. She serves widely as a reviewer for journals and funding agencies, including for the Department of Defense and the NIH. She is also an Editorial Board Member at the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

Dr. Alliston’s other service and leadership efforts focus on the development of the next generation of scientists and leaders. She serves the Orthopaedic Research Society as a member of the Board of Directors in her role as the Professional Development and Mentoring Council Chair. She currently serves as the Chair of the UC Berkeley/UCSF Graduate Program in Bioengineering Executive Committee and has played leadership roles in several other graduate programs.

Dr. Alliston's honors include a Hulda Irene Duggan Arthritis Investigator Award, the ASBMR Harold M. Frost Young Investigator Award, and the AIMM-ASBMR John Haddad Young Investigator Award.