People | Skeletal Mechanobiology

Andrés Betancourt-Torres
Graduate Student

Gurcharan Kaur, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar

Serra Kaya, Ph.D.
Assistant Researcher

Nadja Maldonado Luna
Graduate Student

Isabel Mauricio Amado, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar

Christoforos Meliadis, MD
Visiting Scholar

Cristal Yee, Ph.D.
Associate Specialist

News and Current Events

Dec 2023: Congratulations to Christoforos on winning the first place in the 2023 BioGraphic Science Image Contest at the UCSF Broad Stem Cell Center with his cochlea image! Well done!

June 2023: We were awarded an NIH R01 Supplement and UCSF Bakar Aging research institution grant to study Alzheimer disease titled: "Osteocytic function in bone brain crosstalk in Alzheimer’s Disease"

June 2023: Welcome to our new graduate student, Ricardo Espinosa Lima, from DSCB program!

June 2023: Welcoming Dr. Jeffry Nyman who will be on sabbatical.

June 2023: Warm welcome to our summer students - Winston Zapet and Reann Phillips.

Dec 2022: Welcome to Christoforos Meliadis joining our lab to investigate the mechanobiology of the ear bone tissue.

August 2022: The Alliston lab attends the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) and Conference (GRC) on Musculoskeletal Biology and Bioengineering. Tamara leads the GRC as a chair, Serra had a fantastic talk at GRS, Jihee and Charlie presented posters!

May 2022: Welcome to Nadja Maldonado Luna who is joining our lab as a new PhD student in Bioengineering!

April 2022: Alliston lab is welcoming Gen Matsumae, our new postdoctoral scholar!

April 2022: Many congratulations to Neha Dole who recently published in The FASEB Journal and is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas!

Jan 2022: Congratulations to Serra Kaya and other members of the Alliston lab for publishing a manuscript on Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

Jan 2022: Welcome Andres Betancourt-Torres, our new PhD student, to the Alliston Lab!

June 2021: Congratulations to Charlie Schurman on a wonderful manuscript with beautiful 3D osteocyte images accepted at PNAS.

June 2021: Welcome Clarissa Aguirre Luna, our newest Research Associate, to the Alliston Lab!

March 2021: Our former Research Associate Jenny Salinas was invited to attend graduate school to earn her PhD at UCLA. Congratulations!

February 2021: Dr. Alliston is elected to the AIMBE College of Fellows in recognition of her distinguished and continuing achievements in medical and biological engineering. The College of Fellows is comprised of the top two percent of medical and biological engineers in the country. Many Congratulations!

February 2021: Congratulations to Dave Monteiro and other members of the Alliston lab for publishing their manuscript at the FASEB Journal which investigates the effects of fluid shear stress on TGFβ signaling in osteocytes.

December 2020: Many congratulations to Dr. Dave Monteiro and Dr. Karsyn Bailey on giving their exit seminars and completing their PhD's. We wish you all the best!

October 2020: Congratulations to Karsyn Bailey and other members of the Alliston lab on the acceptance of their manuscript at Arthritis and Rheumatology investigating the mechanosensitive function of osteocytic TGFβ in joint degeneration.

September 2020: The Alliston lab welcomes rotation students Caleb Rux and Jessica Herrera, who come to us with fantastic undergraduate training in the Heveran and Athanasiou labs, respectively.

September 2020: The Alliston lab attends the ASBMR Virtual Annual Meeting with a fantastic podium presentation from Charlie and e-posters presented by Karsyn, Dave, Neha, and Serra.

September 2020: Dr. Alliston is awarded the Adele L. Boskey Esteemed Award for Bone and Mineral Research in recognition of her outstanding and major scientific contributions, leadership, and mentorship in bone and mineral research at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) 2020 Annual Meeting. Many congratulations!

June 2020: The Alliston Lab observes #ShutDownSTEM on Wednesday, June 10.

February 2020: Serra gave a great talk at the Orthopedic Research Society Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. Congratulations!

January 2020: Exciting research from the Alliston Lab demonstrating a role for osteocytes in the development of osteoarthritis is highlighted by the Department of Defense!

December 2019: Congrats to Courtney Mazur for successfully completing her PhD dissertation and graduating. We wish you the best!

November 2019: Jackie Nguyen's paper studying the role of CYLD in mechanosensation is accepted at Bone! Many congrats.

November 2019: Courtney Mazur and other members of the Alliston Lab publish in Bone Research about the role of osteocytes in joint disease. Read more about this exciting announcement from the UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery here.

September 2019: Welcome Minali Nemani, our newest Research Associate, and Stephanie Boula, our newest Assistant Specialist, to the Alliston Lab!

August 2019: Gaby is awarded the UCSF Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship!

July 2019: Congrats to Dave on a great invited talk titled, "Shear stress activation of TGFβ signaling in osteocytes is mediated by Akt" at the FASEB TGF-β Superfamily Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida.

July 2019: Cheers to our wonderful summer students - Olga, Jeffrey, and Isabelle - on a productive summer!

June 2019: The Alliston Lab welcomes our newest members: Jihee Yoon and Luke Campos.

June 2019: Congratulations to Karsyn on being awarded the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Scholarship.

February 2019: Dr. Alliston is awarded the ORS Women’s Leadership Forum Award at the ORS Annual Meeting in Austin, TX in recognition of her contributions to the field of musculoskeletal research. Many congratulations!

February 2019: The Alliston lab attends the ORS Annual Meeting in Austin, TX: Dr. Alliston leads a scientific workshop on the role of TGFβ at the bone/cartilage interface. Courtney and Karsyn give fantastic talks on perilacunar/canalicular remodeling and bone/cartilage crosstalk and Gaby presents a poster!

October 2018: Congratulations to Charlie for winning the William K. Bowes J. and Ute Bowes Discovery Fellowship last month AND the Neville Smith Student Poster Award at the 2018 Advanced Light Source User's Meeting this week!

September 2018: Congratulations to Sean Alemi, Courtney Mazur, et al on a wonderful manuscript accepted at Bone Reports.

September 2018: The Alliston lab goes to the ASBMR meeting in Montreal: Karsyn and Cristal present posters and Neha gives an excellent talk on her lactation work! Karsyn also wins a travel award!

August 2018: Dave, Courtney, Charlie, and Neha attend and present posters at the Gordon Research Seminar and Conference on Musculoskeletal Biology and Bioengineering. Charlie won the talent show with a stunning piano performance!

July 2018: Gaby wins an NIH Diversity Supplement Award to study the pairing of osteocyte tension and perilacunar material properties via perilacunar/canalicular remodeling!

June 2018: We were awarded a DOD Expansion Grant from the Orthopaedic Research Program to identify osteocyte-regulatory therapies to prevent and treat PTOA!

June 2018: Welcome Jenny Salinas, our new Research Associate! Farewell to JJ Woo after 3 years in our lab!

April 2018: Justin Lopez is awarded an NIH F31 Predoctoral Fellowship! Congratulations!

April 2018: Welcome to Serra Kaya and Gaby Baylon, new Postdoctoral Scholars in the Alliston lab!

January 2018: Many congratulations to Claire Acevedo who recently published in Nature Biomedical Engineering and the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research and is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah!

November 2017: Neha Dole and others in the lab publish in Cell Reports on the role of TGFb in Perilacunar/Canalicular Remodeling!

September 2017: Jackie Nguyen has her exit seminar and graduates with her PhD!

September 2017: Congratulations to Neha, who won a Young Investigator Award at the ASBMR meeting in Denver, Colorado!

August 2017: Congratulations to Neha and Claire, who both recently won the ASBMR/ORS Harold Frost Award at Sun Valley!

May 2017: Welcome to Karsyn Bailey (MSTP) and Charlie Schurman joining our lab as new PhD students in Bioengineering!

April 2017: Courtney represents our lab at the March for Science in Washington DC!

March 2017: Courtney presents 2 posters and gives 2 talks at the ORS meeting!

March 2017: Congratulations to Neha and the birth of her daughter Anaaya!

March 2017: Tristan Fowler, Claire Acevedo, and Courtney Mazur publish exciting results in Scientific Reports!

February 2017: Dave receives a Helmsley Fellowship to attend the Quantitative Imaging: from Acquisition to Analysis course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory!

February 2017: Tamara presents a talk at the 2nd Musculoskeletal and Regeneration conference in Cancun!

February 2017: Neha wins an ORS/OREF post-doctoral fellowship to study the role of TGFβ in regulating perilacunar remodeling in diabetes!

January 2017: The lab receives funding for a new collaborative project on joint regeneration with researchers at the Steadman Philippon Research Institute!