Klein to Direct UCSF Craniofacial and Mesenchymal Biology Program
Ophir Klein
Ophir Klein, MD, PhD, has been named as the new director of the UCSF Craniofacial and Mesenchymal Biology (CMB) Program, effective August 1.
UCSF School of Dentistry Dean John Featherstone, MSc, PhD, and Rik Derynck, PhD, professor and vice chair of the Department of Cell and Tissue Biology, announced the appointment on Wednesday.
Featherstone thanked Derynck for initiating the CMB Program and for being instrumental in obtaining and organizing the space in Health Sciences East on the Parnassus campus where it is housed.
The CMB Program is based in the UCSF School of Dentistry, and involves investigators in the dental school and the UCSF School of Medicine who have interests in the craniofacial complex and mesenchymal biology.
Derynck will continue in his role as co-director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, which will facilitate continued interactions between the CMB Program and the center.
In his new role as director of the CMB Program, Klein will report directly to Dean Featherstone. In the near future, Klein will have an open meeting with all members of the UCSF community who are interested in craniofacial and mesenchymal biology, to present a vision for the CMB Program, obtain feedback, and provide an opportunity for people to put forward new ideas.
Klein also would like to meet over the next few months with members of each of the four dental school departments to discuss goals and to solicit input from members of the school who are not directly involved in the CMB Program.
A Bay Area native, Klein received his BA from UC Berkeley and his MD and PhD degrees from Yale Medical School, where he also completed a pediatric residency. He performed his postdoctoral and clinical genetics training at UCSF, where he is now an assistant professor of Orofacial Sciences and Pediatrics.
Klein’s research efforts focus on genetic control of the development of craniofacial structures. He is board certified in Pediatrics and Clinical Genetics, and his clinical practice is at the UCSF Center for Craniofacial Anomalies.
Klein has received several honors, including a Culpepper Scholarship, a New Faculty Award from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a Basil O’Connor Award from the March of Dimes, and election to the Society for Pediatric Research.
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