Alex Vu

Alex completed his undergraduate work at the University of Southern California, graduating with a BS in biochemistry and BA in music. While there, he studied the effects of altering the molecular circadian clock in liver cancer cells in the Steve Kay lab, as well as the chemical mechanisms of a novel 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction for the synthesis of organic heterocycles in the Valery Fokin lab. As a Tetrad graduate student in the Tang lab at UCSF, Alex is using genetics and cell biology approaches to understand the pathways controlling persistence of human regulatory T cells (Tregs). Hopefully, these insights can be applied to engineer more robust Treg cell therapies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as type I diabetes. In his spare time, Alex enjoys playing all sorts of strategic board games, as well as playing piano.