Principal Investigator
Andrew Goldstein, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Undergraduate Education in the Department of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology. He is also an Associate Professor of Urology, Chair and Executive Director of the Biomedical Research Minor, and a member of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA. Dr. Goldstein attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire where he majored in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and was a two-time NCAA Division 1 All-American lacrosse player. Dr. Goldstein moved to UCLA where he completed his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. Owen Witte, isolating epithelial progenitor cells from mouse and human prostate tissue and demonstrating the capacity of progenitor cells to respond to oncogenic transformation. This work included the first demonstration of a cell of origin for human prostate cancer reported in Science Magazine. In 2011, Dr. Goldstein became the Inaugural fellow of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center and received a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award and a Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program Idea Development Award to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms promoting epithelial cancer initiation, progression and resistance to treatment. Dr. Goldstein was awarded the 2018 Giants of Science Hope Award from the American Cancer Society, a 2019 Young Investigator Award from the Society for Basic Urologic Research, and a 2024 UCLA Division of Life Sciences Excellence in Research Award. His research is currently supported by the NIH and DOD. He loves research, teaching and mentoring the incredible undergraduate and graduate students at UCLA.
graduate STUDENTS
Matthew Bernard is a graduate student in UCLA’s Molecular Biology Interdepartmental Program (MBIDP), entered through the Gene Regulation, Epigenomics and Transcriptomics (GREAT) home area. Matt joined the lab in 2020 and was awarded a Cellular & Molecular Biology Training Grant and a KUH-ART Training Grant at UCLA. Matt is a co-author on a 2023 paper in Cell Reports.
Shirley Zhang is a graduate student in UCLA’s Molecular & Medical Pharmacology PhD program. She joined the lab in 2023 and is studying the role of aging and germline variants in prostate cancer risk. She earned a 2024 fellowship from the Center for Reproductive Science Health and Education and a pre-doctoral fellowship from the Broad Stem Cell Research Center.
Angel Ruiz is a graduate student in UCLA’s Molecular Biology Interdepartmental Program (MBIDP), entering through the Cell and Developmental Biology (CDB) home area. Angel joined the lab in 2024 and is investigating mitochondrial biology in advanced prostate cancer.
Alan Levinson is a graduate student in the Bioengineering PhD program mentored by Dr. Neil Lin and co-mentored by Dr. Goldstein. Alan received a prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) from the National Science Foundation. He is working on bioengineering approaches to model human prostate development and tumorigenesis, focusing on both epithelium and nerves.
undergraduate STUDENTS
Kylie Heering first volunteered in the lab over the summer as a high school student in 2018. Today, she is an undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology and minoring in Anthropology with particular interests in cancer biology and the somatic manifestations of culture and environment. She has been working to understand the role of altered mitochondrial dynamics in response to androgen deprivation.
Sachi Bopardikar is an undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology and minoring in Biomedical Research. She is interested in cancer biology and aging, and is currently working on developing new organoid models of human prostate cancer to investigate tumor development and evolution. She was awarded a scholarship from UCLA’s Undergraduate Research Fellows Program (URFP).
Ernie Lee is an undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology and minoring in Biomedical Research. He is interested in the role of ancestry-specific germline variants that increase risk of cancer. He is working with organoid culture to model different inherited mutations to determine how they influence progenitor features and susceptibility to transformation.
researchers
Nick Nunley completed his undergraduate degree at UCLA after transferring from Santa Monica College, majoring in Biochemistry with an interest in computational biology. He is currently working collaboratively with Dr. Paul Boutros, while also investigating the interplay between metabolism and androgen receptor inhibition in prostate cancer.
Johnny Diaz is a former undergraduate who majored in Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology with a minor in Biomedical Research. Johnny was supported by a UCLA Center for Academic & Research Excellence (CARE) Scholarship to investigate the effects of distinct oncogenes and oncogene combinations on prostate epithelial cells. He won a poster award from UCLA’s MCDB Departmental Retreat in 2018 and 2019 and one of three Senior Undergraduate Research Awards from UCLA’s MCDB Department. He has been an author on 5 papers from the lab. Johnny is working collaboratively with Dr. Neil Lin to develop better 3D models of prostate cancer.
former lab members
Jenna Giafaglione is a former graduate student in UCLA’s Molecular Biology Interdepartmental Program (MBIDP), entering through the Cell & Developmental Biology (CDB) home area. Jenna’s interests in both cancer biology and computational biology led to an effective co-mentorship with Dr. Paul Boutros, a Professor in the Department of Human Genetics at UCLA. During her PhD, she was awarded a Cellular & Molecular Biology Training Grant, a Broad Stem Cell Research Center Pre-Doctoral Training Grant, a Whitcome Fellowship, and the Dissertation Year Fellowship at UCLA. She was co-first author on a 2019 methods paper in the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE), second author on a 2023 Cell Reports paper, and first author on a paper that has been accepted to Nature Cell Biology. She defended her thesis in 2023 and is now working in the biotech industry.
Preston Crowell is a former graduate student in UCLA's Molecular Biology Interdepartmental Program (MBIDP), entering through the Cell & Developmental Biology (CDB) home area. Preston studied the role of metabolic pathways in prostate progenitor cells and tumorigenesis. He was awarded a Cellular & Molecular Biology Training Grant and a Broad Stem Cell Research Center Pre-Doctoral Training Grant at UCLA. He was co-first author on two articles in 2019 published in Cell Reports and the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE), and first author on a 2023 Cell Reports paper. He successfully defended his thesis in 2022 and is now working in the biotech industry.
Takao Hashimoto, M.D., Ph.D. is a former Staff Research Associate and lab manager. Takao worked on multiple projects in the lab and generated new lentiviral vectors to study the role of oncogene combinations in prostate cancer. He has been an author on 11 publications from the lab since 2016.
Aishwarya Atmakuri is a former undergraduate student who majored in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology. She was awarded a scholarship from UCLA’s Undergraduate Research Fellows Program (URFP) and won several prizes including the Library Prize and the Dean’s Prize for Undergraduate Research. She worked with prostate organoid models to understand how metabolism influences androgen signaling and response to androgen receptor inhibition and is now headed to Medical School at the University of Chicago.
Rachel Dove was an undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics and minoring in Biomedical Research. With interests in cancer biology and immunology, she worked on developing new models to investigate interactions between transformed human prostate epithelium and immune cells. She was awarded a scholarship from UCLA’s Undergraduate Research Fellows Program (URFP) .
Amelie Delcourt is a former undergradate who majored in Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology with a Minor in Biomedical Research. She completed the Biomedical Sciences Enrichment Program (BISEP) and the Program for Excellence in Education and Research in the Sciences (PEERS) at UCLA. Amelie was awarded a scholarship from the Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) program and won a poster award at the 2019 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). She is now in graduate school at UCSF in the TETRAD program.
Jazmin Michel Mondragon is a former undergraduate who majored in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology and completed UCLA’s Biomedical Sciences Enrichment Program (BISEP) in 2019. She was awarded a scholarship from the Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) program in 2020 and graduated in 2022.
Jonathan Fox is a former undergraduate who majored in Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology with a minor in Biomedical Research. In the laboratory, Jonathan characterized immune cells in the prostate using mass cytometry. At the 2017 MCDB Departmental Retreat, Jonathan took home the Best Poster Prize in the Undergraduate category. In 2019, he published a first author paper in the American Journal of Clinical and Experimental Urology and co-first author paper in Cell Reports. He is currently attending the USC-Cal Tech MD-PhD program.
Ana Cabrera is a former undergraduate who majored in Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics. Ana studied the role of NAD+ metabolism in prostate cancer.