Meet the Lab

  • Anna Molofsky, MD/PhD

    Principal Investigator

  • Nick Mroz, PhD

    Staff scientist/lab manager

    Neuro-immune crosstalk in brain injury and infection.

  • Sarah Anderson, PhD

    Postdoctoral Fellow

    Microglial phagocytosis in genetic models of neurodevelopmental disorders.

  • Ran Cao, PhD

    Postdoctoral Fellow

    Biochemistry of cytokine signaling in human cells.

  • Pailin Chiaranunt, PhD

    Schmidt Science Fellow

    Mechanisms of brain-body communication in infection models.

  • Caroline Escoubas, MD/PhD

    Postdoctoral Fellow, Immunology T32

    Type I interferon signaling in brain development and plasticity.

  • Miray Girguis

    Staff Research Associate

  • Ricardo Guajardo

    MSTP Student, Neuroscience graduate program, Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow

    Extracellular matrix regulation of learning and memory.

  • Richard Jin, MD/PhD

    Psychiatry research Fellow, A.P. Giannini Fellow

    Impact of early life viral infection on brain and behavior.

  • Dong Kyu Kim, PhD

    BrightFocus Postdoctoral Fellow

    Cytokine signaling in animal models of neurodegenerative disease.

  • Jisu Park, PhD

    Postdoctoral Fellow

    Extracellular matrix proteins in aging.

  • Lisa Randolph, PhD

    Weill Neurohub Postdoctoral Fellow

    Zebrafish models of interferon function and microglial phagocytosis.

  • Ashley Starnes

    Neuroscience Graduate Student

    Extracellular matrix proteins in brain function

  • Sarah Wade

    Neuroscience Graduate Student

    Novel technologies to visualize brain-immune interactions.

  • Molofsky Lab, 2017

  • Molofsky Lab, 2018

  • Molofsky Lab, 2020

  • Molofsky Lab, Phi's Graduation, 2021

  • Bubble Soccer, 2021

  • Molofsky Lab, 2022

  • Kayaking Retreat, 2024

Current Undergraduates and Volunteers

Keira Nakamura, Stanford

Molofsky Lab Alumni

Postdoctoral Fellows

Kevin Kelley, 2016-2017, Psychiatry research resident, Stanford

Ilia Vainchtein, 2016-2021, Scientist, Janssen Pharmaceuticals

Rafael Han, 2018-2022, Assistant Professor, Korea Institute of Technology

Nick Silva, 2019-2024, Assistant Professor, San Francisco State University

Haruna Nakajo, 2020-2025, Assistant Professor, National Institute of Genetics, Japan

Graduate Students

Phi Nguyen, 2016-2021, Postdoctoral fellow, Columbia University

Leah Dorman, 2016-2022, Scientist, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub

Marci Rosenberg, 2018-2023, Medical student, UCSF

Jerika Barron, 2017-2022, [postdoc 2022-2024], Scientist, Arc Institute

Postbacs and Technicians

Hiromi Inoue, 2015-2020, Lab administrator, Kyoto University

John Miller, 2014-2016

Greg Chin, 2016-2018, MSTP Student Oregon Health Sciences University

Sarah Wang, 2018-2019, Medical Student, Albert Einstein

Jorge Ortiz-Carpena, 2017-2019, Immunology Graduate Student, UPenn

Sunrae Taloma, 2019-2021, Neuroscience Graduate Student, UCSF

Christian Lagares-Linares, 2021-2023, Neuroscience Graduate Student, Harvard

Jason Dennis, 2023-2025

Sunny Mula, 2023-2025, MSTP Student, UCSF

Visiting Fellows

Emily Harrington, 2017, UCSF Neurology

Lucasz Szweczyk, 2016, University of Warsaw

Tessa Johung, 2020, UCSF Neurology

Danielle Cozachenko, 2023, visiting graduate student, UFRJ

Undergraduates and Volunteers

Eliott Chien, 2015-2016, UCB

Olga Vayefa, 2017, SRTP

Adriana Ivich 2018, SRTP

Ellen Wang, 2019, SRTP

Brigita Widiarto, 2019, UCB

Aksah Joshi, 2019, UCB

Nadine Horneck, 2019, UCB

Oseas Medina, 2021, UCSF Medical student

Melanie Castro, 2023, UCB

Vicky Lam, 2023, UCI

Elizaveta Kaminskaya, 2024, UCB

Emmalyn Irvin, 2024, University of Utah

Ahilan Eraniyan, 2024, Duke University

Prongha Talukder, 2025, UCB

Muskaan Shah, 2025, UCB

Juan Rojas, 2024-2025, SFSU

Giovanna Rodrigues, 2025, University of São Paulo

Katyanna Quach, 2025, CCSF

Ariel Zheng, 2025, Reed College