Dr. Anastasia Keller is an assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery, UCSF. She is also a Principal Investigator at the San Francisco VA Health Care System.

Dr. Keller�s research experience in neuroscience covers two large themes 1) sensorimotor dysfunction driven by nociceptive mechanisms and 2) application of non-invasive neuromodulation in spinal cord injury (SCI) and chronic low back pain (cLBP). She has specific interests in pain neurobiology, maladaptive plasticity, and neuromodulation (e.g. electrical spinal cord stimulation) as a form of rehabilitation post-CNS trauma and pain. As a member of UCSF Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC) as well as the Core Center for Patient-centric, Mechanistic Phenotyping in Chronic Low Back Pain (UCSF REACH), Dr. Keller conducts clinical and analytical research.

Andrew Kayser MD PhD is the Howard Weinberger Endowed Professor of Neurology at UCSF, and a principal investigator within the Alcohol and Addiction Research Group. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at UCSF, then completed his medical internship at Stanford University and his neurology residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women�s Hospital in Boston. After serving one year as chief resident, he completed a behavioral neurology fellowship at UCSF and a post-doctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley, where he studied the cognitive neuroscience of learning and decision making. His laboratory uses computational modeling, neuropharmacology, functional MRI, and multivariate connectivity methods to study higher-order decision making and the influence of various interventions on complex behaviors. In particular, his lab seeks to understand how failures of self-regulation, including attentional and mnemonic impairments, manifest in neurological and psychiatric illnesses, and how augmenting top-down control � reflected neurophysiologically in the ability of prefrontal cortex to influence activity in posterior cortical and subcortical brain regions � may provide the basis for new therapies.

Anne Richards, M.D., M.P.H., is a PTSD and sleep researcher in the Stress and Health Research Program at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.  Dr. Richards completed her undergraduate education at Harvard University and subsequently received her M.D. and M.P.H. from Columbia University. Dr. Richards has expertise in the treatment of PTSD and sleep disorders gained through years of experience treating male and female veterans with PTSD with medication and psychotherapy. In 2015, she transitioned from a predominantly clinical role at the SFVAMC/UCSF to a research-focused career at SFVA/UCSF. She conducts both translational and clinical research.  She is the Principal Investigator for The Richards Lab at UCSF, whose fundamental mission is to advance treatment for veterans and other individuals suffering from stress-related sleep disturbances and mental illness.

Dr. Schafer is an endocrinologist who focuses on skeletal health. One of her research emphases is osteoporosis treatment. She also studies the relationships between bone, fat, and glucose metabolism. Currently, she is investigating the effects of bariatric surgery (weight loss surgery) on calcium metabolism and skeletal health.

Anthony J. Baker, Ph.D. has a longstanding interest in the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate cardiac muscle contraction in health and disease. We use multiple approaches to monitor cardiac function in experimental preparations that span a range of complexity from contraction of myofilaments in-vitro, intact single cells, electrically stimulated intact cardiac muscle, intact hearts in-vitro, and intact hearts in-vivo. A major goal is to investigate new therapies to treat heart failure.

Heart failure is a leading cause of death and disability and new therapies are needed to treat this devastating disease. Research in the Baker lab focuses on both of the major pumping chambers of the heart, the left ventricle (LV) and right ventricle (RV).

We are investigating the mechanisms causing failure of the LV subsequent to a heart attack, where blood flow stops to a region of the heart resulting in death of muscle cells in that region, termed a myocardial infarction (MI). We are studying the weakened border-zone immediately adjacent to the MI. We are investigating the mechanisms that cause gradual enlargement of this weakened border-zone, ultimately leading to dilation of the heart and LV failure. We are investigating treatments to stabilize the border-zone to slow or halt the progression to heart failure after MI.

We are also investigating the mechanisms involved in failure of the RV. RV failure is relatively understudied and poorly understood. It has been assumed that an understanding of RV failure can be extrapolated from studies of LV failure. In contrast, we have found that the RV has distinctive properties compared to the LV, and the regulation of RV contraction in heart failure differs compared to the failing LV, suggesting that treatment strategies for the failing RV should be tailored to the distinctive biology of the RV.