UCSF Academic Senate’s Sixty-Eighth Annual Faculty Research Lecture in Basic Science Awarded to Jason Cyster, PhD
The Academic Senate is pleased to announce the selection of Jason Cyster, PhD, as recipient of the Sixty-Eighth Annual Faculty Research Lectureship in Basic Science for his pioneering scientific discoveries in the study of immunology. The lecture, titled “Scent of a Follicle: Deciphering the Guidance Cue Code for Humoral Immunity” will take place on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, from 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. on Parnassus Campus, location TBD, with a small reception to follow. There will also be a Zoom broadcast. A calendar event is attached for you to add to your calendar and share with friends and colleagues.
Lecture Title: Scent of a Follicle: Deciphering the Guidance Cue Code for Humoral Immunity
Date/Time: Thursday, May 12, 2026, at 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
Location: Parnassus Campus, location TBD with Zoom broadcast
Zoom: https://tiny.ucsf.edu/may12frl
Passcode: 751261
UCSF Events Calendar: 68th Faculty Research Lecture in Basic Science Event
Dr. Jason Cyster is recognized as an international leader in the field of immunology. In his career, he has made landmark contributions to the fundamental understanding of lymphocyte trafficking and positioning and has made multiple seminal contributions identifying key regulators of lymphocyte function. Dr. Cyster’s lab uses elegant conditional genetics, microscopy, and classical biochemistry, along with a range of cutting-edge technologies, to address key unanswered questions in the field.
Dr. Cyster’s lab helped to define the mode of action of a compound that inhibits lymphocyte egress. This compound was approved for treatment of several autoimmune diseases and became the first oral drug approved for treatment of multiple sclerosis. His lab has also published critical work on the in vivo selection of B cells in response to self and foreign antigens using state-of-the-art tools. This work has transformed immunology and has profound implications for the fields of infectious disease, immunodeficiency, and autoimmunity and for the rational implementation of cancer immunotherapies.
Dr. Cyster has a distinguished record of mentoring young scientists. He oversees the junior faculty mentoring program in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. He motivates trainees by conveying how challenging and rigorous experiments will move research forward, and he instills his sense of drive and focus into students and postdocs alike. Many of his trainees have become successful independent investigators in academia and industry. Their scientific focus has evolved in varying directions over time, but they share the critical imprint of experimental rigor, intensive focus on delineating mechanism, and fundamental biological insight about questions that matter, which are the essential features of Dr. Cyster’s philosophy of science.
Dr. Cyster is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the School of Medicine. In addition to his many contributions to UCSF, he is a Vice Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, served as Director for the Biomedical Sciences (BMS) graduate program from 2005-2014 and of the graduate Immunology course from 2017-2024, and as co-chair of the UCSF Sandler Fellows program for 14 years. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Cyster has won important awards in the field of immunology, including the Biolengend Herzenberg Award and selection as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Association of Immunologists.
Since 1957, this award has been bestowed on an individual member of the UCSF faculty who has made a distinguished record in basic science. Nominations are made by UCSF faculty, who consider scientific research contributions of their colleagues and submit nominations for this prestigious award to the Academic Senate Committee on Research. Each year, the Committee on Research selects the recipient of this award.