Steven Cole, PhD

Steven Cole is a Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences and Medicine in the Division of Hematology-Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  Dr. Cole pioneered the field of human social genomics through his research utilizing molecular genetics and computational bioinformatics to map the pathways by which social and environmental factors influence the activity of the human genome, as well as viral and cancer genomes.  His research mapped the first full psychobiological pathway through which a social risk factor influenced a human disease outcome (closeting in HIV infection), and he discovered the “Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity” that mediates health disparities via neural regulation of inflammatory genes and antiviral genes in monocytes.  He collaborates with more than 200 research teams world-wide as Director of the UCLA Social Genomics Core Laboratory, and is a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Norman Cousins Center, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.