The Research Team

Dr. Bensinger received his veterinary medical degree and his doctoral degree in Immunology from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a thesis on regulatory T-cell development and function in the laboratory of Dr. Laurence Turka, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Tontonoz at UCLA, where he examined the impact of lipid metabolism on T-cell growth and survival. Dr. Bensinger has received several professional honors, including the Sontag Foundation Distinguished Scientist Award and the 2016 UCLA Life Sciences Excellence Award for Outstanding Research. In 2018, Dr. Bensinger received the Sherie and Donald Morrison Chair in Immunology. Dr. Bensinger’s interests outside the lab includes hiking, mountain biking, watching his kids play soccer, and baking.  

Kevin Williams did his PhD work in the lab of Dr. Stephen Smale studying
transcriptional regulation in the immune response. During his post-doctoral
fellowship in Steven Bensinger lab, Kevin studied SREBP regulation of the lipid
metabolic program in cancer cell models. This work required a number of lipid
mass spectrometry experiments and led to his involvement in numerous projects in
the lab involving isotope labeling and high throughput sample preparation for mass
spectrometry. In 2017, Kevin leveraged this expertise to launch the UCLA
Lipidomics Lab with professors Steven Bensinger and James Wohlschlegel. This
core facility now analyzes thousands of samples per year and supports lipidomic
research all around the world.

Dr. Richard Watson is a pulmonary and critical care physician with a joint appointment at UCLA and the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare System. He is currently completing his postdoctoral studies in the Bensinger Lab. Originally from metro Detroit, Richard completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan before going to Northwestern University for a combined MD/PhD program.  Following medical school, he completed an internal medicine residency at Cedars-Sinai, followed by a pulmonary/critical care fellowship at UCLA. Richard joined the Bensinger Lab in March 2020, partway through his fellowship training. His project focuses on understanding the role of lipid immunometabolism in pulmonary disease. Initial studies are aimed at understanding specifically the role of fatty acid metabolism and stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) function in pulmonary fibrosis, mirroring his clinical focus. Outside of the lab, Richard enjoys spending time with his wife (a fellow scientist and current professor at UC Irvine), dog, two cats, and friends. Between science and medicine, Richard tries to find time to explore LA, go to concerts/music festivals, and take advantage of the continuous perfect weather by running, golfing, surfing, and mountain biking.

Alessandro received his Veterinary Medicine degree in 2014 and his Ph.D. degree in 2019 from the University of Padua, Italy. He completed a thesis on mammary gland cancer of dogs, cats, and women. Thanks to the support of the American-Italian Cancer Foundation, in 2020, he joined Dr Badr Lab at the Massachusetts General Hospital as a postdoctoral fellow, where he studied the efficacy of a brain-penetrant SCD inhibitor to treat glioblastoma and breast cancer brain metastasis. In 2021, Alessandro moved to Los Angeles in Dr Bensinger Lab as a postdoctoral fellow to study more in depth the role of lipid metabolism in cancer cells as well as in immune cells in brain tumors. Also, he is exploring the role of lipid metabolism during maturation and activation of dendritic cells and how perturbation of lipid metabolism determines their function. Beside science, Alessandro loves biking. When he is not in the lab, you can likely find him on his road bike in the stunning cycling climbs of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Tianheng received his M.S. from SJTU (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) majoring in pharmacy and his Ph.D. from CUHK (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) majoring in immunology. His Ph.D. research focused on elucidating the cytokine and chemokine network and intracellular signal mechanism in allergic diseases. He recently joined the Bensinger lab as a postdoctoral scholar. In the Bensinger lab, He was interested in lipid metabolism and the interaction between lipids and genes. Outside the lab, Tianheng loves to watch movies, listen to top trending sounds, and walk around the city with friends.

Min Sub received his undergraduate degree in 2017 from UCLA in Microbiology and Immunology, with a specialty in Economics & Finances. He started as a graduate student in the Bensinger lab during the summer of 2019. His thesis project is focused on understanding the regulation and remodeling of lipid homeostasis in innate immune cells and how this alters their fate and function.  Min-Sub is also study if lipid metabolic reprogramming can be exploited to protect tissues and cells from bacterial toxins that target plasma membrane lipids as a novel approach to decreasing the severe tissue damage observed in necrotizing soft tissue infections.

Kelly is a senior graduate student and a Gilliam/HHMI scholar. She grew up in Seattle and later attended University of Washington where she received her BS in Biochemistry. She then moved down to Los Angeles and began working as a research associate in the Forman Lab at City of Hope. There, she developed and optimized CAR T cells for the treatment of bone metastatic prostate cancer. After four years at City of Hope, she began graduate school at UCLA. She now works in the lab of Dr. Steven Bensinger exploring questions regarding the crosstalk between lipid metabolism and T cell immunity. Her current projects include applying advanced mass spectrometry–based analytic approaches to explore the relationship between lipid composition and T cell function in healthy and disease states.

Ian graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas in 2016 and his research is focused on identifying the mechanism by which cholesterol regulates STING-dependent IFN signaling. He uses a number of tools to investigate regulation of STING by cholesterol, including but not limited to a photo-crosslinkable cholesterol-mimetic probe for chemoproteomic methods and confocal microscopy to assess activity-dependent translocation. These findings will allow us to begin to unravel the tangled web of links between sterol metabolism and immune activity, and potentially allow for the development of new therapies for IFN-linked autoimmune disorders and enhancement of current anti-tumor immunotherapy approaches. 

Palik received her B.S. in Physiological Science from UCLA in 2021. Prior to that, she was a pharmacy student at LIU, Lebanon. She joined the Bensinger lab in 2022 as a staff research associate. Her project entails investigating the lipid metabolism of various genetic background models with the activation of macrophages with different stimuli of TLR agonists to see how the lipid composition changes. Outside of the lab, Palik enjoys hiking, swimming, traveling and sightseeing.

Jon received his B.S in Biochemistry from UCLA in 2022. He joined the Bensinger Lab in the summer the same year assisting with ongoing projects related to lipid metabolism and immune response in addition to lab maintenance. Outside of lab Jon enjoys spending time with his two cats , playing video games and cooking.

Gino received his B.S in statistics from UCLA. His works in the lipidomics core involve lipid mass spectrometry data analysis, modeling and data processing pipeline.

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Margarita has been working with the members of the Bensinger lab for over 15 years. She provides amazing support to all of the studies in the lab and is integral part of our success. 

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Austin is a fourth year undergraduate majoring in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. His studies in the lab involve characterizing how deficiencies of cholesterol homeostatic genes in macrophages influence their inflammatory response. He enjoys playing basketball, golf and exploring restaurants around LA.

Natalie is a fourth year undergraduate majoring in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics. Her studies in the lab involve characterizing how cholesterol metabolic machinery of T cells influence their growth and function.

Naman is an undergraduate Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology major graduating in 2024. His studies in lab revolve around the effect of statins on T lymphocyte function. Some of his hobbies are playing the saxophone, watching k-dramas, and watching the NBA.

Megan is a 3rd year majoring in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics. Her work in Path 2 will study the link between perturbed cholesterol homeostasis and STING. Some of her hobbies include going to amusement parks, playing video games, and watching horror movies.