Research Areas:
Stem Cell Biology, Muscle Stem Cell Aging, Muscular Dystrophies, Tissue Engineering and Basic Muscle Cell Biology

Prof. Thomas Rando received his PhD in Cell Biology from Harvard University in 1987. He completed his residency training in neurology at the University of California San Francisco, after which he pursued postdoctoral research at Stanford University where he joined the faculty in 1995 in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences. At Stanford, he was the Founding Director of the Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, Founding Director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic, Chief of Neurology at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center, Director of the Center for Regeneration, Repair, and Restoration, and Deputy Director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. He joined the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2021 and is currently the Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. He is also a Professor in the Department of Neurology and in the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology.

Research in Prof. Rando’s laboratory lies at the intersection of basic stem cell biology and the biology of aging. His research has revealed how stem cells respond to cues from their environment to modulate their ability to maintain tissues or engage in tissue repair. His laboratory is credited with pioneering the use of heterochronic parabiosis in the study of stem cell aging. Those studies have revealed how factors in blood can promote stem cell activity in young individuals and suppress it in older individuals. This work has led to novel clinical trials for age-related disorders.

Prof. Rando has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and has trained over 100 students, fellows, and visiting scholars, most of whom have continued in biomedical research careers. He has received numerous honors and awards for his work, including an National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Pioneer Award, an Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar Award in Aging, the “Breakthroughs in Gerontology” Award from the American Federation for Aging Research, and a Transformative Research Award from the NIH. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.