Paul J. Utz, MD
Photo: Paul J. Utz

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Elected 2007
Dr. Utz’s long-term research goal is to translate discoveries in the basic science of autoimmune diseases into the development of novel diagnostics and therapeutics for clinical practice. He is an innovator in technology development, inventing four novel platforms including autoantigen microarrays for autoantibody profiling (Nature Medicine, 2002; Nature Biotechnology, 2003; Nature Methods, 2006; reverse phase lysate microarrays for analyzing signaling and apoptosis pathways in cells (Nature Medicine, 2004); Journal of Immunology, 2006; Blood, In Press); on-chip capillary electrophoretic separation in 2D (Analytical Chemistry, 2003); and use of carbon nanotubes for electrical sensing of protein-protein interactions (PNAS, 2003). The goal of all technology development efforts has been to invent novel techniques that can be used at any academic medical center for hypothesis-driven research related to human disease and animal models of human disease. Technologies developed or co-developed by Dr. Utz since he joined the Stanford Faculty in September 1999 have formed the basis for ongoing human clinical trials of antigen-specific tolerizing DNA vaccines for multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes. The next decade will be spent developing the next generation of assay formats while using novel techniques for studying animal models of autoimmunity, and human patients enrolled in clinical trials.