Ranen Aviner, PhD | Assistant Adjunct Professor, UCSF

I am an RNA biologist interested in how the regulation of protein synthesis shapes the outcomes of viral infection and other forms of human disease.

My research spans RNA metabolism, ribosome biology, translational control, and innate immunity, with a particular interest in the molecular events that determine cellular outcomes during infection and neurodegeneration. A recurring theme of my work is that the ribosome is not simply an executor of gene expression, but a regulatory hub where RNA regulation, protein biogenesis, and cellular responses converge.

From 2022 to 2025, I was a Group Leader in the Infectious Disease Program at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco, where I established and led an independent research team at the intersection of virology, RNA biology, proteomics, and neuroscience.

I previously trained with Judith Frydman at Stanford and Raul Andino at UCSF, where I developed approaches to study disease-associated changes in protein synthesis and identified cellular pathways that can be manipulated to alter disease outcomes. I received my PhD from Tel Aviv University with Orna Elroy-Stein, studying translational control of the mammalian cell cycle and developing proteomic methods to measure protein synthesis.