Steve Dowdy
Professor University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Dowdy is a cancer biologist, specializing in RNAi therapeutics and G1 cell cycle control. He received his PhD in Molecular Genetics from UC Irvine with Eric Stanbridge (1990) working on tumor suppressor genes and performed his postdoctoral fellowship with Bob Weinberg at MIT working on the biochemistry of the Rb tumor suppressor gene (1990-1994). From 1994-2001, He was an Assistant Professor at Washington University School of Medicine. In 2001, He moved his lab to UCSD School of Medicine, where he is a Professor in the Dept. of Cellular & Molecular Medicine. He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator for 18 years (1994-2012). Dr. Dowdy’s lab developed the synthesis of RNAi triggers containing neutral, bioreversible phosphotriester groups to increase stability and deliverability. He serves/have served on Science Advisory Boards for biotechs, pharmas and non-profit institutes. He is currently a co-founder and Board Director of Solstice Biologics, an RNAi biotech.
Seminars
- Gain insights from a leading researcher in endosomal escape on why overcoming this barrier remains a central challenge for the next generation of oligonucleotide therapeutics
- Understand the mechanistic gap between cellular uptake and functional cytosolic delivery, including why many internalised oligonucleotides fail to reach their intended site of action
- Evaluate emerging endosomal escape strategies and distinguish approaches showing genuine promise from those that remain early-stage or speculative
