Michael Teitell, M.D., Ph.D.

Michael Teitell is an immunologist and cancer biologist who has been on the UCLA School of Medicine faculty since joining the Departments of Pathology/Laboratory Medicine and Pediatrics in 1999. He has been Chief of the Division of Pediatric and Neonatal Pathology since 2001 and was promoted to Associate Professor of Pathology and Pediatrics in 2004. Dr. Teitell earned B.S. and M.S. combined degrees as a Departmental Scholar in Biochemistry from UCLA in 1985, and earned combined M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the UCLA Medical Scientist Training Program in 1993. His Ph.D. studies were in molecular and cellular immunology. He performed residencies in Anatomic Pathology at Harvard/Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Clinical Pathology at UCSF and a fellowship in Pediatric Pathology at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He is board-certified in each of these pathology specialties. He was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA, Harvard/BWH and UCSF before returning to UCLA as a Clinical Instructor in Pathology in 1999. Currently, Dr. Teitell is a Professor in the Departments of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Pediatrics, and Bioengineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the Chief of the Division of Pediatric and Neonatal Pathology, Director of the Cancer Nanotechnology Program in the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Director of the NIH Tumor Immunology Training Program, Co-Director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center Bioengineering Core, a member of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) Executive Steering Committee, and a member of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) Executive Committee. Dr. Teitell was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigators and was a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar and a Stohlman Scholar. His research lab studies the function of human pluripotent stem cells through the collaborative generation of novel investigative nanotools, including a photothermal nanoblade and a live cell interferometer. Recent studies of embryonic stem cell mitochondrial metabolism have shown parallel changes with cancer cells, suggesting a common mechanism for energy generation and a potential new therapeutic angle. His lab was the first to generate a genetic small animal model for the major types of immune system malignancies that occur in humans that is used by laboratories worldwide. He also collaboratively developed new nanoscale methods for quantifying cell responses to environmental perturbations, both internal and external, in real-time as a new approach for quantifying cellular behavior and responses one cell at a time within a population.