Director, Sanford Stem Cell Institute
Director, CIRM UC San Diego Alpha Stem Cell Clinic
Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of Regenerative Medicine
Sanford Stem Cell Institute Chancellors Endowed Chair in Regenerative Medicine
University of California San Diego

Catriona Jamieson, M.D., Ph.D., is a leading physician-scientist in the pre-cancer and cancer stem cell biology fields who discovered missplicing, RNA hyper-editing, and splice isoform switching as mechanisms governing human cancer stem cell maintenance in selective niches.

Dr. Jamieson’s discoveries and pioneering cancer stem cell research have informed the development of cancer stem cell targeted therapies, including JAK2 and sonic hedgehog inhibitor trials, which resulted in three FDA approvals for myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) and leukemia. Her research expertise is in studying myeloproliferative disorders (MPDs) and leukemia, specifically examining the mutant stem cells and progenitor cells in myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Dr. Jamieson has extensive experience in development of stem cell models and therapies, including small molecule drugs, as well as commercialization of these technologies. At the Sanford Stem Cell Institute, Dr. Jamieson and her team are examining the links between aging and systemic inflammation-related microenvironmental and macroenvironmental stressors that promote pre-cancer initiation and malignant transformation of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. As part of the NASA Integrated Space Stem Cell Orbital Research (ISSCOR) program, Dr. Jamieson has led the engineering of human hematopoietic stem cell and tumor organoid nanobioreactors and development of multi-omic and functional analytical methods to determine stem cell fitness before, during, and after space flight on 10 mission to the International Space Station.

Dr. Jamieson received the 2017 MPN Hero’s Award, the Moores Cancer Center Rell Sunn Award in 2020, and the Top Doctor for the 13th consecutive year by Castle Connolly in 2024. She has served as a keynote speaker on stem cells and pre-cancer and was awarded the UC San Diego Academic Senate Distinguished Research Award in 2023, the Precision Medicine World Conference Luminary Award in 2024, and the International Space Station (ISS) Research & Development Compelling Results Award and Space Research Trailblazer Award in 2024. Her visionary leadership resulted in the single largest gift in the history of UC San Diego, for $150 million from T. Denny Sanford, resulting in the creation of the Sanford Stem Cell Institute.