Reuben A. Hogan
- Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD)
- University of California, San Francisco
Contact Information
Education
Washington University in Saint Louis, Saint Louis, Missouri, B.A., Biochemistry, 2014
University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, MD/PhD Candidate 2027
Biography
Originally from New Orleans, LA, Reuben graduated with his Bachelor's in Biochemistry and a minor in Anthropology from Washington University in Saint Louis. He is now pursuing his MD/PhD in the UCSF MSTP and currently rotating in the Raffai Lab, one of the few labs at UCSF studying lipoproteins. As a rotation student, he is studying the mechanism by which RNA associates with lipoproteins and how this influences extracellular RNA delivery. His ultimate goal is to understand what species of lipoproteins are responsible for RNA transport in the body and how RNA is transferred into the cell for functional use. His plan is to ultimately engineer lipoproteins to accomplish focused tasks in the circulatory system such as delivery of nucleic acids, small molecules, and proteins.
Research Overview
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one cause of death both nationally and globally. One risk factor that is associated with CVD is an elevated level of blood cholesterol. Cholesterol is transported via a class of physiological carriers called lipoproteins. Lipoproteins are heterogeneous. They occur in different sizes and densities with different lipid and protein compositions. Which lipoproteins and which of their aforementioned characteristics are associated with increased CVD risk is a subject of debate.
Having worked in the lab of Andreas Stahl, PhD, at University of California, Berkeley, Reuben became interested in lipoproteins from the perspective of the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) receptor SRB1. However, he became enthralled with their wide diversity. It was reported by Kasey Vickers, PhD, that HDL can carry miRNAs, nucleic acids with regulatory function, and transfer them to certain tissues to yield transcriptional effects in the recipient tissue. The exact mechanism by which this happens is still unknown. The full diversity of nucleic acids available on HDL and other lipoproteins has not been largely explored.
Reuben is interested in studying these lipoproteins in more depth, particularly from the extracellular RNA perspective. Understanding how the diversity of lipoproteins relates to the types of nucleic acids that they are able to carry is a significant step in understanding their association with CVD. Moreover, Reuben is interested in harnessing the capacity of these lipoproteins to intentionally deliver nucleic acids to specific tissues. Therefore, he aims to study these physiological carriers of diverse cargo to engineer them as a tool for medicine.