• Department of Pathology
  • Pathology Staff
• Department of Laboratory Medicine
  • Laboratory Medicine Staff
• Affiliated Hospitals
  • Moffitt-Long
  • Mount Zion Medical Center
  • San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center
  • San Francisco General
• Faculty
  • Pathology
  • Laboratory Medicine

Research and Clinical Interests

For the past decade, my research has focused on the extracellular matrix polymer, hyaluronan, and the hyaluronidases that degrade the polymer. This is an outgrowth of an interest in malignancies of connective tissue, stromal-epithelial interactions in cancer, and biology of the tumor matrix. My laboratory was the first to identify the family of six hyaluronidase sequences in the human genome. All of these enzymes were then sequenced, expressed, and characterized. Subsequent work has identified a previously unknown pathway for the binding, uptake and catabolism of hyaluronan. We have consistently attempted to provide an interface between basic science and clinical problems, and have generated new insights into such processes as scleroderma, fibrosing dermopathies, wound healing, and have identified new tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes.

Selected Publications

• Frost GI, Mohapatra G, Wong T, Csóka AB, and Stern R. HYAL1LuCa-1, a candidate tumor suppressor gene on chromosome 3p21.3 is inactivated in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas by incomplete splicing of pre-mRNA. Oncogene 2000;99:870-877.
• Csoka AB, Frost GI, and Stern R. The six hyaluronidase-like sequences in the human genome. Matrix Biology 2001;20: 499-508.
• Formby B, and Stern R. Lactate-sensitive response elements in genes involved in hyaluronan catabolism. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 2003; 305:203-8, 2003.
• Stern, R. Devising a pathway for hyaluronan catabolism. Are we there yet? Glycobiology 2003;13:105-115.
• Jedrzejas MJ. and Stern R. Structures of vertebrate hyaluronidases and their unique mechanisms of hydrolysis. Proteins 2005;61:227-238.

Selected Awards

• Senior Fulbright Scholar (Germany, 1984-5)
• Member, Editorial Board: University of California Press
• Member, Editorial Board: Matrix Biology
• Numerous invited lectureships
• Numerous teaching awards including “Outstanding teaching award, small group instruction, Class of 1997”

• Professor
• Pathology
• Autopsy

Specialty Area

Medical education

Contact Information

• robert.stern@ucsf.edu
• Phone: (415) 476-4961
• Fax: (415) 514-3165

• 513 Parnassus Ave., S-564
• San Francisco, CA 94143-0511

Hospital Affiliation(s)

• Moffitt-Long
• UCSF Medical Center