Molecular Biology Lab Graduates
Director: Ralph Marcucio, PhD, Assistant Professor

Kathy Tsui - Staff Research Assistant

Kathy Tsui was born in San Francisco and raised in the bay area. Kathy attended the picturesque campus of the University of California at Santa Cruz. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology with a Minor in Chemistry while studying at the beach and doing homework in the redwood forests.

After receiving her degree in December 1999, Kathy began her career in plant genetics by joining the Dr. Jack Okamuro's Lab at UCSC. Using the genetic tools she gained, Kathy isolated seed size mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana to examine genes that control seed size during their development. Moving on to human genetics in 2001, Kathy joined a startup company called DNA Sciences, Inc. At DNA Sciences, Kathy used functional genomics to isolate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the genes of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). With this information, she and other researers worked towards designing genetic tests to enable physicians to screen patients for a predisposition to these diseases. Furthermore, these studies were designed to promote treatment based on genetic makeup. For a change of pace in 2002, Kathy joined the Chemistry Development group at Amersham Biosciences. Finally able to employ the Minor in Chemistry she obtained in school, Kathy tested different polymer matrices for a novel genotyping system employing microfluidic principles. Kathy found that working in the biotech industry very unfulfilling and decided that academia was a better place to be.

Today, Kathy can be found in the Orthopedic Surgery Molecular and Cellular Biology Lab at the San Francisco General Hospital. She joined Dr. Ralph Marcucio's laboratory at UCSF in 2003 and is happily doing research in an environment that teases out the mechanisms behind development. When she is not working, she can be found hiking along the coastline, climbing big rocks and cliffs or baking highly caloric desserts in her kitchen.