Tamara Alliston, PhD
Professor and Director

The University of California, San Francisco, Musculoskeletal (MSK) center was founded in the summer of 2020 by Dr. Tamara Alliston with the goal of creating actionable research to increase MSK health. 

The goal of the center is to advance discovery and clinical impact, by nucleating and integrating musculoskeletal research and facilitating collaboration among basic, translational, computational, and clinical investigators, within and beyond musculoskeletal research. Since musculoskeletal conditions are the 2nd leading burden of disease worldwide, this program will benefit human health broadly.

 Nationally and internationally renowned for her work in MSK research, Dr. Tamara Alliston is the recipient of the 2020 Adele L. Boskey Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research in recognition of her research on bone quality.  She also won the 2019 Women’s Leadership Award from the Orthopaedic Research Society for outstanding scientific contributions. Her research helped change the paradigm of how bone cells support joint health, opening the door to the development of new therapies targeting bone to prevent or reverse cartilage degeneration or improve the success of cartilage repair.  

Dr. Alliston’s collaborative approach to pushing investigation beyond the structural function of these connective tissues led to additional key discoveries, including the role of bone as an intricate mechano-sensor that coordinates metabolism and endocrine function.