David Brenner, MD, is the president and CEO of Sanford Burnham Prebys. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Brenner spent more than 15 years as vice chancellor for Health Sciences at UC San Diego. He is a leader in the field of liver research and is widely respected for his work advancing laboratory discoveries to the clinic setting. At Sanford Burnham Prebys, Dr. Brenner is continuing his research on fibrotic liver disease and liver cancer, using this as the foundation for preventing and treating liver disease. He is a former editor-in-chief of Gastroenterology, the premier journal in the field.
Dr. Brenner has been instrumental in starting several multidisciplinary efforts in San Diego, including the Institute for Engineering in Medicine, the Institute for Genomic Medicine, the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, the UC San Diego Sanford Clinical Stem Cell Program, and the C3 Cancer Center Consortium (comprising UC San Diego, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Sanford Burnham Prebys).
Dr. Brenner earned his MD from the Yale University School of Medicine. He was chief of Gastroenterology at the University of North Carolina and Chair of Medicine at Columbia University, before joining UC San Diego in 2007. His professional memberships include the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians (of which he is a past president), and an NIH National Council. At UC San Diego, he led the unprecedented expansion of the medical school. He has also served as a Pew Scholar and as a Clinical Investigator in the Veteran Affairs system.