Tim Behrens

Senior Staff Scientist and Director, Human Genetics

POSTDOC MENTOR

"Our group is dreaming big, and we hope to drive science forward that will ultimately change the way physicians do differential diagnosis and make treatment decisions."

• 7
  years at Genentech
• 14
  publications (2010-12)
• 15
  awards & honors

I moved to Genentech in 2006 following 20 years in academia, where my laboratory focused on three major themes: 1) the development of B lymphocytes; 2) the primary genetics of human autoimmune diseases, especially systemic lupus erythematosus; and 3) the identification of biomarkers for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Over the last few years, I have been particularly intrigued by the problem of applying cutting-edge genetic and proteomic technologies into the clinic to answer important questions like 'How active is the disease in this patient?', and 'How likely is this patient to respond to a particular drug?' I came to Genentech to build a group that can begin to answer these types of questions.

Genentech's B-cell depletion therapy for rheumatoid arthritis and perhaps other autoimmune diseases, and anti-IgE therapy for allergic asthma are two very important breakthrough treatments for patients with immunologic diseases. Both also provide unique opportunities to identify responder and non-responder subsets of patients, using samples collected from clinical trials. Since the rate-limiting step for most biomarker work is the quality and depth of the clinical data and samples, we are in a unique position at Genentech to make significant progress in this area.

• My Focus

  The group we are building is taking a disease-focused approach to the identification of biomarkers that identify subsets of patients within a given disease, markers for disease activity, and biomarkers for responders/nonresponders.

  Genentech has an incredible depth of talent across all the groups we interact with, which include bench scientists, clinical scientists, physicians, pharmacologists, and a variety of individuals in the clinical operations, regulatory, business development, and commercial groups. Although the work to identify biomarkers in diseases affecting the immune system takes time, we are hopeful that these efforts will translate eventually into better medical care of patients.

• Publications

  • Personalizing medicine for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases

    Nature Immunology, 2013, ISSN: 1529-2908

    Chan, Andrew C.; Behrens, Timothy W.

     View on PubMed

  • European genetic ancestry is associated with a decreased risk of lupus nephritis

    Arthritis and Rheumatism, 2012, ISSN: 0004-3591

    Richman, Ilana B.; Taylor, Kimberly E.; Chung, Sharon A.; Trupin, Laura; Petri, Michelle; Yelin, Edward; Graham, Robert R.; Lee, Annette; Behrens, Timothy W.; Gregersen, Peter K.; Seldin, Michael F.; Criswell, Lindsey A.

     View on PubMed

  • Heritability and Genome-Wide Association Study to Assess Genetic Differences between Advanced Age-related Macular Degeneration Subtypes

    Ophthalmology, 2012, ISSN:

    Sobrin L; Ripke S; Yu Y; Fagerness J; Bhangale TR; Tan PL; Souied EH; Buitendijk GH; Merriam JE; Richardson AJ; Raychaudhuri S; Reynolds R; Chin KA; Lee AY; Leveziel N; Zack DJ; Campochiaro P; Smith RT; Barile GR; Hogg RE; Chakravarthy U; Behrens TW; Uitterlinden AG; van Duijn CM; Vingerling JR; Brantley MA Jr; Baird PN; Klaver CC; Allikmets R; Katsanis N; Graham RR; Ioannidis JP; Daly MJ; Seddon JM.

     View on PubMed

  • The genetics of type I interferon in systemic lupus erythematosus

    Current Opinion in Immunology, 2012, ISSN:

    Bronson, Paola; Chaivorapol, Christina; Ortmann, Ward; Behrens, Timothy; Graham, Robert;

     View on PubMed

  • A mutation in APP protects against Alzheimer's disease and age-related cognitive decline

    Nature, 2012, ISSN:

    Jonsson T; Atwal JK; Steinberg S; Snaedal J; Jonsson PV; Bjornsson S; Stefansson H; Sulem P; Gudbjartsson D; Maloney J; Hoyte K; Gustafson A; Liu Y; Lu Y; Bhangale T; Graham RR; Huttenlocher J; Bjornsdottir G; Andreassen OA; Jönsson EG; Palotie A; Behrens TW; Magnusson OT; Kong A; Thorsteinsdottir U; Watts RJ; Stefansson K.

     View on PubMed

  • Association of STAT4, IRF5 and BLK polymorphisms with severity and outcome in lupus nephritis

    Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 2012, ISSN:

    Eriksson, Karin G; Zickert, Agneta; Sandling, Johanna K; Jönsen, Andreas; Rönnblom, Lars; Behrens, Timothy W; Graham, Robert R; Ortmann, Ward; Syvänen, Ann-Christine; Gunnarsson, Iva; Nordmark, Gunnel

     View on PubMed

  • High-Density SNP Mapping of the HLA Region Identifies Multiple Independent Susceptibility Loci Associated with Selective IgA Deficiency

    PLoS Genetics, 2012, ISSN: 1553-7390

    Ferreira, Ricardo C; Pan-Hammarström, Qiang; Graham, Robert R; Fontán, Gumersindo; Lee, Annette T; Ortmann, Ward; Wang, Ning; Urcelay, Elena; Fernández-Arquero, Miguel; Núñez, Concepción; Jorgensen, Gudmundur; Ludviksson, Björn R; Koskinen, Sinikka; Haimila, Katri; Padyukov, Leonid; Gregersen, Peter K; Hammarström, Lennart; Behrens, Timothy W

     View on PubMed

  • Functional Studies on the IBD Susceptibility Gene IL23R Implicate Reduced Receptor Function in the Protective Genetic Variant R381Q.

    PloS one, {PLoS-ONE}, 2011 (epub: 12 Oct 2011), vol. 6, no. 10, p. e25038, ISSN: 1932-6203.

    Pidasheva, Svetlana; Trifari, Sara; Phillips, Anne; Hackney, Jason A; Ma, Yan; Smith, Ashley; Sohn, Sue J; Spits, Hergen; Little, Randall D; Behrens, Timothy W; Honigberg, Lee; Ghilardi, Nico; Clark, Hilary F

     View on PubMed

  • The chemokine receptor CXCR7 functions to regulate cardiac valve remodeling

    Developmental Dynamics, 26 Sep 2011, v240(2), p384–393, ISSN: 1097-0177

    Sangho Yu; Dianna Crawford; Takatoshi Tsuchihashi; Timothy W. Behrens; Deepak Srivastava

     View on PubMed

  • A Plasmablast Biomarker for Nonresponse to Antibody Therapy to CD20 in Rheumatoid Arthritis.

    Science Translational Medicine, 21 Sep 2011, vol. 3, no. 101, p. 101ra92, ISSN: 1946-6234, eISSN: 1946-6242.

    Owczarczyk, Kasia; Lal, Preeti; Abbas, Alexander R; Wolslegel, Kristen; Holweg, Cecile T J; Dummer, Wolfgang; Kelman, Ariella; Brunetta, Paul; Lewin, Koh Nicholas; Sorani, Marco; Leong, Diane; Fielder, Paul; Yocum, David; Ho, Carole; Ortmann, Ward; Townsend, Michael J; Behrens, Timothy W

     View on PubMed

  • Lyp breakdown and autoimmunity

    Nature Genetics, 29 August 2011, vol. 43, no. 9, p. 821-2, ISSN: 1546-1718.

    Behrens, Timothy W

     View on PubMed

  • Pervasive Sharing of Genetic Effects in Autoimmune Disease.

    PLoS Genetics, 10 AUG 2011, V7, N8, ISSN: 1553-7390.

    Cotsapas, Chris; Voight, Benjamin F; Rossin, Elizabeth; Lage, Kasper; Neale, Benjamin M; Wallace, Chris; Abecasis, Goncalo R; Barrett, Jeffrey C; Behrens, Timothy; Cho, Judy; De Jager, Philip L; Elder, James T; Graham, Robert R; Gregersen, Peter; Klareskog, Lars; Siminovitch, Katherine A; van, Heel David A; Wijmenga, Cisca; Worthington, Jane; Todd, John A; Hafler, David A; Rich, Stephen S; Daly, Mark J

     View on PubMed

  • Common variants near FRK/COL10A1 and VEGFA are associated with advanced age-related macular degeneration.

    Human Molecular Genetics, June 06 2011, V20, N18, pp 3699-3709. ISSN: 1460-2083.

    Yu, Yi; Bhangale, Tushar R; Fagerness, Jesen; Ripke, Stephan; Thorleifsson, Gudmar; Tan, Perciliz L; Souied, Eric H; Richardson, Andrea J; Merriam, Joanna E; Buitendijk, Gabrielle H S; Reynolds, Robyn; Raychaudhuri, Soumya; Chin, Kimberly A; Sobrin, Lucia; Evangelou, Evangelos; Lee, Phil H; Lee, Aaron Y; Leveziel, Nicolas; Zack, Donald J; Campochiaro, Betsy; Campochiaro, Peter; Smith, R Theodore; Barile, Gaetano R; Guymer, Robyn H; Hogg, Ruth; Chakravarthy, Usha; Robman, Luba D; Gustafsson, Omar; Sigurdsson, Haraldur; Ortmann, Ward; Behrens, Timothy W; Stefansson, Kari; Uitterlinden, Andre G; van, Duijn Cornelia M; Vingerling, Johannes R; Klaver, Caroline C W; Allikmets, Rando; Brantley, Milam A Jr; Baird, Paul N; Katsanis, Nicholas; Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur; Ioannidis, John P A; Daly, Mark J; Graham, Robert R; Seddon, Johanna M

     View on PubMed

  • The rs4774 CIITA missense variant is associated with risk of SLE.

    Genes and Immunity, 26 May 2011, ISSN: 1466-4879, eISSN: 1476-5470

    Bronson PG; BA Goldstein; PP Ramsay; KB Beckman; JA Noble; JA Lane; MF Seldin; JA Kelly; JB Harley; KL Moser; PM Gaffney; TW Behrens; LA Criswell and LF Barcellos.

     View on PubMed

• Awards & Honors
  • Arthritis Foundation Top 10 Advances in Rheumatology 2004 (shared, PTPN22 in SLE) Kunkel Society – 2006
  • Arthritis Foundation Top 10 Advances in Rheumatology 2003 (IFN signature in SLE) – 2003
  • Kirkland Lupus Scholar – 2003-2006
  • Faculty of 1000, Autoimmunity – 2001
  • Arthritis Foundation 50th Anniversary 'Hero' Postdoctoral Research Award – 2001
  • John F. Finn Arthritis Foundation Land Grant Endowed Chair – 2000-2006
  • American Society for Clinical Investigation – 2000
  • Edmund L. Dubois Memorial Award for Research in SLE, American College of Rheumatology – 1998
  • Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar Award – 1997-2002
  • Feltl Family Award for Research in Rheumatic Disease – 1995-1996
  • NIH NIAMS Clinical Investigator Award – 1995
  • American College of Rheumatology/Arthritis Foundation Investigator Award – 1994-1997
  • Frederic C. McDuffie Arthritis Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship – 1989-1992
  • Leukemia Society of America Special Fellowship – 1989-1992
  • Edward J. Lennon Award for Research Excellence, First Prize – 1988