Dennis Wolan
Senior Principal Scientist, Infectious Diseases
"Hippocrates said “all diseases begin in the gut”. At Genentech, my team addresses this statement by unraveling the vastly complex network of the human gut microbiome in dysbiosis and aims to develop new therapeutics to combat microbially associated diseases."
Prior to joining Genentech in 2020, I was a Principal Investigator and Associate Professor at Scripps Research in the Department of Molecular Medicine. I was attracted to Genentech’s unparalleled resources, including access to a network of world-renown scientific experts and innovative technologies that directly impact human health and disease. At Genentech, my primary focus is on the development and application of cutting-edge chemical biological approaches to discover, validate, and regulate protein functions that drive dysbiosis between humans and their respective microbiomes.
Postdoctoral Mentor
My main goal as a Genentech postdoc mentor is to provide a collaborative, inclusive atmosphere and to foster creative independent thinking to resolve important problems in human health. Team members are familiarized with the most pertinent and useful tools in chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, immunology, and cell biology, often through collaborations with laboratories that complement our chemical biology skills. This exposure is essential to training and maturation into a well-rounded scientist. I advise lab members to approach scientific problems creatively and not be afraid to tackle their research problems using help from experts and incorporate techniques and skills outside their comfort zone. I firmly believe studying important problems in science and human health require researchers to embrace different scientific disciplines and employ a variety of experimental techniques. This philosophy is exemplified by Genentech researchers as evidenced by the cutting-edge research performed at the interface of chemistry and biology.
Featured Publication
Quantitative metaproteomics and activity-based probe enrichment reveals significant alterations in protein expression from a mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease.
J. Proteome Res. 16, 1014-1026.