Justin Elstrott
Director & Senior Principal Scientist - Preclinical and Translational Imaging, Translational Imaging
Postdoc Mentor
"In vivo imaging reveals nature's mysteries and moves medicines into the clinic."
13
Years at Genentech
23
Publications at Genentech
5
Awards & Honors
I joined Genentech in 2013 after completing a Neuroscience postdoc at UC Berkeley. I quickly learned how little I knew about how medicines are made. The path to the clinic is a mulit-billion dollar, decade long journey that requires expertise from every scientific discipline. Our role in Translational Imaging is to develop and support in vivo imaging tools to prioritize compounds in preclinical models, and to offer novel insights in our early human clinical trials.
Postdoctoral Mentor
Genentech is an ideal place for postdocs who want to see drug discovery up close. While the focus of the postdoc program is to train the next generation of industry and academic leaders with an emphasis on publications, I also encourage my mentees to meet with colleagues across the company to learn about the many career paths at Genentech.
Featured Publication
Cellular-resolution OCT reveals layer-specific retinal mosaics and ganglion cell degeneration in mouse retina in vivo.
Neurophotonics, 2026.
Tae-Hoon Kim, Robby Weimer, Justin Elstrott
My Focus
A current area of focus in my lab is applying cellular resolution, in vivo retinal imaging to rodent models of ocular disease to explore the role of neuroinflammation. In addition, our lab supports a range of in vivo imaging techniques including multi-photon microscopy and ultrasound imaging.
Genentech Publications
Neurophotonics, ISSN: 2329423X
Taehoon Kim; Robby M. Weimer; Justin Elstrott
Nature Communications,
Daniel Jun-Kit Hu; Xiaoyu Tracy Cai; Jesse Simons; Jina Yun; Justin Elstrott; Heinrich Jasper
Journal of Neuroscience, ISSN: 02706474
Ainhoa Etxeberria; Yun-An A. Shen; Stephen T. Vito; Sean M. Silverman; Jose Imperio; Guita Lalehzadeh; Allison L. Soung; Du; Luke Xie; Man Kin Choy; Yi-Chun Hsiao; Hai Ngu; Chang Hoon Cho; Soumitra Ghosh; Gloriia Novikova; Mitchell G. Rezzonico; Rebecca Leahey; Martin Weber; Alvin Gogineni; Justin Elstrott; Monica Xiong; Jacob J. Greene; Kimberly L. Stark; Pamela Chan; Gillie A. Roth; Max Adrian; Qingling Li; Meena Choi; Weng Ruh Wong; Wendy N. Sandoval; Oded Foreman; Alicia A. Nugent; Brad A. Friedman; Shraddha Sadekar; Isidro Hötzel; David V. Hansen; Ben Chih; Tracy J. Yuen; Robby M. Weimer; Amy Easton; William J. Meilandt; Christopher J. Bohlen
EBioMedicine,
Yi Lu; Longyu Mu; Justin Elstrott; Chaoying Fu; Cailu Sun; Tonghui Su; Xiaofan Ma; Jia Yan; Hong Jiang; Jesse E. Hanson; Yang Geng; Yelin Chen
Cell Reports Methods,
Amy E. Byrnes; Filip Roudnicky; Alvin Gogineni; Allison L. Soung; Monica Xiong; Margaret Hayne; Tiffany Heaster-Ford; Whitney Shatz-Binder; Sara L. Dominguez; Jose Imperio; Sarah Gierke; Jasmine Roberts; Jinglong Guo; Soumitra Ghosh; Charles Yu; Merone Roose-Girma; Justin Elstrott; Amy Easton; Casper C Hoogenraad
Nature Communications,
Alessandra Castiglioni; Yagai Yang; Katherine Williams; Alvin Gogineni; Ryan Lane; Amber W. Wang; Justin A. Shyer; Zhe Zhang; Stephanie Mittman; Alan Gutierrez; Jillian L. Astarita; Minh Thai; Jeffrey Hung; Yeqing Angela Yang; Tony Pourmohamad; Patricia Himmels; Marco De Simone; Justin Elstrott; Aude-Hélène Capietto; Rafael Cubas; Zora Modrusan; Wendy N. Sandoval; James Ziai; Stephen Gould; Wenxian Fu; Wang; James T. Koerber; Shomyseh Sanjabi; Ira Mellman; Shannon J. Turley; Sören Müller
Journal of Vision, ISSN: 15347362
Tiffany Heaster; Julia Kim; Sofia de Arrigunaga; Joyce Kang; Sandra E. Freeman; Michael Lin; Simon Gao; David S Friedman; Dolly Chang; Justin Elstrott
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, ISSN: 00222623
Jack A. Terrett; Justin Ly; Paula Katavolos; Catrin Hasselgren; Steven Laing; Fiona Zhong; Elisia Villemure; Martin Déry; Larouche-Gauthier; Huifen Chen; Daniel G. Shore; Wyne P. Lee; Eric Suto; Kevin Johnson; Marjory B. Brooks; Alyssa Stablein; Francis Beaumier; Léa Constantineau-Forget; Chantal Grand-Maître; Luce Lépissier; Stéphane Ciblat; Claudio Sturino; Yong Chen; Baihua Hu; Justin Elstrott; Vineela D. Gandham; Victory Joseph; Helen Booler; Cain; Carolina Chou; Aaron Fullerton; Lepherd; Shannon Stainton; Elizabeth Torres; Konnie Urban; Lanlan Yu; Yu Zhong; Linda Bao; Kang-Jye Chou; Jessica Lin; Wei Zhang; Hank La; Liling Liu; Teresa Mulder; Jun Chen; Tania Chernov-Rogan; Adam R. Johnson; David Hackos; Rebecca Leahey; Shannon D. Shields; Alessia Balestrini; Lorena Riol-Blanco; Brian S. Safina; Matthew Volgraf; Steven Magnuson; Satoko Kakiuchi-Kiyota
Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology,
Melissa K. Jones; Luz D. Orozco; Han Qin; Tom Truong; Patrick Caplazi; Justin Elstrott; Zora Modrusan; Shawnta Y. Chaney; Marion Jeanne
Nature, ISSN: 00280836
Akshay T. Krishnamurty; Justin A. Shyer; Minh Thai; Vineela D. Gandham; Matthew B. Buechler; Yeqing Angela Yang; Rachana Pradhan; Amber W. Wang; Patricia L. Sanchez; Yan Qu; Beatrice Breart; Cecile Chalouni; Debra Dunlap; James Ziai; Justin Elstrott; Neelie Zacharias; Weiguang Mao; Rebecca K. Rowntree; Jack D. Sadowsky; Gail D. Lewis; Thomas H. Pillow; Barzin Y. Nabet; Romain Banchereau; Lucinda Tam; Roger Caothien; Natasha Bacarro; Merone Roose-Girma; Zora Modrusan; Sanjeev Mariathasan; Sören Müller; Shannon J. Turley
Nature Communications, ISSN: 20411723
Daniel Jun-Kit Hu; Jina Yun; Justin Elstrott; Heinrich Jasper
Cell Reports Medicine, ISSN: 26663791
Bingbing Dai; Jason A. Hackney; Ryan Ichikawa; Allen Nguyen; Justin Elstrott; Luz D. Orozco; Kai-Hui Sun; Zora Modrusan; Alvin Gogineni; Alexis Scherl; John Gubatan; Aida Habtezion; Monika Deswal; Ma Somsouk; William A. Faubion Jr.; Akiko Chai; Zaineb Sharafali; Azra Hassanali; Young S. Oh; Swati Tole; Jacqueline McBride; Mary E. Keir; Tangsheng Yi
Journal of Experimental Medicine, ISSN: 15409538 00221007
Alessia Balestrini; Victory Joseph; Michelle Dourado; Rebecca M. Reese; Shannon D. Shields; Lionel Rouge; Daniel D. Bravo; Tania Chernov-Rogan; Cary D. Austin; Huifen Chen; Lan Wang; Elisia Villemure; Daniel G. Shore; Vishal A. Verma; Baihua Hu; Yong Chen; Laurie Leong; Chris Bjornson; Kathy Hötzel; Alvin Gogineni; Wyne P. Lee; Eric Suto; Xiumin Wu; John Liu; Juan Zhang; Vineela D. Gandham; Jianyong Wang; Jian Payandeh; Claudio Ciferri; Alberto Estevez; Christopher P. Arthur; Jens Kortmann; Ryan L. Wong; Jose Heredia; Jonas Martin Doerr; Min Jung; Jason A. Vander Heiden; Merone Roose-Girma; Lucinda Tam; Kai H. Barck; Richard A. D. Carano; Han Ting Ding; Bobby Brillantes; Christine Tam; Xiaoying Yang; Simon S. Gao; Justin Ly; Liling Liu; Liuxi Chen; Bianca M. Liederer; Joseph Lin; Steven Magnuson; Jun Chen; David Hackos; Justin Elstrott; Alexis Rohou; Brian S. Safina; Matthew Volgraf; Rebecca N. Bauer; Lorena Riol-Blanco
British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, ISSN: 13652125 03065251
Victory Joseph; Xiaoying Yang; Simon S. Gao; Justin Elstrott; Robby M. Weimer; Wiebke Theess; Cory Thrasher; Nand Singh; Joseph Lin; Rebecca N. Bauer
Journal of Neuroscience, ISSN: 15292401 02706474
William J. Meilandt; Hai Ngu; Alvin Gogineni; Guita Lalehzadeh; Seung-Hye Lee; Karpagam Srinivasan; Jose Imperio; Tiffany Wu; Martin Weber; Agatha J. Kruse; Kimberly L. Stark; Pamela Chan; Mandy Kwong; Zora Modrusan; Brad A. Friedman; Justin Elstrott; Oded Foreman; Amy Easton; Morgan Sheng; X David V. Hansen
Cell Reports, ISSN: 22111247
Jesse E. Hanson; Keran Ma; Justin Elstrott; Martin Weber; Sandrine Saillet; Abdullah S. Khan; Jeffrey Simms; Benjamin Liu; Thomas A. Kim; Gui-Qiu Yu; Yelin Chen; Tzu-Ming Wang; Zhiyu Jiang; Bianca M. Liederer; Gauri Deshmukh; Hilda Solanoy; Connie Chan; Benjamin D. Sellers; Matthew Volgraf; Jacob B. Schwarz; David Hackos; Robby M. Weimer; Morgan Sheng; T. Michael Gill; Kimberly Scearce-Levie; Jorge J. Palop
Cell Reports, ISSN: 22111247
Tiffany Wu; Borislav Dejanovic; Vineela D. Gandham; Alvin Gogineni; Rose Edmonds; Stephen P. Schauer; Karpagam Srinivasan; Melanie A. Huntley; Yuanyuan Wang; Tzu-Ming Wang; Maj Hedehus; Kai H. Barck; Maya Stark; Hai Ngu; Oded Foreman; William J. Meilandt; Justin Elstrott; Michael C. Chang; David V. Hansen; Richard A. D. Carano; Morgan Sheng; Jesse E. Hanson
Cancer immunology research, ISSN: 23266074 23266066
Huizhong Xiong; Stephanie Mittman; Ryan Rodriguez; Patricia Pacheco-Sanchez; Marina Moskalenko; Yagai Yang; Justin Elstrott; Alex T. Ritter; Sören Müller; Dorothee Nickles; Teresita L. Arenzana; Aude-Hélène Capietto; Lélia Delamarre; Zora Modrusan; Sascha Rutz; Ira Mellman; Rafael Cubas
Scientific Reports, ISSN: 20452322
Kenneth J. Katschke Jr.; Hongkang Xi; Christian Cox; Tom Truong; Yann Malato; Wyne P. Lee; Brent Mckenzie; Rommel Arceo; Jianhua Tao; Linda Rangell; Mike Reichelt; Laurie Diehl; Justin Elstrott; Robby M. Weimer; Menno Van Lookeren Campagne
Scientific Reports, ISSN: 20452322
Kenneth J. Katschke Jr.; Hongkang Xi; Christian Cox; Tom Truong; Yann Malato; Wyne P. Lee; Brent Mckenzie; Rommel Arceo; Jianhua Tao; Linda Rangell; Mike Reichelt; Laurie Diehl; Justin Elstrott; Robby M. Weimer; Menno Van Lookeren Campagne
Journal of Experimental Medicine, ISSN: 15409538 00221007
Hongkang Xi; Kenneth J. Katschke Jr.; Yun Li; Tom Truong; Wyne P. Lee; Laurie Diehl; Linda Rangell; Jianhua Tao; Rommel Arceo; Jeffrey Eastham-Anderson; Jason A. Hackney; Antonio Iglesias; Javier Cote-Sierra; Justin Elstrott; Robby M. Weimer; Menno Van Lookeren Campagne
Journal of Neurophysiology, ISSN: 15221598 00223077
Justin Elstrott; Kelly B. Clancy; Haani Jafri; Igor Akimenko; Daniel E. Feldman
Journal of Experimental Medicine, ISSN: 00221007 15409538
Nga Bien-Ly; Y. Joy Yu; Daniela Bumbaca; Justin Elstrott; C. Andrew Boswell; Yin Zhang; Wilman Luk; Yanmei Lu; Dennis; Robby M. Weimer; Inhee Chung; Ryan J. Watts
Education
- UC San Diego, Computational Neurobiology, PhD – 2009
- Tulane University, B.S. Psychology, B.A. Philosophy – 2003
Awards & Honors
- gRED Recognition Award – 2025
- Genentech Research Biology Recognition Award – 2019
- Genentech Development Sciences Award – 2017
- Phi Beta Kappa – 2003
- Tulane’s Deans List (all semesters) – 1998-2003