Peter Bradley, PhD

Dr. Bradley received his bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of California, San Diego. At UCSD, he worked with Dr. Douglass Forbes at UCSD studying the composition and function of the mammalian nuclear pore complex. He then received his PhD in Molecular Biology from UCLA in Dr. Patricia Johnson’s lab where he studied protein targeting to the hydrogenosome in the early-diverging amitochondrial eukaryote, Trichomonas vaginalis. In conjunction with phylogenetic analyses, his work on hydrogenosomal protein import was important for the conclusion that hydrogenosomes and mitochondria share a common origin.

Dr. Bradley continued his interest in parasites and their unique organelles as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. John Boothroyd’s lab at Stanford University studying the opportunistic pathogen Toxoplasma gondii. His research focused on the role of the secretory rhoptries in host cell invasion and host-pathogen interactions. He carried out a proteomic analysis of the rhoptries that has served as a foundation for many studies that elucidated how this organelle enables the parasite to infect is human host cell, hijack host functions, and cause disease. Dr. Bradley brought Toxoplasma cell biology to UCLA when he joined the MIMG faculty as an assistant professor in 2004, during which time he was awarded the New Scholar Award in Global Infectious Diseases from the Ellison Medical foundation. Dr. Bradley advanced to Associate Professor in 2011 and Professor in 2016 and has served as the Director for the Immunity, Microbes and Molecular Pathogenesis graduate program and MIMG Vice Chair for graduate studies during this time.