Profiles

Dr. Adams has been continually funded by the NIH for the last 40 years to do translational research in the field of vitamin D synthesis, metabolism and action. Adams’ current research portfolio includes: 1] the molecular biology of chromatin remodeling, transcription, splicing and miRNA action in response to sterol/steroid hormones; 2] the role of alternative splicing in determining stem cell fates in bone; 3] innate and adaptive molecular and cellular immunity with regard to vitamin D and its metabolites; 4] the translational aspects of human macrophage and neutrophil anti-microbial actions; 5] the impact of human vitamin D deficiency on innate immune-responsivity to microbes from orthopaedic implant infections and prosthetic wear debris; and 6] actions of vitamin D on the human musculoskeletal system in health and disease. He is the author of over 190 peer-reviewed publications in his field in the foremost scientific and biomedical research journals, including Nature, Science, Cell and the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Adams is an editor of the third edition of the signature text in his field, Vitamin D, and is on the editorial boards of the newest journals in his field, Bone Research and Journal of the Endocrine Society. He also serves on the consulting editorial board for the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Dr, Adams is i) founding and current Director of the UCLA-Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center, ii) Vice Chair for Research in the UCLA Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, iii) founding Principal Investigator of the NIAMS-funded Orthopaedic T32 at UCLA, iv) founding and current Associate Director of the UCLA Clinical and Translation Science Institute (CTSI; CTSA to UCLA), v) founding Director of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine-funded UCLA Alpha Stem Cell Clinic, and vi) Assistant Dean for Translational Research. Collectively, these programs are designed to open up new transdisiplinary opportunities for precedent-setting research in the field of translational science for senior and junior investigators, particularly surgeon scientists during the formative stages of their independent research career.

Dr. Adams has a long and successful track record in training undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral and medical students as well as junior faculty for careers in research under the auspices of extramural funding from the NIH. In his laboratory and translational research program over the past ten years Dr. Adams has trained; i) 18 undergraduates (including three Hispanics and two African Americans), ten of whom have applied to or entered medical school and seven of whom have entered graduate school, ii) ten graduate students (including two Hispanics), all of whom have matriculated to post-doctoral fellowships or medical school, iii) ten postdoctoral fellows (including one Pacific Islander), nine of whom have taken jobs in academia or industry and iv) three medical students (including one Hispanic). During this same ten-year period Dr. Adams has served as mentor for eight junior faculty on NIH- and VA- supported career development awards..