Alice F. Tarantal, Ph.D. | UC Davis Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy

Research Interests

Tarantal’s research program includes the following areas of translational research:

Gene therapy and somatic cell gene editing
Stem and progenitor cell therapies / Regenerative Medicine
Fetal: Pediatric models of human disease
Fetal: maternal microchimerism and precision models
In vivo translational imaging applications

Stem/Progenitor cell projects focus on hematopoietic, mesenchymal, endothelial, and pluripotent stem cells for tissue regeneration and repair, transplantation, and tissue engineering.

Center for Somatic Cell Genome Editing.

The Translational Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Shared Research Facility is a training and service facility and a component of the UC Davis School of Medicine Stem Cell Program.

Graduate Group Affiliations

See: An updated list of current publications on PubMed »

Piotrowski-Daspit AS, Lynn AY, Eaton DA, Bracaglia LG, Markey AI, Mortlock RD, Stitelman DH, Martinez ML, Lee CC, Kliman HJ, Glazer PM, Tarantal AF, and Saltzman WM. "Prenatal Intraportal Delivery of Polymeric Nanoparticles to Fetal Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta)". Human Gene Therapy 37:189-198, 2026.

Freedman BS, Bulte JWM, Conklin BR, Judge LM, Dwinell MR, Geurts AM, Sitton MJ, Mahajan V, Kiani S, Gersbach CA, Ebrahimkhani MR, Kelly JJ, Ronald JA, Morizane R, Gupta N, Shakeri-Zadeh A, Vo N, Saha K, Saxena S, Gamm DM, Sinha D, Tarantal AF, Vandsburger M, Matsubara A, Fu H, Tsai SQ; "SCGE Dissemination and Coordinating Center Toolkit Team; SCGE Biological Effects Initiative. Monitoring biological effects of somatic cell genome editing". Nature Review Genetics 27:323-342, 2026.

Kelly OM, Hanna AR, Byrne AK, Green JA, Perisse IV, Wells KD, Murray SA, Xu J, Chen YE, Polejaeva IA, Tarantal AF, Issadore D, and Piotrowski-Daspit AS. "Towards clinical translation of nanomedicines: Formulation scale-up and model systems". Advances in Drug Delivery Reviews 234:115862, 2026.

Kim H, Zenhausern R, Gentry K, Lian L, Huayamares SG, Radmand A, Loughrey D, Podilapu AR, Hatit MZC, Ni H, Li A, Shajii A, Peck HE, Han K, Hua X, Jia S, Martinez M, Lee C, Santangelo PJ, Tarantal A, and Dahlman JE. "Lipid nanoparticle-mediated mRNA delivery to CD34+ cells in rhesus monkeys". Nature Biotechnology 43:1813-1820, 2025.

Smith TJ, Elmore ZC, Fusco RM, Hull JA, Rosales A, Martinez M, Tarantal AF, and Asokan A. "Engineered IgM and IgG cleaving enzymes for mitigating antibody neutralization and complement activation in AAV gene transfer". Molecular Therapy 32:2080-2093, 2024.

Eid FE, Chen AT, Chan KY, Huang Q, Zheng Q, Tobey IG, Pacouret S, Brauer PP, Keyes C, Powell M, Johnston J, Zhao B, Lage K, Tarantal AF, Chan YA, Deverman BE. "Systematic multi-trait AAV capsid engineering for efficient gene delivery". Nat Commun. 2024 Aug 4;15(1):6602. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-50555-y. PMID: 39097583; PMCID: PMC11297966.

Kulhankova K, Traore S, Cheng X, Benk-Fortin H, Hallée S, Harvey M, Roberge J, Couture F, Kohli S, Gross TJ, Meyerholz DK, Rettig GR, Thommandru B, Kurgan G, Wohlford-Lenane C, Hartigan-O'Connor DJ, Yates BP, Newby GA, Liu DR, Tarantal AF, Guay D, and McCray PB Jr. "Shuttle peptide delivers base editor RNPs to rhesus monkey airway epithelial cells in vivo". Nature Communications 14:8051, 2023.

Liang SQ, Navia AW, Ramseier M, Zhou X, Martinez M, Lee C, Zhou C, Wu J, Xie J, Su Q, Wang D, Flotte TR, Anderson DG, Tarantal AF, Shalek AK, Gao G, and Xue W. "AAV5 Delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 Mediates Genome Editing in the Lungs of Young Rhesus Monkeys". Human Gene Therapy 35:814-824, 2024.

Pekrun K, Stephens CJ, Gonzalez-Sandoval A, Goswami A, Zhang F, Tarantal AF, Blouse G, and Kay MA. "Correlation of antigen expression with epigenetic modifications after rAAV delivery of a human factor IX variant in mice and rhesus macaques". Molecular Therapy 32:2064-2079, 2024.

Tarantal AF, Noctor SC, and Hartigan-O'Connor DJ. "Nonhuman Primates in Translational Research". Annual Reviews in Animal Bioscience 10:441-468, 2022.

Saha K, Sontheimer EJ, Brooks PJ, Dwinell MR, Gersbach CA, Liu DR, Murray SA, Tsai SQ, Wilson RC, Anderson DG, Asokan A, Banfield JF, Bankiewicz KS, Bao G, Bulte JWM, Bursac N, Campbell JM, Carlson DF, Chaikof EL, Chen ZY, Cheng RH, Clark KJ, Curiel DT, Dahlman JE, Deverman BE, Dickinson ME, Doudna JA, Ekker SC, Emborg ME, Feng G, Freedman BS, Gamm DM, Gao G, Ghiran IC, Glazer PM, Gong S, Heaney JD, Hennebold JD, Hinson JT, Khvorova A, Kiani S, Lagor WR, Lam KS, Leong KW, Levine JE, Lewis JA, Lutz CM, Ly DH, Maragh S, McCray PB Jr, McDevitt TC, Mirochnitchenko O, Morizane R, Murthy N, Prather RS, Ronald JA, Roy S, Roy S, Sabbisetti V, Saltzman WM, Santangelo PJ, Segal DJ, Shimoyama M, Skala MC, Tarantal AF, Tilton JC, Truskey GA, Vandsburger M, Watts JK, Wells KD, Wolfe SA, Xu Q, Xue W, Yi G, and Zhou J; SCGE Consortium. "The NIH Somatic Cell Genome Editing Consortium". Nature 592:195-204, 2021.

Tarantal AF, Lee CCI, Martinez ML, Asokan A, and Samulski RJ. "Systemic and persistent muscle gene expression in rhesus monkeys with a liver-detargeted adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector". Human Gene Therapy 28:385-391, 2017.

Tarantal AF, Giannoni F, Lee CCI, Wherley J, Sumiyoshi T, Hollis R, Martinez M, Leapley A, Kahl C, Louie SG, and Kohn DB. "Non-myeloablative conditioning regimen to increase engraftment of gene-modified hematopoietic stem cells in young rhesus monkeys". Molecular Therapy 20:1033-1045, 2012.

Tarantal AF and Skarlatos SI. "Center for Fetal Monkey Gene Transfer for Heart, Lung, and Blood Diseases: An NHLBI resource for the gene therapy community". Human Gene Therapy 23:1130-1135, 2012.

Tarantal AF and Lee CCI. "Long-term luciferase expression monitored by bioluminescence imaging after adeno-associated virus-mediated fetal gene delivery in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)". Human Gene Therapy 21:143-148, 2010.

Tarantal AF. "Ultrasound imaging in rhesus (Macaca mulatta) and long-tailed (Macaca fascicularis) macaques: Reproductive and research applications". In: The Laboratory Primate, Elsevier Academic Press, Chapter 20, pp. 317-351, 2005.

Jimenez DF, Lee CCI, O’Shea CE, Kohn DB, and Tarantal AF. "HIV-1-derived lentiviral vectors and fetal route of administration on transgene biodistribution and expression in rhesus monkeys". Gene Therapy 12:821-830, 2005.