Rate My Professor Hector Valenzuela

Hector Valenzuela, Ph.D., serves as the Fletcher Jones Chair in Molecular Biology, Department Chair, and Associate Professor of Biology at Whittier College, where he has been a faculty member since 2006. Previously, he held the Roy E. and Marie G. Campbell Distinguished Associate Professorship. He earned his B.S. in Biology from San Diego State University and his Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to his teaching and research roles, Valenzuela chairs the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and leads the Advancing STEM Academic Program (ASAP) as Faculty Lead. He is a member of the American Association of Immunologists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Oxygen California Club.

Professor Valenzuela's research specializes in immunology and aging, particularly age-related changes in T cell differentiation and function. He has developed an in vitro cell system at Whittier College that replicates T cell aging to investigate the mechanisms underlying memory T cell senescence, the consequences of memory T cell exhaustion on immune system efficacy, and the potential of natural compounds to modulate cellular aging rates. His seminal contributions include the book "The Aging Lymphocyte" co-authored with Rita B. Effros (Springer-Verlag, 2011), and peer-reviewed articles such as "Functional Assessment of Pharmacological Telomerase Activators in Human T Cells" (Cells, 2013), "O-Glycosylation regulates LNCaP prostate cancer cell susceptibility to apoptosis induced by galectin-1" (Cancer Research, 2007), "Divergent Telomerase and CD28 expression patterns in human CD4 and CD8 T cells following repeated encounters with the same antigenic stimulus" (Clinical Immunology, 2002), and "In vitro senescence of immune cells" (Experimental Gerontology, 2003). With over 900 citations on ResearchGate, his work has advanced understanding of immunosenescence, telomere dynamics in T cells, and strategies to enhance immune function in aging populations. Valenzuela mentors undergraduate students in laboratory research, fostering hands-on experiences in molecular biology and contributing to student publications and presentations.