Dr. David Brenner is the President and CEO of Sanford Burnham Prebys following more than 15 years as vice chancellor for Health Sciences at UC San Diego. Brenner is a leader in the field of fibrotic liver disease and liver cancer research and is widely respected for his work advancing laboratory discoveries to the clinic setting. Brenner is a former editor-in-chief of Gastroenterology, the premier journal in the field. Brenner has been instrumental in starting several multidisciplinary efforts in San Diego, including the Institute for Engineering in Medicine, the Institute for Genomic Medicine, the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, the UC San Diego Sanford Clinical Stem Cell Program, and the C3 Cancer Center Consortium (comprising UC San Diego, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Sanford Burnham Prebys).

Brenner earned his M.D. from the Yale University School of Medicine. He was chief of Gastroenterology at the University of North Carolina and Chair of Medicine at Columbia University, before joining UC San Diego in 2007. His professional memberships include the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians (of which he is a past president), and an NIH National Council. He has also served as a Pew Scholar and as a Clinical Investigator in the Veteran Affairs system.