Dr. Naviaux is Professor of Genetics in the departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Pathology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) where he directs a core laboratory for metabolomics and exposomics. He is the founder and codirector of the Mitochondrial and Metabolic Disease Center (MMDC) at UCSD, the co-founder and a former President of the Mitochondrial Medicine Society (MMS), and a founding associate editor of the journal Mitochondrion. Dr. Naviaux is the discoverer of the first POLG1 mutations found to cause Alpers syndrome—the oldest Mendelian form of mitochondrial disease. He directed the first FDA-approved clinical trial to study the safety and efficacy of the antipurinergic drug suramin as a new treatment for the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and directed the first FDA-approved trial to study the safety and efficacy of triacetyluridine (TAU) for the treatment of mitochondrial dysfunction and primary mitochondrial disorders. His lab helped discover the first mitochondrial DNA mutation to cause autism and developed new methods in metabolomics and exposomics to study a broad range of genetic and ecogenetic disorders. His interests in global health have led to studies of marine plankton as possible canaries in the coal mine for monitoring the biological effects of ocean pollution on human health. Dr. Naviaux’s research has uncovered abnormalities in purinergic (ATP-related) signaling and defects in the molecular steps of the healing cycle that are 
shared by dozens of complex chronic disorders. These results have led to new approaches to treatment that are being tested in randomized clinical trials. Information about Naviaux Lab research can be found on the web at: https://naviauxlab.ucsd.edu.
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Robert Naviaux, MD, PhD