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Transplant Surgery »  Meet the Team »  Transplant Surgeons »  Nancy L. Ascher, M.D., Ph.D.

Nancy L. Ascher, M.D., Ph.D.

  • Professor of Surgery
  • Division of Transplant Surgery
  • Isis Distinguished Professor in Transplantation

Contact Information

Academic Office
415-353-9321
nancy.ascher@ucsf.edu
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  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, B.A., 1967-70
  • University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, M.D., 1970-74
  • University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, Ph.D., 1974-85
  • University of Minnesota, Department of Surgery, Minneapolis, MN,  Surgical Internship, 1974-75
  • University of Minnesota, Department of Surgery, Minneapolis, MN, Surgical Residency, 1975-77
  • University of Minnesota, Department of Surgery, Minneapolis, MN, Surgical Residency, 1979-81
  • University of Minnesota, Department of Surgery, Minneapolis, MN,   Transplant Fellowship, 1981-1982
  • University of Minnesota, Department of Surgery, Minneapolis, MN, Research Fellowship, 1977-79
  • American Board of Surgery, 1982, renewed 2012
  • End-Stage Kidney Disease
  • Fulminant Hepatic Failure
  • Hepatitis B
  • Hepatitis C
  • Hepatocellular Carcinoma (Liver Cancer)
  • Kidney Transplantation
  • Liver Cysts
  • Liver Transplantation
  • Living Donor Liver Transplantation
  • Living Donor Kidney Transplantation
  • Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
  • Pediatric Kidney Transplantation
  • Pediatric Liver Transplantation
  • Portal Hypertension
  • Clinical Transplantation
  • Recurrence After Liver Transplantation
  • Transplant Ethics
  • Transplant Policy

Dr. Nancy Ascher has devoted her career to organ transplants and transplant research. Dr. Ascher completed her undergraduate and medical education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She then went on to complete a general surgery residency and clinical transplantation fellowship at the University of Minnesota. 

Dr. Ascher joined the faculty of the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota in 1982 and was named Clinical Director of the Liver Transplant Program. She was recruited in 1988 by the UCSF Department of Surgery to build a liver transplantation program. In 1991, she was appointed Chief of Transplantation, an expanded role that included liver, kidney and pancreas transplants.

In 1993, Dr. Ascher was appointed Vice-Chair of the UCSF Department of Surgery, and in 1999 was appointed Department Chair where she served until September 2016.

Dr. Ascher has had a distinguished career of public service that includes appointments to the Presidential Task Force on Organ Transplantation and the Surgeon General's Task Force on Increasing Donor Organs. She also served as Chair of the Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation for the Secretary of Health and Human Services from 2001 - 2005. Highly respected by her peers, Dr. Ascher was named to the list of U.S. News "America's Top Doctors," a distinction reserved for the top 1% of physicians in the nation for a given specialty.

Dr. Ascher is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and holds memberships in numerous other medical societies. She has taken an active leadership role in American Society of Transplant Surgeons activities and was its past-president. Dr. Ascher has published over 425 articles in medical and scientific journals. Her research interests are in hepatocyte immunogenicity, mechanisms of allograft rejection and clinical transplantation.

I. RECURRENT DISEASE AFTER LIVER TRANSPLANT
The NIH Liver Transplant Data Base has been extended to address the important issue of disease recurrence after liver transplantation. Although short term liver transplant results have improved markedly over the past ten years, it is apparent that disease recurrence is an important source of patient morbidity and graft loss. Long term following of greater than 1000 patients in the Liver Transplant Data Base will facilitate our understanding of the factors associated with graft recurrence.

II. EXPANDED CRITERIA FOR LIVER TRANSPLANT FOR HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA
We have redefined the criteria for liver transplantation beyond the Milan criteria. The UCSF criteria enables additional patients to benefit from liver transplants without compromising outcome.

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  • LIVER TRANSPLANTATION CENTERS
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    Jan 1990
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    Dec 1997
    Principal Investigator
  • ALLOGRAFT RESPONSE TO LIVER TISSUE
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    Funding Period:
    Sep 1988
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    Sep 1995
    Principal Investigator
  • ORGAN TRANSPLANTS: ANALYSIS OF MIGRATING LYMPHOCYTES
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    Jul 1984
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    Jun 1987
    Principal Investigator
MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM A TOTAL OF 416
Data provided by UCSF Profiles, powered by CTSI
  1. Sawinski D, Lai JC, Pinney S, Gray AL, Jackson AM, Stewart D, Levine DJ, Locke JE, Pomposelli JJ, Hartwig MG, Hall SA, Dadhania DM, Cogswell R, Perez RV, Schold JD, Turgeon NA, Kobashigawa J, Kukreja J, Magee JC, Friedewald J, Gill JS, Loor G, Heimbach JK, Verna EC, Walsh MN, Terrault N, Testa G, Diamond JM, Reese PP, Brown K, Orloff S, Farr MA, Olthoff KM, Siegler M, Ascher N, Feng S, Kaplan B, Pomfret E. Addressing sex-based disparities in solid organ transplantation in the United States - a conference report. Am J Transplant. 2023 03; 23(3):316-325. View in PubMed
  2. Knatterud ME, Simmons RL, Payne W, Stock P, Chavers B, Ascher N, Kaufman D, Kirk A, Keshavjee S, Humar A, Ganesh S, Hughes C, Kandaswamy R, Matas AJ. The John S. Najarian symposium: The past, present, and future of surgery and transplantation, May 20, 2022, Minneapolis, MN. Clin Transplant. 2023 03; 37(3):e14877. View in PubMed
  3. Meier RPH, Kelly Y, Braun H, Maluf D, Freise C, Ascher N, Roberts J, Roll G. Comparison of Biliary Complications Rates After Brain Death, Donation After Circulatory Death, and Living-Donor Liver Transplantation: A Single-Center Cohort Study. Transpl Int. 2022; 35:10855. View in PubMed
  4. Domínguez-Gil B, Ascher NL, Fadhil RAS, Muller E, Cantarovich M, Ahn C, Berenguer M, Bušic M, Egawa H, Gondolesi GE, Haberal M, Harris D, Hirose R, Ilbawi A, Jha V, López-Fraga M, Andrés Madera S, Najafizadeh K, O'Connell PJ, Rahmel A, Shaheen FAM, Twahir A, Van Assche K, Wang H, Haraldsson B, Chatzixiros E, Delmonico FL. The Reality of Inadequate Patient Care and the Need for a Global Action Framework in Organ Donation and Transplantation. Transplantation. 2022 11 01; 106(11):2111-2117. View in PubMed
  5. Izzy M, Brown RS, Eguchi S, Hwang S, Matamoros MA, Quintini C, Rajakumar A, Raptis DA, Spiro M, Ascher NL, ERAS4OLT.org Working Group. Optimizing pre-donation physiologic evaluation for enhanced recovery after living liver donation - Systematic review and multidisciplinary expert panel recommendations. Clin Transplant. 2022 Oct; 36(10):e14680. View in PubMed
  6. View All Publications

 

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