News & Events

Nancy Ascher, M.D., Ph.D., world-renowned organ transplant surgeon and a former Chair of the Department of Surgery, received the Holly Smith Award for Exceptional Service to the School of Medicine for 2020. The award, now in its 21st year, recognizes exceptional service to the School of Medicine. It is the school's most prestigious award, and provides an opportunity to celebrate our colleagues who embody the qualities and contributions exemplified by Holly Smith, MD, professor emeritus and former associate dean, who passed away in June 2018. Based on their contributions, it is clear that this [...]

"The closure of public spaces during the Covid-19 pandemic has led to the cancellation of thousands of community blood drives — a major source of blood for hospitals. The United States is at risk for a secondary public health crisis if a continuous pipeline of community donations is not reestablished. At University of California San Francisco (UCSF), a multidisciplinary group formed to plan and execute a series of emergency blood drives with new protocols to minimize risk of Covid-19 transmission. The working group included UCSF medical students, senior faculty, health system leadership, [...]

Noninvasive Test More Than 95 Percent Accurate, UCSF Researchers Say A simple urine test can diagnose and predict acute rejection in kidney transplants, leading to an opportunity for earlier detection and treatment, according to a new study by researchers at UC San Francisco.  A test of 601 urine samples showed greater than 95 percent accuracy in determining the risk of rejection following transplant, the researchers said. Their work already has led to the spinoff Bay Area company NephroSant, which plans to launch its first noninvasive test for detecting kidney rejection in the near [...]

The Department of Surgery congratulates transplant surgeon Sandy Feng, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Surgery and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Surgery, on being named the next Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Transplantation (AJT). The full joint news release from ASTS and AST appears below: Feb 07, 2020 On behalf of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, we are pleased to announce the selection of Sandy Feng, MD, PhD, as the next Editor-in-Chief of our shared journal, The American Journal of Transplantation [...]

The Organ Procurement Transplantation Network (OPTN) recently updated the liver distribution policy to provide better efficiency and fairness for transplant patients – regardless where they live, what hospital they choose for care or how sick they must be before being likely to get a transplant – and a UC San Francisco transplant surgeon was instrumental in its development. UCSF Health transplant surgeon Ryutaro Hirose, M.D. was former chair of the OPTN Liver and Intestinal Organ Transplantation Committee, which formulated the new policy that adjusts how geography is considered when [...]

Rachael Callcut, MD, MSPH and Kalpana Harish, MPH have been honored by selection to participate in the 2020 UC Women's Initiative for Professional Development, a platform to support UCSF's emerging leaders, from among a pool of candidates throughout the UC system. Dr. Callcut is Associate Professor of Surgery based in the Department of Surgery at ZSFG. She is also Director of Data Science and Program Director of the Smarter Health Artificial Intelligence Initiative at the UCSF Center for Digital Health Innovation. Kalpana Harish is Administrative Director and Director of the Research Program [...]

UCSF transplant surgeon Ryutaro Hirose, M.D. has been appointed Surgical Medical Director of the  Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). Below is the official announcement: The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Ryutaro (Ryo) Hirose as Surgical Director of the SRTR. Dr. Hirose serves as Professor of Clinical Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and will continue in that role while lending his vast expertise to SRTR. In this new role, Dr. Hirose will provide general surgical expertise to all [...]

The Department of Surgery warmly welcomes our new clinical fellows for the 2019-20 academic year, a diverse group of surgeons bringing a rich array of experiences from leading institutions.  Abdominal Transplant Surgery Carrie Thiessen, M.D., Ph.D. Clinical Fellow (PGY-6)Abdominal Transplant Surgery Steven Wisel, M.D., B.S. Clinical Fellow (PGY-6)Abdominal Transplant Surgery Advanced GI/MIS/Bariatrics Kiavash R. Koko, M.D. Clinical Fellow (PGY-6)Advanced [...]

Leonardo M.R. Ferreira, Ph.D., @enhancerleo, postdoctoral scholar in the laboratories of Dr. Qizhi Tang (Department of Surgery) and Dr. Jeffrey Bluestone (Diabetes Center) at UCSF, is changing the way science is taught in Latin America.  Accounting for over 10% of the world's population, Latin America nevertheless contributes less than 5% of the world's scientific publications. In the United States, Latino students are underrepresented in scientific careers. Bolivia is a diverse country with one of the lowest rates of production of scientific knowledge in Latin America.  Science Clubs [...]

Sandy Feng, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Surgery at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), has been appointed the inaugural Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Surgery. In her new role, Dr. Feng will serve as a leader in advancing the research mission of the Department, with particular focus on deepening and broadening the Department's research portfolio, including basic and translational science, education and clinical/health services research, and innovation pathways. During her distinguished decades-long career at UCSF, Dr. Feng has mentored medical students, residents, [...]

James M. Gardner, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Transplant Surgery, has been awarded an appointment to the prestigious Physician-Scientist Scholar Program (PSSP), part of the UCSF Sandler Fellows Program. All of the Departments in the University are invited to nominate candidates who compete for the award, only one of which is given per year. Dr. Gardner was nominated by Chris E. Freise, M.D. and Julie Ann Sosa, MD, MA, FACS, and is the first surgeon to receive this award. The appointment provides $1.25M in direct research funding over five years. The [...]

Today, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) announced $68 million in funding to support the Human Cell Atlas and its selection of 38 collaborative science teams to launch CZI's Seed Networks for a Human Cell Atlas projects. These collaborative groups bring together scientists, computational biologists, software engineers, and physicians to support the continued development of the Human Cell Atlas (HCA), an international effort to map all cells in the human body. Minnie M. Sarwal M.D., Ph.D., FRCP, DCH, Director of the Sarwal Lab, and professor and director of Precision Transplant Medicine in [...]

Joyce A. Trompeta, Ph.D., PNP, Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs / Japan-United States Educational Commission. Dr. Trompeta will examine the organ donation and transplantation attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge among a population key to Japan's future - Japanese university students, as well as faculty and healthcare providers who often are the ones who promote and request organ donation consent. Her research will be conducted at Kumamoto University, [...]

Researcher of the Month: Peter Stock, MD, PhD As a pivotal figure in HIV-to-HIV organ transplantation and its legalization through the passage of the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act, transplant surgeon Peter G. Stock, MD., PhD., continues to strive toward breakthroughs in research. While Stock is mostly known for his HIV transplantation work, he has been investigating pancreatic islet transplantation (also known as beta cell replacement) to cure type 1 diabetes since his days as a PhD student at the University of Minnesota. In May, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine [...]

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) awarded $11.08 Million to Dr. Peter Stock at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to conduct a clinical trial for treatment of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D)... The trial will be using parathyroid glands to aid in the success and viability of the transplant procedure.  Co-transplantation of islets and parathyroid glands, from the same donor, substantially increases beta cell survival, potentially enabling adequate long-term insulin production and removing the need for multiple donors.  Additionally, the co-transplantation will [...]

Just 42 years old, Erosalyn Deveza was drifting toward death. Her kidneys were barely functioning. She was constantly exhausted. She had vertigo and vomited frequently. She was tethered to a home dialysis machine for eight hours each night as she slept. A kidney transplant was the only thing that could save her, but it was unlikely to happen in time in the United States. No one on Deveza's side of the family could provide an organ through a living donation, doctors said, because all were at risk for the same kidney disease. It was too dangerous to leave any of them with a single kidney. Other [...]

UCSF molecular immunologist Leonardo M.R. Ferreira, Ph.D.,@enhancerleo, a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratories of Dr. Qizhi Tang and Dr. Jeffrey Bluestone at UCSF, received a Future of Science Fund Scholarship from the Keystone Symposia on Molecular Biology to attend one of the organization's meetings in Breckenridge, Colorado, on "Uncovering Mechanisms of Immune-Based Therapy in Cancer and Autoimmunity". Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology has a 47-year history of convening open, peer-reviewed conferences that connect the scientific community and accelerate life science [...]

UCSF Researchers Recommend Creation of National Donor Registry While organ transplant recipients receive continual care as the end-stage treatment to their condition, attention also should be given to living donors, who can suffer from hypertension, diabetes and other disorders after donation, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco.  As reported online April 12, 2019, in JAMA Network Open, by aggregating data from publicly available clinical studies, the researchers found that nearly one in seven kidney donors experienced a potentially adverse event that may be related to [...]

Hillary Braun, MD, a third-year (PGY-3) general surgery resident at UCSF, has been awarded a prestigious two-year resident research scholarship by the American College of Surgeons for 2019-2021. The scholarships are supported by the generosity of Fellows, Chapters, and friends of the College, to encourage residents to pursue careers in academic surgery.  Dr. Braun's research will focus on  the impact of domestic and international travel for transplantation on disparities in U.S. solid organ transplantation with the goal of generating data to inform national policy around these issues.  Dr. [...]

Arya Zarinsefat, M.D., a UCSF general surgery resident and research fellow in the Sarwal Lab, has been awarded a prestigious UCSF-Gladstone Center For AIDS Research (CFAR) Mentored Scientist Award.  Dr. Zarinsefat's research will focus on better understanding the genes and process of rejection in kidney transplantation of HIV-infected recipients. The study will apply an innovative method of discovering rejection in HIV-infected kidney transplants by performing DNA cytosine methylation sequencing of plasma samples of individuals with rejection. Methyl-Seq is a novel next-generation [...]