UCSF’s innovative, collaborative approach to patient care, research and education spans disciplines across the life sciences, making it a world leader in scientific discovery and its translation to improving health.
Dr. Rita Mukhtar specializes in breast surgery and general surgery for urgent conditions. For her patients with breast cancer, she offers expertise in total skin-sparing mastectomies, breast conservation, wire localization surgery (used to show the location of tissue requiring biopsy) and sentinel lymph node biopsy (used to see if cancer has spread).
Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) is a prevalent and debilitating disease predominating in women and minorities. Despite its prevalence and morbidity, the biology of HS is poorly understood, thus limiting the development of effective therapies. Rigorous investigation of cutaneous dysbiosis (abnormal microbial colonization of skin) and immune dysregulation associated with HS is urgently needed to understand their roles in HS pathogenesis, and to guide the development of novel therapeutic approaches for this devastating disease.
Alison Baker Nair, MD is an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Her translational research program focuses on platelet-endothelial interactions in the setting of pediatric critical illness and how these interactions are altered by transfusion and other cellular therapies. She received her undergraduate degree from Grinnell College and her MD from the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. She completed residency in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric critical care medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Renuka Nayak, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist dedicated to advancing the care and treatment of patients with rheumatologic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriatic arthritis, and other autoimmune diseases. She uses her unique backgrounds in Biology, Computer Science, and Clinical Rheumatology to investigate the role of the human gut microbiome in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr. Elena Nedelcu brings two decades of experience in clinical pathology, transfusion medicine, hematology diagnostics and cellular therapies. Her main interests are medical and post-graduate education, patient safety and quality in transfusion service, and cellular therapies.
Dr. Alexandra Nelson is a neurologist who cares for patients with disorders that affect both movement and cognition, such as Huntington's disease, spinocerebellar ataxia and atypical parkinsonism. She also works closely with her patients' families. She is a member of the clinical and research team at UCSF's Memory and Aging Center and Huntington's Disease Clinic, designated a center of excellence by the Huntington's Disease Society of America.
I am a physician-scientist in the UCSF Division of Rheumatology. I keep a general rheumatology clinic at the Parnassus campus where I treat patients with autoimmune diseases. Additionally, I carry out post-doctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Julie Zikherman also in the Division of Rheumatology. Broadly, my research involves using mouse models of autoimmunity to dissect molecular mechanisms of immune tolerance.
Dr. Susana Ortiz-Urda is a dermatologist and melanoma specialist who serves as co-director of the UCSF Melanoma Center. She cares for patients with early and advanced melanoma.
Ortiz-Urda’s lab works with human models of epithelial neoplasia and melanoma. She studies cancer signaling at a genetic sequencing level to identify novel transcripts, their functions and the factors that promote resistance to drugs or cancer progression. She hopes her findings may point to key biomarkers or new targets for treating melanoma.
My laboratory is interested in the molecular mechanisms of viral pathogenesis. We focus on a variety of viruses including HIV-1, Hepatitis B and C Virus (HBV and HCV), Zika and SARS-CoV-2. We believe that identifying common host pathways involved in different viruses can lead to the discovery of panviral therapeutics. All are important public health problems and with HCV and HIV sharing common traits including high propensities to establish chronic infections and a lack of efficient vaccines, and Zika and SARS-CoV-2 causing global pandemics leading to death and disability.
Our laboratory studies the cellular and synaptic mechanisms of glaucomatous neurodegeneration, neuronal plasticity and repair, and regeneration. We are particularly interested in understanding the earliest steps of inner retina circuit disassembly in response to injury.
