News & Events

On National Women Physicians Day, the Muriel Steele Society and the UCSF Department of Surgery honor the amazing team of women surgeons, scientists, learners, and staff that have made so many important contributions to improving the lives of our patients. About the Muriel Steele Society at UCSF The Muriel Steele Society is an inclusive community dedicated to inspiring, supporting, and promoting women surgeons so they can thrive at all stages of their careers. We will be hosting events throughout the year to foster a strong community of allies and to achieve the goal of continued [...]

Committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion UCSF and the Department and Surgery are committed to building a broadly diverse community, nurturing a culture that is welcoming and supportive, and engaging diverse ideas for the provision of culturally competent education, discovery, and patient care. Chancellor Awards for Diversity Chancellor Awards for Diversity recognize the outstanding efforts of individuals who demonstrate a strong dedication to diversity. Individuals recognized are leaders and pioneers in their respective fields and to the communities in which they serve. We are proud [...]

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 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 [...]

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 [...]

Nancy Ascher, M.D., Ph.D., the world-renowned organ transplant surgeon and a former Chair of the UCSF Department of Surgery, has also been invited to serve on the WHO Task Force on Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues, an international multidisciplinary task force of 31 experts spanning the fields of medicine, surgery, ethics, law, patients' rights, public administration and health systems. The task force is charged with establishing the fundamentals of ethical transplantation, providing guidance to health ministries and governments pertaining to legislation, registries, [...]

In the medieval ages, alchemists dedicated their lifetimes searching for the formula that would transform ordinary metals into gold. In our bodies, several cases of "cellular alchemy" have been reported. Known as transdifferentiation, this process consists of one specialized cell type transmuting into a different one.  Until now, this phenomenon had only been observed in the context of replenishing cells lost from pre-existing structures. Now, UCSF researchers, led by Holger Willenbring, MD, PhD, professor of surgery and associate director of the Liver Center at UCSF, and a member of the Eli [...]

ABC News San Francisco (KGO) reports on the case of a Utah man, recovering from a lung transplant in Pennsylvania after a Utah hospital refused to put him on their transplant list because of past marijuana use. (The man subsequently died after the airing of the KGO story.) UCSF transplant surgeon, Ryutaro Hirose, M.D., was interviewed by KGO and regarding the policy on this is issue at UCSF. "We've recently liberalized our criteria regarding marijuana," said Dr. Ryutaro Hirose who is a transplant surgeon at UCSF, the country's busiest transplant center. Unlike the hospital in Utah, UCSF [...]

Andrew Posselt, MD, PhD is a transplant and bariatric surgeon and professor of surgery at UCSF.  Dr. Posselt performs kidney, liver, pancreas and islet transplants. He is also among a handful surgeons in the country who also performs bariatric surgery for patients who would otherwise be transplant candidates, but for their BMI and weight.  Dr. Posselt is also director the pancreatic islet transplantation program and as a surgeon-scientist conducts breakthrough research in islet transplantation, tolerance or rejection of transplanted tissue, and the metabolic and biochemical changes seen in [...]

September 29 - 30th at Hotel Nikko - San Francisco, CA Course Chair John P. Roberts, M.D.Professor and Chief, Division of Transplantation, UCSF Course Co-Chairs Michelle McMahan, BAHelen Christensen, RN, BSN, MHA, CPTC Heart • Lung • Liver • Kidney • Pancreas  The two-day conference is designed to provide a unique opportunity to hear UCSF Transplant experts present a comprehensive review and update on recent advances in adult and pediatric transplantation. Leaders in the field will share their medical and surgical expertise in solid organ transplant and living donor [...]

NapaValleyRegister.com reports on the story of Harrison Schaufer, the recipient of a donor kidney at 22 months old, and his mother Annelise, his living donor. A patient at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco since birth, Harrison, and his mother have attended the annual UCSF Pediatric Transplant Picnic annually. This year Harrison was asked to speak at the event. Harrison Schaufel never shies away from the spotlight, so when he was invited to give a speech about his experiences as a kidney transplant recipient, he couldn't refuse. Schaufel's story is nothing short of [...]

The SF Examiner reports on the reunion of three UCSF pediatric transplant patients, now adults, whose own children now attend the picnic with them. Chris Mudge will never forget the three very sick children who awaited liver transplants in the early 1990s at UC San Francisco Medical Center at Parnassus. Back then, it was hard for Mudge, a pediatric transplant nurse practitioner at what was then UCSF's children's hospital, to imagine her patients all grown up and with their own offspring. But that was the scene at the 20th Annual Chris Mudge UCSF Pediatric Transplant Picnic reunion for [...]

UCSF News reports on a just published study in the The New England Journal of Medicine in which mild hypothermia in deceased organ donors was found to significantly reduce delayed graft function in kidney transplant recipients compared with normal body temperature. The lead author of the study is Claus Niemann, MD, Professor of Anesthesia and Surgery at UCSF, and co-Director of the Ischemic Organ Injury Lab. The findings in the study could lead to an increase in the availability of kidneys for transplant. Mild hypothermia in deceased organ donors significantly reduces delayed graft [...]

Carlos Corvera M.D. was recently awarded the Maurice Galante, MD Distinguished Professorship in Hepatobiliary Surgery, recognizing his achievements and professional development in general surgery. The Professorship honors the late Maurice Galante, M.D., UCSF professor emeritus of surgery. Dr. Galante was described as "one of the last of a generation of real general surgeons"— those surgeons who bring the same superb technical expertise to a wide variety of surgical procedures. He developed a special relationship with his patients because of his sensitivity to their pain and suffering. Many [...]

The  20th Annual Chris Mudge Pediatric Transplant Picnic will take place McNears Beach in San Rafael, CA on Saturday, August 1, 2015. Attendees will be treated to music, dancing, kayaking, face-painting, pinatas, bubbles, and more.

UCSF News reports that Jennifer Lai, MD, MBA, a general and transplant hepatologist and assistant clinical professor in the UCSF Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, has been honored for her "patient-oriented clinical research within the core principles of geriatrics (i.e., frailty, disability, lag-time benefit) to cirrhosis patients and liver transplant patients, organ allocation and distribution, and liver donor quality." UC San Francisco's Jennifer Lai, MD, MBA, was recently selected as a "Top 40 under 40" in the Class of 2015 by the San Francisco Business Times. She is the only [...]

The St. Helena Star tells the story of a daughter who donated a portion of her liver to save her mother's life, part of a living donor liver transplant procedure performed by transplant surgeons at UCSF Medical Center. Kimberly St. Clair-Davis calls donating a portion of her liver to her mother, Sandy Zablosky, a "miraculous opportunity." The miraculous part to St. Clair-Davis is a scenario that defies strict mathematics. Zablosky can have her entire liver removed, St. Clair-Davis can donate 40 percent of her own liver to Zablosky and both women can be made whole. That 40 percent will [...]

A new video on AASLD TV (American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases) features the UCSF Liver Transplant Program and faculty John P. Roberts, M.D., Norah A. Terrault, M.D., M.P.H. and Francis Y.K. Yao, M.D. As a leader in the treatment of liver disease and transplantation, UCSF has performed more than 2,500 liver transplants in both children and adults, many in their growing living donor liver transplantation program. The UCSF team is also  researching cures for hepatitis as well as ways to help transplant recipients reduce their need for lifelong medication.

Successful downstaging of selected patients with HCC (hepatocellular carcinoma) before liver transplantation leads to excellent 5-year recurrence-free and overall survival rates post-transplant, according to a just-reported multicenter study led by UCSF Transplant Program investigators. Medscape Medical News reported on these results at the Liver Meeting 2014: American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) where the UCSF study findings were presented: Treating lesions with local-regional therapy allowed 119 of 187 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma to become eligible for [...]

Organ transplant patients face higher risk of skin cancer according to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle online (SFGATE): Studies show the medications increase the odds that transplant patients will acquire skin cancer by up to 100 times compared with the general population, and their risks increase every year there on out. Twenty-five percent of them will develop the potentially fatal disease at five years, and at least half will be diagnosed with it after 10 years. "It's really devastating for transplant patients, given a new lease on life from their transplant, to discover [...]