News & Events

We are excited to announce that Tom C. Nguyen, MD, FACS, FACC has been named the new Chief of the Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery and the Helen and Charles Schwab Distinguished Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco.  Dr. Nguyen comes to UCSF from the University of Texas Houston (UT-H), where he is Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Chief of Cardiac Surgery, Director of Minimally Invasive Valve Surgery, and Co-Director of Structural Heart Disease.    At UT-H, Dr. Nguyen flourished in a productive practice, with more than [...]

UCSF surgeon-scientist Johannes R. Kratz, M.D. was awarded a Junior Clinical Investigator Award from the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Care Center. This mentored award is given to a junior clinical investigator to support their research efforts in the early stages of their career. Dr. Kratz was given this prestigious award to pursue the study of the tumor immune microenvironment in high-risk early-stage lung cancer.   The Kratz lab focuses on the genetic and immunological mechanisms that drive early-stage, surgically resectable thoracic malignancies. These malignancies include lung [...]

Barbara C. S. Hamilton, M.D., M.A.S., a cardiothoracic surgery fellow at UCSF, has been awarded a UCSF COVID-19 Related Rapid Research Pilot Initiative grant for her project titled "Safe reinstitution of elective surgeries with universal testing at UCSF during the COVID-19 pandemic". The project has been chosen for funding by the UCSF Chancellor's COVID Gift Fund within the Initiative Collective in the overall amount of $5,000 for a one-year project period. Dr. Hamilton is mentored in her research activities by Dr. Johannes Kratz, Associate Program Director of the Thoracic Surgery Residency [...]

"Looking at the genomic aspect of tumors allows us to get deeper than just looking at the microscopic appearance of the tumor and see how aggressive they are biologically," said Johannes Kratz, MD, FACS, director of minimally invasive and robotic thoracic surgery at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and coauthor of the study that was published in December 2019 in JAMA Network Open. "We can make a more accurate prediction of which patients will recur and better predict survival." Dr Kratz said that incorporating molecular analyses to determine patients' prognoses helps address [...]

Kai Ihnken, M.D. has been awarded the Inaugural UCSF Thoracic Residency Program Teaching Award for 2019, in recognition of his outstanding teaching efforts for thoracic surgery residents inside and outside of the OR.  Dr. Kai Ihnken is cardiac and heart transplant surgeon who specializes in advanced state-of-the-art surgical therapies for heart failure. Dr. Ihnken received his medical degree from Justus Liebig University, Giessen Germany with Summa cum laude. Subsequently, he completed residencies at J.W. Goethe University and Albert-Ludwigs University in Germany and Stanford University in [...]

UCSF surgeon-scientist Johannes R. Kratz, M.D. has been awarded the Michael DeBakey Research Scholarship by the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) and AATS Foundation. This two-year research scholarship is awarded annually to a single North American surgeon committed to pursuing an academic career in cardiothoracic surgery. Dr. Kratz was given this prestigious award for the study of genetic and immunologic determinants of recurrent early-stage lung cancer. The Kratz Lab focuses on the genetic and immunological mechanisms that drive early-stage, surgically resectable thoracic [...]

Greg J. Haro, MD, a general surgery resident at UCSF, has been named a 2019 STAT Wunderkind by STAT News, a journal that reports the latest in health, medicine, and scientific discoveries. This prestigious award is given to early-career scientists who are performing groundbreaking research. Dr. Haro is currently a PGY-4 general surgery resident who completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the UCSF Thoracic Oncology Lab. His work, featured in his STAT Wunderkind piece, is dedicated to the modernization of lung cancer staging based upon the incorporation of patient-specific gene [...]

Cardiac and heart/lung transplant surgeon-scientist Tobias Deuse, M.D. has been awarded a 4-year $400K grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate space-related physiological changes in liver aging and regeneration. The work will be carried out aboard the International Space Station (ISS) using a novel platform, tissue engineered liver immune chips in microgravity. Dr. Deuse is Professor and Interim Chief of the Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery, and Director of Minimally-Invasive Cardiac Surgery at UCSF. He is also a principal investigator in the Transplant and [...]

UCSF Assistant Professor Bhairavi Tolani, Ph.D., a member of the UCSF Thoracic Oncology Lab, was awarded the Hellman Family - Early Career Faculty Award for 2019-2020.  Established by Warren & Chris Hellman and their children in 1994, the purpose of the Hellman Fellows Program is to support the research of promising assistant professors who show capacity for great distinction in their chosen fields of endeavor. Dr. Tolani received this prestigious award for the study of autophagy as a therapeutic strategy in pancreatic cancer.    Dr. Tolani's research is focused on developing targeted [...]

Mutations in Mitochondrial DNA Induced by Cell Reprogramming May Trigger Immune Response In 2006, scientists discovered a way to "reprogram" mature cells – adult skin cells, for example – into stem cells that could, in principle, give rise to any tissue or organ in the body. Many assumed it was only a matter of time until this groundbreaking technique found its way into the clinic and ushered in a regenerative medicine revolution. Because the same patient would be both the donor and the recipient of cells derived from these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), these cells [...]

Tobias Deuse, MD, Professor of Surgery at UCSF, and a cardiac and heart transplant surgeon internationally renowned for his pioneering work in the development of minimally-invasive techniques for mitral valve repair, discusses the advantages of minimally invasive approaches for the treatment of mitral valve insufficiency, describing the operative technique, which candidates and pathologies are the best candidates for this procedure, and the importance of volumes and experience in achieving optimal outcomes.

Four members of the UCSF Department of Surgery were recently honored with Exceptional Physician Awards by UCSF Health. The four were nominated and selected based on their demonstration of UCSF's core PRIDE values -- Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity and Excellence. Their hard work, dedication and contributions are a testament to the exemplary relationships they have with faculty, staff and patients, and their steadfast commitment to providing outstanding care for our patients.  The Department of Surgery captured 4 of the 9 Exceptional Physician Awards awarded this year to [...]

Despite adoption of molecular biomarkers in the management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the recently adopted 8th Edition staging utilized only clinicopathologic characteristics, and validated improvement in risk stratification of early-stage disease remains elusive. We therefore evaluated the integration of a clinically-validated molecular prognostic classifier into conventional staging.... Incorporation of a molecular prognostic classifier significantly improved identification of high-risk patients and survival predictions compared to conventional staging. TNMB may lead to [...]

Gavitt A. Woodard, M.D., a cardiothoracic surgery fellow at UCSF, has been awarded an Intuitive Surgical Robotics Fellowship from the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons (AATS) Foundation. This opportunity provides advanced robotic training and certification to a select group of fellows each year. Dr. Woodard will attend the course with her sponsoring faculty mentor Johannes Kratz, M.D. who leads the Thoracic Robotic Surgery Program at UCSF.  While a general surgery resident at UCSF, Dr. Woodard received her Robotic Qualification Equivalency Certificate (QEC) from Intuitive Surgical. [...]

UCSF surgeon-scientist Johannes R. Kratz, M.D. was awarded the Inaugural Hellman Family Clinical-Translational Research Development Award from the Bakar ImmunoX initiative. This development award embeds a young investigator in an ImmunoX CoLab for two years in order to rapidly translate clinical insights into molecular-level understanding of disease. Dr. Kratz was given this prestigious award for the study of tumor immune populations in high-risk early-stage lung cancer.   The Kratz Lab focuses on the genetic and immunological mechanisms that drive early-stage, surgically resectable [...]

Julius Guccione, Jr., Ph.D., Professor of Surgery and Co-Director of the UCSF Cardiac Biomechanics Lab, was inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows at its annual meeting in Washington, DC, on March 25, 2019. Guccione was one of four UCSF faculty members inducted this year. Comprised of just the top two percent of engineers in the field, election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to medical and biological engineers. Guccione's research focuses on the development of devices for [...]

Technique Prevents Transplant Rejection in the Lab, a Major Advance for Stem Cell Therapies  Human heart muscle cells derived from triple-engineered stem cells that are "invisible" to the immune system. The red is troponin, a protein that participates in cardiac muscle contraction. The blue is the cell's nucleus. Researchers hope cells like these will eventually be used to treat heart failure. Credit: Xiaomeng Hu. UC San Francisco scientists have used the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system to create the first pluripotent stem cells that are functionally "invisible" to the immune system, [...]

Sonja Schrepfer, M.D., Ph.D. and Tobias Deuse, M.D. have been awarded a 4-Year $3M NIH R01 Grant to study the role of cardiomyocytes in heart repair. Dr. Schrepfer is an associate professor and director of the UCSF Transplant and Stem Cell Immunobiology (TSI) Lab. Dr. Deuse, a renowned heart surgeon, is associate professor and director of minimally-invasive cardiac surgery at UCSF and a principal investigator in the TSI lab.  The study will generate hypo-immunogenic cardiomyocytes that could be used therapeutically for regenerating tissues but are engineered to avoid rejection by patients [...]

A team led by Bhairavi Tolani, Ph.D. and David M. Jablons, M.D. has developed and characterized a potential novel therapeutic for Sonic hedgehog (Shh)-driven cancers, including some lung cancers. Dr. Tolani is an assistant professor and member of the Thoracic Oncology Program, and principal investigator in the Tolani Laboratory. Dr. Jablons is director of the Thoracic Oncology Program and Thoracic Oncology Lab.  The researchers reported last October that full-length Shh protein present on the cell membrane identified cells with cancer stem cell (CSC) features implicated in NSCLC. To target [...]

The Thoracic Oncology Program proudly announces the launch of the Kratz Lab, which will focus on understanding the genetic and immunological mechanisms that drive early-stage, surgically resectable thoracic malignancies, most notably non-small cell lung cancer. The translationally-focused Kratz Lab will use the knowledge gained from investigating these mechanisms to identify novel therapeutic targets and treatments for this group of patients.  Johannes R. Kratz, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery and Van Auken Endowed Chair in Thoracic Oncology, is the [...]