News & Events: Tippi MacKenzie, M.D.

"This group of vulnerable patients has been relatively ignored in the fetal surgery world," said UCSF's Tippi MacKenzie, MD, senior author of the new study and member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, who has worked for a decade developing novel therapies for heritable diseases that can be treated before birth. "We know these patients could potentially benefit from a number of medical therapies. So this is our first foray into treating one of those diseases."

UCSF News reports on the first patient enrolled in the world's first clinical trial using blood stem cells transplanted prior to birth. The stem cell transplant was used to treat alpha thalassemia major, a blood disorder that is only detected in the last few months of pregnancy and has been almost uniformly fatal in the past. The clinical trial is led by Tippi MacKenzie, MD, an associate professor in the UCSF Division of Pediatric Surgery and co-Director of the UCSF Center for Maternal-Fetal Precision Medicine. The study is funded by a $12.1M grant from the California Institute for [...]

On May 17, the Second Annual UCSF Engineering for Children's Health Symposium was held at Mission Bay Conference Center. Over one hundred clinicians, engineers, scientists, administrators, industry professionals, and government partners gathered to discuss groundbreaking research and developing technologies in pediatric medicine. The event commenced with opening remarks by Hanmin Lee, MD, Surgeon-in-Chief of the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals and Professor and Chief of the UCSF Division of Pediatric Surgery, along with Bertram Lubin, MD, Associate Dean of Children's Health at UCSF, [...]

Pediatric Surgeon Tippi MacKenzie, MD was awarded $12.1 million by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to treat fetuses in the womb suffering from alpha thalassemia major, a blood disorder that is only detected in the last few months of pregnancy and is almost uniformly fatal.  Dr. MacKenzie, an associate professor in the UCSF Division of Pediatric Surgery and co-Director of the UCSF Center for Maternal-Fetal Precision Medicine, is using hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), taken from the mother's bone marrow, and transplanting them into the fetus before birth. The fetus's [...]

On January 12, clinicians, engineers, scientists, and administrators from UCSF, UC Berkeley. UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, and Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) convened at the Mission Bay campus for the inaugural Engineering for Children's Health Symposium. The event, reported in UCSF News, marked the launch of a collaborative effort dedicated to developing innovative technological solutions to improve patient safety, eliminate health disparities, cure disease, and end disability for children. UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood and UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks [...]

UCSF News reports on the work of a UCSF research team investigating the causes and potential treatments for gastroschisis, a rare disorder in which developing intestines protrude outside of the body through a hole alongside the belly button. Led by pediatric surgeon Tippi MacKenzie, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery in the UCSF Division of Pediatric Surgery and co-Director of the UCSF Center for Maternal-Fetal Precision Medicine, the team published findings elucidating the role of the immune system in the development of this potentially life-threatening disorder. UC San Francisco [...]

UCSF News report on how the immune system drives pregnancy complications after fetal surgery in mice. As a fetal surgeon at UC San Francisco, Tippi MacKenzie, MD, has long known that conducting surgery on a fetus to correct a problems such as spina bifida often results in preterm labor and premature birth. Now, MacKenzie and her UCSF colleagues have shown that, in mice at least, pregnancy complications after fetal surgery are triggered by activation of the mother's T cells – the same T cells that cause the body to reject a donor organ after transplant surgery "Here at UCSF, the [...]

UCSF News reports that on a study that suggests maternal liver grafts more tolerable for children with biliary atresia, a rare, life-threatening disease, results that may have important implications for counseling parents on organ donation Children with a rare, life-threatening disease that is the most common cause of neonatal liver failure – biliary atresia – better tolerate liver transplants from their mothers than from their fathers, according to a UCSF-led study. In the study, researchers reviewed all pediatric liver transplants nationwide from 1996 to 2010, and compared the outcomes [...]

UCSF News reports on fetal stem cell transplantation, taking healthy cells from the bone marrow of a donor, and transplanting them into the fetus through ultrasound-guided injections with the goal of having the implanted cells, or graft, replenish the patient's supply of healthy blood-forming cells. UCSF researchers have tackled a decade-long scientific conundrum, and their discovery is expected to lead to significant advances in using stem cells to treat genetic diseases before birth. Through a series of mouse model experiments, the research team determined that a mother's immune response [...]

As a gifted pianist in high school, Assistant Professor of Surgery Tippi MacKenzie, MD, spent every Saturday studying music at Juilliard. This musical training was good preparation for her current work as a researcher and surgeon.   "When you're playing the piano, you work out the details in a dif cult passage until it's perfect," she said. "It's the same with science. If there's an issue with your experiment, you can't just sweep it under the rug. you tackle that problem." With a smile, she added, "The technical ne motor skills also come in handy as a surgeon."   Now a fetal and [...]