Organization and Leadership
Organizational Chart
Internal Executive Committee
See the roster and introduction.
External Advisory Board
See the roster and introduction.
For More Information
Center Administrator
- Sue Ngo
- ngos@medsfgh.ucsf.edu
- Phone: (415) 206-4809
- Fax: (415) 641-0517
Directors
Program Director
Associate Director
Director Emeritus
Organization
The Liver Center ("Center") is organized into four sections: an Administrative Core and three Biomedical Cores. The Administrative Core oversees the operation of the Center and manages the Center’s enrichment and internal grants programs. The Cell Biology, Immunology & Virology and Pathology & Imaging Cores provide research support services to Center members.
The Center is governed by an Internal Executive Committee comprised of the three Directors, three Biomedical Core Directors, an Enrichment Program Director and four at-large members.
Independent oversight is provided by an External Advisory Board.
Internal Executive Committee
Program Director
- Jacquelyn J. Maher, MD
- Dr. Maher is Professor of Medicine and Gastroenterology at UCSF. She has been a member of the Liver Center since 1988 and led the Center’s Cell Biology Core before becoming Program Director. Dr. Maher also heads the UCSF T32 Postdoctoral Training Program in Hepatology. Her research interests are hepatotoxicity and fatty liver disease.
Associate Director and Pilot-Feasibility Program Director
- Didier Y. Stainier, PhD
-
Dr. Stainier is Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics at UCSF. He has been a member of the Liver Center since 2000, and co-directed the Center’s annual research symposium in 2004. Dr. Stainier is an active member of the UCSF Tetrad Graduate Program in Developmental Biology; his research interest is in the development of endodermal organs, including the liver and cardiovascular system using the zebrafish as an experimental model.
Director Emeritus
- D. Montgomery Bissell, MD
-
Dr. Bissell is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology at UCSF. He has been a member of the Liver Center since 1975 and served as Director from 1998-2007. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of HEPATOLOGY and the recipient of an AASLD Distinguished Achievement Award. His research interest is tissue remodeling in the setting of liver injury.
Enrichment Program Director
- Holger F. Willenbring, MD
- Dr. Willenbring is Assistant Professor of Surgery and a member of the UCSF Institute for Regeneration Medicine. He has been a member of the Liver Center since 2005. His research interests are liver cell transplantation and mechanisms of hepatocarcinogenesis.
Core Director — Cell Biology
- Hal F. Yee, Jr., MD, PhD
- Dr. Yee is Professor of Medicine and interim Chief of the Medical Service at San Francisco General Hospital. He has been a member of the Liver Center since 2004. Dr. Yee is an expert in primary liver cell isolation whose research interest is the prevention and treatment of liver fibrosis.
Core Director — Immunology & Virology
- Jody L. Baron, MD, PhD
- Dr. Baron is Assistant Professor of Medicine and a member of the UCSF Molecular Medicine Program. She has been a member of the Liver Center since 1999. Dr. Baron is expert in flow cytometry and molecular analysis; her research program focuses on immune responses to hepatitis virus infection.
Core Director — Pathology & Imaging
- James P. Grenert, MD, PhD
- Dr. Grenert is Assistant Professor of Pathology at UCSF and Director of Surgical Pathology at SFGH. He is skilled in the development and validation of histologic techniques to detect chromosomal abnormalities in solid tumors. Dr. Grenert's research interest is in the development of histologic methods to improve diagnostic and prognostic accuracy for hepatic malignancies. He has also been instrumental in modernizing the infrastructure in the Pathology department to facilitate information exchange between patholgists and investigators.
External Advisory Board
- Dr. Ian N. Crispe
- Seattle Biomedical Research Institute (SBRI)
- Dr. Crispe is an expert on the immunological microenvironment of the liver, and focuses on the unique immune privilege of this organ. He has shown that CD8+ T cells are sequestered and killed within the liver; he currently explores the mechanisms underlying this process. His work is relevant to a number of clinical situations such as liver transplantation and chronic viral hepatitis.
- Dr. Neil Kaplowitz
- Keck USC School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA
- Dr. Kaplowitz investigates mechanisms of liver injury caused by drugs and toxins. He studies a number of events that lead to cell death in hepatocytes, including the activation of intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic cascades and the induction of ER stress. His laboratory is particularly interested in the ability of the compounds glutathione and homocysteine to act as protective or damaging influences, respectively, on liver cells in vivo. He is director of the DDRCC at USC, one of 4 dedicated Liver Disease Research Centers in the nation.
- Dr. D. Brent Polk
- Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
- Dr. Polk is Chief of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology at Vanderbilt University, and Program Director for the Vanderbilt Digestive Disease Research Center. Dr. Polk's research focuses on intestinal cell signaling in inflammation and tumorigenesis. His knowledge of GI cell biology and DDRCC administration will be great assets to the Center.
- Dr. Charles M. Rice
- Rockefeller University, New York, NY
- Dr. Rice is a virologist and a prominent figure in research on the hepatitis C virus (HCV). He was instrumental in determining the structure of several HCV-encoded proteins, and produced the first infectious molecular clone of HCV. His laboratory has recently established efficient cell culture systems for studying HCV replication and evaluating antiviral efficacy. Dr. Rice is Scientific and Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Hepatitis C at Rockefeller University.
- Dr. Kenneth S. Zaret
- University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
- Dr. Zaret studies mammalian development with particular emphasis on the liver. He uses the differentiation of embryonic endoderm into liver cells as a means to investigate fundamental signaling pathways that commit an undifferentiated cell to a specific fate. Dr. Zaret is a member of the Internal Advisory Board of the DDRCC at the University of Pennsylvania.