Research Day Speakers

John M. Carethers, M.D.

Vice Chancellor
UC San Diego Health Sciences

Dr. Carethers has served as president of both the Association of American Physicians and the American Gastroenterological Association. He served as chair of the Minorities in Research Council of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), where he developed and co-chaired the programming for the 8th and 10th Science of Cancer Health Disparities conferences. He commenced and contributed to the inaugural (2020) and subsequent (2022) AACR Cancer Health Disparities Report and its presentation to the United States Congress. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

As vice chancellor, Dr. Carethers will focus on the overarching strategy for all of Health Sciences, working with the chancellor, campus, and health system leadership on expanding UC San Diego Health’s clinical enterprise, fostering research collaborations, enhancing educational opportunities, and expanding philanthropic participation. Health Sciences includes the School of Medicine, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, and UC San Diego Health.

Gary H. Gibbons, M.D.

Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., is Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he oversees the third largest institute at the NIH, with an annual budget of more than $3 billion and a staff of 917 federal employees.

The NHLBI provides global leadership for research, training, and education programs to promote the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, and blood diseases and enhance the health of all individuals so that they can live longer and more fulfilling lives.

Prior to being named director of the NHLBI, Gibbons served as a member of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council (NHLBAC) from 2009-2012. He was also a member of the NHLBI Board of Extramural Experts (BEE), a working group of the NHLBAC.

Laura Crotty Alexander, M.D.

Associate Professor In Residence, Medicine
Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Medicine

Research Interests

• E-cigarette effects on health
• Impact of inhalants on bacterial pathogenesis
• Role of educational material type and recorded/virtual lectures on knowledge assessment in medical and pharmacy students
• Molecular pathways in asthma pathogenesis
• Role of neutrophils in acute lung injury

Sandip Patel, M.D.

Clinical Professor, Medicine
Division of Hematology-Oncology, Medicine

Research Interests

• Cancer immunotherapy,
• Phase 1 clinical trials
• Cellular therapy
• Microbiome
• Precision medicine
• CAR-T cell
• NK cell
• Proteomics
• Immunotherapy

Natasha Martin, Ph.D.

Professor
Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, Medicine

Research Interests

• HCV
• HIV
• Substance use
• Prevention
• Epidemic modeling
• Economic modeling

Volker Vallon, M.D.

Professor
Division of Nephrology-Hypertension, Medicine

Research Interests

• Diabetic Nephropathy
• Hypertension
• Serum and Glucocorticoid Regulated Kinase 1
• Glucose Transport
• Organic Anion Transport
• Purine Receptors

Elizabeth Winzeler, Ph.D.

Professor
Division of Pharmacology and Drug Discovery, Pediatrics

Research Interests

• Global health
• Drug discovery
• Malaria
• Genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, genome sequencing
• Tropical medicine
• Chemical biology
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• Plasmodium falciparum
• Chagas disease
• Phenotypic screening
• Cheminformatics

Amit Majithia, M.D.

Associate Professor
Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism, Medicine

Research Interests

Majithia Lab applies the tools of functional genomics, bioinformatics, and human genetics in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary research environment. We participate in several research centers including, the UCSD-UCLA Diabetes Research Center, Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute, and the Institute for Genomic Medicine as well as the Center for Engineering in Diabetes (CED) in the Institute of Engineering in Medicine.

Rohit Loomba, M.D.

Professor
Division of Gastroenterology, Medicine

Research Interest

• Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)
• Non-invasive assessment of liver disease using advanced imaging modalities.