Marina is currently a Professor and the Acting Director at the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute at UCSF. Prior to that she has worked as a Senior Research Scientist at Pfizer where she focused on developing Precision Medicine strategies in drug discovery. She completed her PhD in Biomedical Informatics at Stanford University. Dr. Sirota’s research experience in translational bioinformatics spans nearly 20 years during which she has co-authored over 170 scientific publications.

Dr. Lai is a practicing general/transplant hepatologist and board-certified Physician Nutrition Specialist who specializes in caring for patients across the entire spectrum of liver disease, from diagnosis to liver transplant.

The Gaw Lab studies infectious diseases in pregnancy. Leveraging prospectively collected pregnancy specimens, we study how maternal-fetal immune responses adapt over gestation. We also study how inflammation impacts placental function and pregnancy outcomes, such as fetal growth restriction. Diseases of interest include malaria, COVID-19, and syphilis.

physician-scientist
(she/her/hers)

Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) is a prevalent and debilitating disease predominating in women and minorities. Despite its prevalence and morbidity, the biology of HS is poorly understood, thus limiting the development of effective therapies. Rigorous investigation of cutaneous dysbiosis (abnormal microbial colonization of skin) and immune dysregulation associated with HS is urgently needed to understand their roles in HS pathogenesis, and to guide the development of novel therapeutic approaches for this devastating disease.