Associate Professor
Medicine
[email protected]
+1 415 476-6422
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UCSF Microbiome Researchers

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.

Dr. Lai is also a clinical investigator with a robust research program dedicated to improving the lives of patients living with chronic liver disease and to help more of them survive to transplant and thrive after. Her research program has been continuously supported by numerous organizations including the National Institutes of Health, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), American Society of Transplantation (AST), and American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), in addition to the generous support of grateful patients. She serves as director of the UCSF Health Advancing Research in Clinical Hepatology (ARCH), the research arm of the UCSF Division of GI/Hepatology, as well as director of Patient-Facing Research Core of the NIH-funded UCSF Liver Center.

Dr. Lai earned her B.S. from Stanford University and combined MD/MBA degrees from Tufts University School of Medicine, then completed her clinical training in Internal Medicine at Columbia University, and gastroenterology and advanced/transplant hepatology fellowships at UCSF. Dr. Lai has received many honors for her work including the SF Business Times Top 40 under 40 Leader award, AGA Young Investigator Award in Clinical Science, AST Clinical Science Career Development Award, Young Investigator Award from the International Liver Transplantation Society, and the UCSF Department of Medicine Resident Research Award. Currently, Dr. Lai serves as an Associate Editor for the Hepatology Journal (the premier hepatology journal) and a standing member of the U.S. FDA Gastrointestinal Drug Advisory Committee.

If you are interested in contributing to Dr. Lai's research program, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution: https://makeagift.ucsf.edu/LaiResearchFund

Publications

Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF): the 'Kyoto Consensus'-steps from Asia.

Hepatology international

Choudhury A, Kulkarni AV, Arora V, Soin AS, Dokmeci AK, Chowdhury A, Koshy A, Duseja A, Kumar A, Mishra AK, Patwa AK, Sood A, Roy A, Shukla A, Chan A, Krag A, Mukund A, Mandot A, Goel A, Butt AS, Sahney A, Shrestha A, Cárdenas A, Di Giorgio A, Arora A, Anand AC, Dhawan A, Jindal A, Saraya A, Srivastava A, Kumar A, Kaewdech A, Pande A, Rastogi A, Valsan A, Goel A, Kumar A, Singal AK, Tanaka A, Coilly A, Singh A, Meena BL, Jagadisan B, Sharma BC, Lal BB, Eapen CE, Yaghi C, Kedarisetty CK, Kim CW, Panackel C, Yu C, Kalal CR, Bihari C, Huang CH, Vasishtha C, Jansen C, Strassburg C, Lin CY, Karvellas CJ, Lesmana CRA, Philips CA, Shawcross D, Kapoor D, Agrawal D, Payawal DA, Praharaj DL, Jothimani D, Song DS, Kim DJ, Kim DS, Zhongping D, Karim F, Durand F, Shiha GE, D'Amico G, Lau GK, Pati GK, Narro GEC, Lee GH, Adali G, Dhakal GP, Szabo G, Lin HC, Li H, Nair HK, Devarbhavi H, Tevethia H, Ghazinian H, Ilango H, Yu HL, Hasan I, Fernandez J, George J, Behari J, Fung J, Bajaj J, Benjamin J, Lai JC, Jia J, Hu JH, Chen JJ, Hou JL, Yang JM, Chang J, Trebicka J, Kalf JC, Sollano JD, Varghese J, Arab JP, Li J, Reddy KR, Raja K, Panda K, Kajal K, Kumar K, Madan K, Kalista KF, Thanapirom K, Win KM, Suk KT, Devadas K, Lesmana LA, Kamani L, Premkumar M, Niriella MA, Al Mahtab M, Yuen MF, Sayed MH, Alla M, Wadhawan M, Sharma MK, Sahu M, Prasad M, Muthiah MD, Schulz M, Bajpai M, Reddy MS, Praktiknjo M, Yu ML, Prasad M, Sharma M, Elbasiony M, Eslam M, Azam MG, Rela M, Desai MS, Vij M, Mahmud N, Choudhary NS, Marannan NK, Ormeci N, Saraf N, Verma N, Nakayama N, Kawada N, Goyal O, Yokosuka O, Rao PN, Angeli P, Parikh P, Kamath PS, Thuluvath PJ, Lingohr P, Ranjan P, Bhangui P, Rathi P, Sakhuja P, Puri P, Ning Q, Dhiman RK, Kumar R, Vijayaraghavan R, Khanna R, Maiwall R, Mohanka R, Moreau R, Gani RA, Loomba R, Mehtani R, Rajaram RB, Hamid SS, Palnitkar S, Lal S, Biswas S, Chirapongsathorn S, Agarwal S, Sachdeva S, Saigal S, Kumar SE, Violeta S, Singh SP, Mochida S, Mukewar S, Alam S, Lim SG, Alam S, Venishetty S, Sundaram SS, Shetty S, Bhatia S, Singh SA, Kottilil S, Strasser S, Shasthry SM, Maung ST, Tan SS, Treeprasertsuk S, Asthana S, Manekeller S, Gupta S, Acharya SK, K C S, Maharshi S, Asrani S, Dadhich S, Taneja S, Giri S, Singh S, Chen T, Gupta T, Kanda T, Tanwandee T, Piratvishuth T, Spengler U, Prasad VGM, Midha V, Rakhmetova V, Arroyo V, Sood V, Br VK, Wong VW, Pamecha V, Singh V, Dayal VM, Saraswat VA, Kim W, Jafri W, Gu W, Jun WY, Qi X, Chawla YK, Kim YJ, Shi Y, Abbas Z, Kumar G, Shiina S, Wei L, Omata M, Sarin SK, APASL-ACLF Research Consortium (AARC) for APASL-ACLF working party

Material economic hardship is associated with adverse 1-year outcomes after pediatric liver transplantation: Prospective cohort results from the multi-center SOCIAL-Tx study.

Liver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society

Wadhwani SI, Squires JE, Hsu E, Gupta N, Campbell K, Zielsdorf S, Vittorio J, Desai DM, Ebel NH, Shui AM, Bucuvalas JC, Gottlieb LM, Lyles CR, Lai JC, Society of Pediatric Liver Transplantation

Prognostic Communication, Symptom Burden, Psychological Distress, and Quality of Life Among Patients with Decompensated Cirrhosis.

Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association

Donlan J, Kaplan A, Noll A, Pintro K, Horick N, Zeng C, Edelen M, Soetan Z, Comrie C, Indriolo T, Li L, Zhu E, Armstrong ME, Thompson LL, Zhou J, Diop MS, Mason N, Engel KG, Rowland M, Kenimer S, O'Brien K, Lai JC, Jackson V, Chung RT, El-Jawahri A, Ufere NN

Predictors of long-term clinical outcomes after TIPS: An ALTA group study.

Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.)

Nobel YR, Boike JR, Mazumder NR, Thornburg B, Hoffman R, Kolli KP, Fallon M, Lai JC, Morelli G, Spengler EK, Said A, Desai AP, Paul S, Goel A, Hu K, Frenette C, Gregory D, Padilla C, Zhang Y, VanWagner LB, Verna EC, Advancing Liver Therapeutic Approaches (ALTA) Study Group

Financial burden following adult liver transplantation is common and associated with adverse recipient outcomes.

Liver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society

Ufere NN, Serper M, Kaplan A, Horick N, Indriolo T, Li L, Satapathy N, Donlan J, Castano Jimenez JC, Lago-Hernandez C, Lieber S, Gonzalez C, Keegan E, Schoener K, Bethea E, Dageforde LA, Yeh H, El-Jawahri A, Park ER, Vodkin I, Schonfeld E, Nipp R, Desai A, Lai JC

Caregivers' and providers' perspectives of social and medical care after pediatric liver transplant: Results from the multi-center SOCIAL-Tx study.

Liver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society

Wadhwani SI, Alvarado A, Shifman HP, Bautista B, Yalung J, Squires JE, Campbell K, Ebel NH, Hsu E, Vittorio J, Zielsdorf S, Desai DM, Bucuvalas JC, Gottlieb L, Kotagal U, Lyles CR, Ackerman SL, Lai JC

Addressing sex-based disparities in solid organ transplantation in the United States - a conference report.

American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons

Sawinski D, Lai JC, Pinney S, Gray AL, Jackson AM, Stewart D, Levine DJ, Locke JE, Pomposelli JJ, Hartwig MG, Hall SA, Dadhania DM, Cogswell R, Perez RV, Schold JD, Turgeon NA, Kobashigawa J, Kukreja J, Magee JC, Friedewald J, Gill JS, Loor G, Heimbach JK, Verna EC, Walsh MN, Terrault N, Testa G, Diamond JM, Reese PP, Brown K, Orloff S, Farr MA, Olthoff KM, Siegler M, Ascher N, Feng S, Kaplan B, Pomfret E

Cognitive Impairment and Physical Frailty in Patients With Cirrhosis.

Hepatology communications

Berry K, Duarte-Rojo A, Grab JD, Dunn MA, Boyarsky BJ, Verna EC, Kappus MR, Volk ML, McAdams-DeMarco M, Segev DL, Ganger DR, Ladner DP, Shui A, Tincopa MA, Rahimi RS, Lai JC, from the Multi-Center Functional Assessment in Liver Transplantation (FrAILT) Study

Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Diabetes Mellitus Are Associated With Post-Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt Renal Dysfunction: An Advancing Liver Therapeutic Approaches Group Study.

Liver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society

Ge J, Lai JC, Boike JR, German M, Jest N, Morelli G, Spengler E, Said A, Lee A, Hristov A, Desai AP, Junna S, Pokhrel B, Couri T, Paul S, Frenette C, Christian-Miller N, Laurito M, Verna EC, Rahim U, Goel A, Das A, Pine S, Gregory D, VanWagner LB, Kolli KP, Advancing Liver Therapeutic Approaches (ALTA) Study Group

Outcomes of Liver Transplantation Among Older Recipients With Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis in a Large Multicenter US Cohort: the Re-Evaluating Age Limits in Transplantation Consortium.

Liver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society

Kwong AJ, Devuni D, Wang C, Boike J, Jo J, VanWagner L, Serper M, Jones L, Sharma R, Verna EC, Shor J, German MN, Hristov A, Lee A, Spengler E, Koteish AA, Sehmbey G, Seetharam A, John N, Patel Y, Kappus MR, Couri T, Paul S, Salgia RJ, Nhu Q, Frenette CT, Lai JC, Goel A, Re-Evaluating Age Limits in Transplantation (REALT) Consortium

Liver Transplant Survivorship.

Liver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society

Lai JC, Ufere NN, Bucuvalas JC

Impact of Chronic Kidney Disease on Outcomes in Cirrhosis.

Liver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society

Wong F, Reddy KR, O'Leary JG, Tandon P, Biggins SW, Garcia-Tsao G, Maliakkal BJ, Lai JC, Fallon MB, Vargas HE, Subramanian R, Thuluvath PJ, Kamath PS, Thacker L, Bajaj JS

Outcomes After Listing for Liver Transplant in Patients With Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure: The Multicenter North American Consortium for the Study of End-Stage Liver Disease Experience.

Liver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society

O'Leary JG, Bajaj JS, Tandon P, Biggins SW, Wong F, Kamath PS, Garcia-Tsao G, Maliakkal B, Lai J, Fallon M, Vargas HE, Thuluvath P, Subramanian R, Thacker LR, Reddy KR

Report from the American Society of Transplantation on frailty in solid organ transplantation.

American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons

Kobashigawa J, Dadhania D, Bhorade S, Adey D, Berger J, Bhat G, Budev M, Duarte-Rojo A, Dunn M, Hall S, Harhay MN, Johansen KL, Joseph S, Kennedy CC, Kransdorf E, Lentine KL, Lynch RJ, McAdams-DeMarco M, Nagai S, Olymbios M, Patel J, Pinney S, Schaenman J, Segev DL, Shah P, Singer LG, Singer JP, Sonnenday C, Tandon P, Tapper E, Tullius SG, Wilson M, Zamora M, Lai JC

Reply.

Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.)

Lai JC, Covinsky KE, Dodge JL, Boscardin WJ, Segev DL, Roberts JP, Feng S

Physical frailty after liver transplantation.

American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons

Lai JC, Segev DL, McCulloch CE, Covinsky KE, Dodge JL, Feng S