Renuka Nayak, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor
Medicine
+1 415 221-4810 ext. 22398

Dr. Renuka Nayak, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist dedicated to advancing the care and treatment of patients with rheumatologic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriatic arthritis, and other autoimmune diseases. She uses her unique backgrounds in Biology, Computer Science, and Clinical Rheumatology to investigate the role of the human gut microbiome in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. She uses an innovative combination of patient specimens, microbiology, next generation sequencing, and gnotobiotic mouse models to better understand how our microbiome, which many consider our "second genome," influences health and disease.

Publications: 

Can we modulate the gut microbiome to enhance DMARD efficacy in rheumatoid arthritis?

Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism

Blank RB, Nayak RR, Scher JU

A diet-dependent host metabolite shapes the gut microbiota to protect from autoimmunity.

Cell reports

Alexander M, Upadhyay V, Rock R, Ramirez L, Trepka K, Puchalska P, Orellana D, Ang QY, Whitty C, Turnbaugh JA, Tian Y, Dumlao D, Nayak R, Patterson A, Newman JC, Crawford PA, Turnbaugh PJ

A diet-dependent host metabolite shapes the gut microbiota to protect from autoimmunity.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology

Alexander M, Upadhyay V, Rock R, Ramirez L, Puchalska P, Orellana D, Ang QY, Turnbaugh JA, Tian Y, Dumlao D, Nayak R, Patterson A, Newman JC, Crawford PA, Turnbaugh PJ

Alteration in the gut microbiome is associated with changes in bone metabolism after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy.

Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research

Wu KC, McCauley KE, Lynch SV, Nayak RR, King NJ, Patel S, Kim TY, Condra K, Fadrosh D, Nguyen D, Lin DL, Lynch K, Rogers SJ, Carter JT, Posselt AM, Stewart L, Schafer AL

Simvastatin induces human gut bacterial cell surface genes.

Molecular microbiology

Escalante V, Nayak RR, Noecker C, Babdor J, Spitzer M, Deutschbauer AM, Turnbaugh PJ

Fanning the flames of autoimmunity: the microbiome in rheumatic disease.

Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.)

Nayak RR

Human gut bacterial metabolism drives Th17 activation and colitis.

Cell host & microbe

Alexander M, Ang QY, Nayak RR, Bustion AE, Sandy M, Zhang B, Upadhyay V, Pollard KS, Lynch SV, Turnbaugh PJ

Phage-delivered CRISPR-Cas9 for strain-specific depletion and genomic deletions in the gut microbiome.

Cell reports

Lam KN, Spanogiannopoulos P, Soto-Perez P, Alexander M, Nalley MJ, Bisanz JE, Nayak RR, Weakley AM, Yu FB, Turnbaugh PJ

The Pre-treatment Gut Microbiome is Associated with Lack of Response to Methotrexate in New Onset Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.)

Artacho A, Isaac S, Nayak R, Flor-Duro A, Alexander M, Koo I, Manasson J, Smith PB, Rosenthal P, Homsi Y, Gulko P, Pons J, Puchades-Carrasco L, Izmirly P, Patterson A, Abramson SB, Pineda-Lucena A, Turnbaugh PJ, Ubeda C, Scher JU

Methotrexate impacts conserved pathways in diverse human gut bacteria leading to decreased host immune activation.

Cell host & microbe

Nayak RR, Alexander M, Deshpande I, Stapleton-Gray K, Rimal B, Patterson AD, Ubeda C, Scher JU, Turnbaugh PJ

Pharmacomicrobiomics in inflammatory arthritis: gut microbiome as modulator of therapeutic response.

Nature reviews. Rheumatology

Scher JU, Nayak RR, Ubeda C, Turnbaugh PJ, Abramson SB

Genome-wide profiling identifies associations between lupus nephritis and differential methylation of genes regulating tissue hypoxia and type 1 interferon responses.

Lupus science & medicine

Mok A, Solomon O, Nayak RR, Coit P, Quach HL, Nititham J, Sawalha AH, Barcellos LF, Criswell LA, Chung SA

Stress-induced changes in gene interactions in human cells.

Nucleic acids research

Nayak RR, Bernal WE, Lee JW, Kearns MJ, Cheung VG

Polymorphic cis- and trans-regulation of human gene expression.

PLoS biology

Cheung VG, Nayak RR, Wang IX, Elwyn S, Cousins SM, Morley M, Spielman RS

Gene expression and genetic variation in response to endoplasmic reticulum stress in human cells.

American journal of human genetics

Dombroski BA, Nayak RR, Ewens KG, Ankener W, Cheung VG, Spielman RS

Custom People Group: 
UCSF Microbiome Researchers