Gastrointestinal & Hepatobiliary Pathology Fellowship

The Department of Pathology offers a one-year fellowship in Gastrointestinal & Hepatobiliary Pathology (Selective Pathology) that is ACGME accredited.  The fellowship training primarily focuses on the diagnostic aspects of adult and pediatric gastrointestinal, liver, pancreas and biliary tract disease. The consultation service receives nearly 1500 outside consultations (60-70% medical and neoplastic liver, 30-40% tubular GI and pancreaticobiliary). The fellow also coordinates the consultations for challenging cases from in-house gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary as well as the liver transplant services. UCSF has an active Transplant Program that performs more than 150 liver transplants every year, and a large pediatric/adult IBD program, providing rich diagnostic material in these areas. The fellows participate in multidisciplinary clinical conferences, including liver transplant, hepatology/gastroenterology conferences, pediatric gastroenterology conference, as well as other ad hoc clinical case reviews with the pertinent clinical Hepatobiliary and GI teams. The workflow in GI and Hepatobiliary Pathology service is completely digitized offering a unique experience in digital pathology and offering the choice of digital vs. glass slides review for nearly all the clinical cases. 

There are numerous research opportunities and the service extensively uses cutting edge immunohistochemistry, molecular techniques and sequencing assays. The fellows work at Moffitt, Mission Bay and VA Hospitals; elective experience in endoscopy, molecular pathology and other subspecialties of surgical pathology is available.

Additional years of post-doctoral level training may be available for qualified candidates with an interest in basic research in hepatobiliary & gastrointestinal disease. Candidates who are interested in general surgical pathology fellowship, in addition to GI and hepatobiliary pathology subspecialty training, may be offered a two-year combined training experience (see surgical pathology fellowship webpage for details).

UCSF Gastrointestinal & Hepatobiliary Pathology Group

 

Gastrointestinal & Hepatobiliary Pathology Group

Back row (left to right): Dana Balitzer, Kester Haye, Aras Mattis, Nancy Joseph, Sanjay Kakar, Ryan Gill.

Front row (left to right): Raga Ramachandran, Soo-Jin Cho, Sarah Umetsu, Kwen Wun, Linda Ferrell, Grace Kim.

Faculty Involved with Fellowship

Dana J. Balitzer, MD
Soo-Jin Cho, MD, PhD
Won-Tak Choi, MD, PhD
Linda Ferrell, MD
Ryan M. Gill, MD, PhD
Nancy M. Joseph, MD, PhD
Sanjay Kakar, MD
Grace E. Kim, MD
Aras N. Mattis, MD, PhD
Rageshree Ramachandran, MD, PhD
Sarah E. Umetsu, MD, PhD
Kwun Wah Wen, MD, PhD

Requirements

  • Two completed years anatomic pathology minimum (3 years preferred), or Board eligibility/certification in AP/CP.
  • Non-U.S. citizens must possess a Permanent Resident Card or an appropriate educational visa prior to starting a postgraduate medical education program. The Department of Pathology may sponsor J1 visas.
  • If selected, candidates must obtain an unrestricted medical license or a Postgraduate Training License (PTL) from the Medical Board of California before their start date.
     

Medical Board of California

Salary

Fellows will be appointed as a PGY-5.

UCSF GME Trainee Financial Resources

Application

Applications for the 2025-2026 academic year are now closed.

Important Dates

Please check back in Spring 2024 for updates on the 2026-2027 academic year.

The program does not discriminate with regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender expression, gender identity, gender transition status, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, medical condition (cancer-related or genetic characteristics), genetic information (including family medical history), ancestry, marital status, age, sexual orientation, citizenship, or service in the uniformed services, including protected veterans.

Current & Future Fellows

2023-24
Dorukhan Bahceci, MD
Eric Nguyen, MD, PhD

2024-25
Nazire Albayrak, MD
Xiaoqin (Lucy) Liu, MD, PhD

2025-26
Goknur Akarca, MD
Maryam Kooshesh, MD

Past Fellows

Individual

Fellowship Years

Fellowship Activity

Post Graduate or Current Position

Annoel P. Yabes, MD

2005-2006

HCC Variants Independent Contractor
Lawrence Walden Browne, MD, PhD

2006-2007

Resident Education; FS diagnosis of fatty change for donors; Interobserver study pre and post training on how to grade fat that showed improvement Staff Pathologist, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA
Hubert H. Fenton, MD

2007-2008

Hemochromatosis and liver transplant risks Staff Pathologist, Pathology Associates, Greenville, SC
Kimberley Evason, MD, PhD

2008-2009

PFIC2 morphology correlation with genetic and immunohistochemical findings Staff Pathologist, Department of Pathology, University of Utah/Huntsman Cancer Institute
Maggie M. Lam, MD

2008-2009

HFE mutations in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency Staff Pathologist, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center Oakland, California
Rageshree Ramachandran, MD, PhD

2008-2009

Resident education: immunohistochemistry for diagnosis of HCC Associate Professor in Pathology, University of California San Francisco
Ryan M. Gill, MD, PhD

2009-2010

Centrizonal arterialization in NASH correlates with higher stage fibrosis Professor and Director of Surgical Pathology, University of California, San Francisco
Aras Mattis, MD, PhD

2009-2010

Vascular liver tumor variants Assistant Professor in Pathology, University of California, San Francisco
Andrea Pingitore, MD

2009-2010

Recurrent hepatitis C and steatosis in transplant patients; Neonatal, perinatal obstructive live disease Genomic Health
Amanda Doherty, MD

2010-2011

Resident Education; HIV, solid organ transplant, and recurrent HCV Staff Pathologist, Kaiser Medical Center, Santa Clara, CA
Gregor Krings, MD, PhD

2010-2011

Immunohistologic distinction between cholangiocarcinoma and benign ductular lesions Assistant Professor of Pathology, University of California San Francisco
Soo-Jin Cho, MD, PhD

2011-2012

Vascular malformations; FNH-like lesions in the liver Assistant Professor in Pathology, University of California San Francisco
Daniel Phillips, MD

2011-2012

Immunohistochemical stains in the diagnosis of poorly differentiated HCC Staff Pathologist, Sierra Pathology Associates, Clovis, CA
Thuy B. Nguyen, MD

2012-2013

Immunohistochemistry of primary liver tumors Staff Pathologist, Mills Peninsula Health Services, South San Francisco, CA
Samip Patel, MD

2012-2013

Well differentiated hepatocellular tumors  and combined HCC/cholangiocarcinoma Staff Pathologist, Atlanta VA Medical Center, Atlanta, Georgia

Mojgan Hosseini, MD

2013-2014

Segmental cholangiectasia and recurrent pyogenic cholangitis; ductular reaction mimicking cholangiocarcinoma; pediatric cholestatic liver disorders Assistant Professor in Pathology, University of California San Diego

Menaku Raju, MD

2013-2014

Carcinosarcoma of the esophagus Staff Pathologist, Kaiser Medical Center, San Jose, CA
Gillian Hale (Genrich), MD

2014-2015

Beta-catenin mutations in hepatocellular adenoma; glutamine synthetase immunohistochemistry in liver tumors Faculty Pathologist, University of Utah, Salt lake City, UT
Sarah Umestu, MD, PhD

2014-2015

Grading and staging of appendiceal mucinous neoplasms; GNAQ mutations in anastomosing hemangioma Assistant Professor in Pathology, University of California San Francisco
Carolyn Sangokoya, MD, PhD

2014-2015

Hepatic iron homeostasis; MiR-485-3p and MiR-122 in liver development and disease Research Fellow in Pathology, University of California San Francisco
Won-Tak Choi, MD PhD

2015-2016

Flow cytometric analysis of dysplasia in Barrett esophagus; Small vs large droplet macrovesicular steatosis in liver transplant biopsies; gastric pyloric gland adenoma Associate Professor in Pathology, University of California San Francisco
Rocky Adams, MD

2015-2016

Genetics of hepatocellular adenoma Staff Pathologist, Saint George, UT
Christos Tsokos, MD, PhD

2015-2016

TERT promoter mutations in combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma Postdoctoral research fellow, Mass General Hospital, Boston, MA
Zhen Yan, MD

2015-2017

Staging system for fibrolamellar carcinoma; immunohistochemical pitfalls in hepatic angiomyolipoma Staff Pathologist, Diagnostic Pathology Medical group, Vallejo, CA
Su-Yang Liu, MD, PhD

2016-2017

Tumor deposits in colorectal cancer; whole slide imaging for primary diagnosis of GI biopsies Postdoctoral research fellow, UCSF
Kwun Wah Wen, MD, PhD

2017-2018

Immature B-cells in adult and pediatric liver biopsies; genomics of appendiceal goblet carcinoid Assistant Professor in Pathology, University of California San Francisco
Daniel Roberts, MD

2017-2018

Pathologic features predicting recurrence of HCC after transplant Staff pathologist, Cleveland Clinic, OH
Kester Haye, MD, PhD 2018-2019 Characterization of colonic adenocarcinomas with neuroendocrine features Faculty, Dept. of Pathology, Univ of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,  PA
Dana Balitzer, MD 2018-2019 - Genomic features of cholangiolocellular carcinoma
- Novel markers for distinguishing benign vs. malignant biliary proliferations
Staff Pathologist, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA
Daffolyn Rachael Fels Elliott, MD, PhD, FRCPC 2019-2020 Parenchymal rejection in allograft livers Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology
The University of Kansas Health System
Christopher Bowman, MD, PhD 2019-2020 Nanostring RNA analysis in subtypes of hepatocellular adenoma Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UCSF
Hsiang-Chih Liu, MD, PhD 2020-2021 Neuroendocrine markers in colorectal adenocarcinoma Assistant Professor, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Nigar Anjuman Khurram, MD 2020-2021 Histological Eosinophilic Gastritis Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Ruth Zhang, MD 2021-2022 Aneuploidy in gastric intestinal metapalsia Fourth Year Pathology Resident, University of California San Francisco
Raymond Yip, MD, MSc 2021-2022 Genomic Profiling of LFABP-Negative Moderately to Poorly Differentiated Hepatocellular Carcinoma Staff Pathologist, Royal Jubilee Hospital/Victoria General Hospital, Victoria, Canada
Naoki Akanuma, MD, PhD 2022-2023 DNA content abnormality in fundic gland polyps Third Year Pathology Resident, University of California San Francisco
Alexander Kikuchi, MD 2022-2023 Genomic Analysis in the Categorization of Poorly-Differentiated Primary Liver Carcinomas Assistant Professor GI/Liver Pathology, University of Utah Health, Huntsman Cancer Institute