Renal Pathology Fellowship 

The renal pathology fellowship at UCSF is designed to train the next generation of medical renal pathology leaders and to accomplish three main goals for our trainees: 

1. Provide rigorous specialized clinical training
2. Participate in teaching of pathology residents and other teaching activities
3. Participate in individually-tailored research 

Clinical Training

The clinical training includes diagnostic responsibilities in adult and pediatric renal pathology, renal transplant pathology, and electron microscopy. The renal pathology division at UCSF has three renal pathologists who work very closely with UCSF general and transplant nephrologists, as well as community nephrologists. We evaluate approximately 1500 kidney biopsies per year.

Clinical duties include:

• Management of renal biopsy and EM cases with faculty supervision
• Evaluation of donor kidney biopsies
• Non-neoplastic kidney consults of nephrectomy cases 
• Supervision of residents on renal pathology and transplant pathology rotations
• Daily kidney transplant pathology clinical conference
• Biweekly renal biopsy clinical conference
• EM laboratory technical and management skills

Teaching Duties

• Supervision of residents on renal pathology and transplant pathology rotations
• Daily transplant pathology conference
• Biweekly medical renal pathology conference
• Pathology Grand Rounds
• Medical student teaching (optional)

Research

Fellows will engage in individually-tailored clinical, translational, or basic research activities with faculty supervision and mentorship. A broad range of ongoing research projects are available to select from including various aspects of digital pathology such as developing image analysis algorithms, application of molecular diagnostic techniques in renal and transplant pathology, and various other ongoing basic science and translational projects. Fellows will be given protected time to pursue academic activities as needed at discretion of the program director. Funding is available for travel to local or national scientific meetings.

Faculty

Zoltan G. Laszik, MD, PhD
Division Chief and EM Lab Director

Anatoly Urisman, MD, PhD
Fellowship Director

Vighnesh Walavalkar, MD
Histology Lab Director

Duration

12 months, starting July 1. 
Optional second research-focused year may be available for qualified candidates. 

Location

UCSF Medical Center at Parnassus campus

Vacation

4 weeks per year

Weekend/Night Call

In accordance with PGY level of training, similar to other trainees.

Salary

Salary is based on PGY level of training.

UCSF GME Trainee Financial Resources

Requirements

To qualify, candidates must have completed 36 months pathology residency training with at least 24 months of combined AP training.

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 from the Medical Board of California before their start date.

Application

We are currently accepting applications for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 academic years.  We accept the CAP Residents Forum Standardized fellowship application and require a curriculum vitae, personal statement of interest, three letters of recommendation sent from your writers in PDF format. Please also include a photo of yourself in jpeg, gif, or PDF format when submitting your application.

Please fill out the application form below and submit along with the requested documents listed above and send via email ONLY to the Fellowship Program Administrator Suria Sadat.

We recommend downloading the application using the link below and opening using Adobe Acrobat software for the best user experience to complete your application and avoid issues with the fillable PDF.

Important Dates

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.