Research Summary

Carolyn S. Calfee, MD MAS is Professor of Medicine and Anesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco, where she attends in the intensive care units. Her primary academic focus is the pathogenesis and treatment of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Current research projects include: (1) molecular subphenotypes of ARDS and precision medicine in critical care; (2) the role of environmental exposures including smoking, air pollution, and novel tobacco products in susceptibility to lung injury; and (3) novel treatments for ARDS. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been the UCSF clinical lead and steering committee member for the NIAID-funded Immunophenotyping Assessment in a COVID-19 Cohort (IMPACC) study and she is one of the lead PI’s for the ISPY COVID clinical trial, a Phase 2 platform clinical trial of novel treatments for COVID-19 associated ARDS.

Research Funding

  • January 16, 2018 - December 31, 2024 - Precision Medicine in the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NHLBI, Sponsor Award ID: R35HL140026
  • July 15, 2016 - June 30, 2021 - ARDS Endotypes: Expanded Analysis of Clinical and Biological Phenotypes and Evolution Over Time, Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NHLBI, Sponsor Award ID: K24HL133390
  • March 15, 2016 - February 28, 2020 - Molecular Endotypes of ARDS: Identification, Biology, and Differential Response to Therapy, Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NHLBI, Sponsor Award ID: R01HL131621
  • September 19, 2013 - August 31, 2018 - Improved Models to Inform Tobacco Product Regulation, Co-Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NCI, Sponsor Award ID: P50CA180890

Education

Yale University, BA, 1991-1995, English
University of Pennsylvania, MD, 1995-1999, Medicine
University of California, San Francisco Internship/Residency, 1999-2002, Internal Medicine
University of California, San Francisco Chief Residency, 2002-2003, Internal Medicine
University of California, San Francisco Fellowship, 2003-2007, Pulmonary/Critical Care
University of California, San Francisco Masters in Clinical Research (expected), 2007-2009, Clinical Research

Honors & Awards

  • 1994
    Phi Beta Kappa, Yale University
  • 1995
    Bachelor of Arts awarded magna cum laude, with Distinction in the Major
  • 1998
    Alpha Omega Alpha, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
  • 1999
    Julia M. Glasgow Award, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
  • 1999
    Spencer Morris Prize, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
  • 2000
    Intern of the Year, University of California, San Francisco, Department of Medicine
  • 2005
    Walter Travel Award, American Lung Association
  • 2012
    Associate Scientific Advisor, Science Translational Medicine
  • 2013
    American Society for Clinical Investigation Young Physician-Scientist Award
  • 2013
    Highlighted abstract, 2013 American Thoracic Society International Conference (sr. author)
  • 2013
    Finalist, UCSF Pathways to Discovery Mentor Award

Selected Publications

  1. Sarma A, Christenson SA, Byrne A, Mick E, Pisco AO, DeVoe C, Deiss T, Ghale R, Zha BS, Tsitsiklis A, Jauregui A, Moazed F, Detweiler AM, Spottiswoode N, Sinha P, Neff N, Tan M, Serpa PH, Willmore A, Ansel KM, Wilson JG, Leligdowicz A, Siegel ER, Sirota M, DeRisi JL, Matthay MA, COMET Consortium , Hendrickson CM, Kangelaris KN, Krummel MF, Woodruff PG, Erle DJ, Calfee CS, Langelier CR. Tracheal aspirate RNA sequencing identifies distinct immunological features of COVID-19 ARDS. Nat Commun. 2021 08 26; 12(1):5152.  View on PubMed
  2. van der Wijst MGP, Vazquez SE, Hartoularos GC, Bastard P, Grant T, Bueno R, Lee DS, Greenland JR, Sun Y, Perez R, Ogorodnikov A, Ward A, Mann SA, Lynch KL, Yun C, Havlir DV, Chamie G, Marquez C, Greenhouse B, Lionakis MS, Norris PJ, Dumont LJ, Kelly K, Zhang P, Zhang Q, Gervais A, Le Voyer T, Whatley A, Si Y, Byrne A, Combes AJ, Rao AA, Song YS, Fragiadakis GK, Kangelaris K, Calfee CS, Erle DJ, Hendrickson C, Krummel MF, Woodruff PG, Langelier CR, Casanova JL, Derisi JL, Anderson MS, Ye CJ, UCSF COMET consortium . Type I interferon autoantibodies are associated with systemic immune alterations in patients with COVID-19. Sci Transl Med. 2021 Aug 24.  View on PubMed
  3. Combes AJ, Courau T, Kuhn NF, Hu KH, Ray A, Chen WS, Chew NW, Cleary SJ, Kushnoor D, Reeder GC, Shen A, Tsui J, Hiam-Galvez KJ, Muñoz-Sandoval P, Zhu WS, Lee DS, Sun Y, You R, Magnen M, Rodriguez L, Im KW, Serwas NK, Leligdowicz A, Zamecnik CR, Loudermilk RP, Wilson MR, Ye CJ, Fragiadakis GK, Looney MR, Chan V, Ward A, Carrillo S, UCSF COMET Consortium , Matthay M, Erle DJ, Woodruff PG, Langelier C, Kangelaris K, Hendrickson CM, Calfee C, Rao AA, Krummel MF. Publisher Correction: Global absence and targeting of protective immune states in severe COVID-19. Nature. 2021 Aug; 596(7872):E8.  View on PubMed
  4. Rogers AJ, Leligdowicz A, Contrepois K, Jauregui A, Vessel K, Deiss TJ, Belzer A, Liu T, Lippi M, Ke S, Ross E, Zhou H, Hendrickson C, Gomez A, Sinha P, Kangelaris KN, Liu KD, Calfee CS, Matthay MA. Plasma Metabolites in Early Sepsis Identify Distinct Clusters Defined by Plasma Lipids. Crit Care Explor. 2021 Aug; 3(8):e0478.  View on PubMed
  5. Beitler JR, Thompson BT, Baron RM, Bastarache JA, Denlinger LC, Esserman L, Gong MN, LaVange LM, Lewis RJ, Marshall JC, Martin TR, McAuley DF, Meyer NJ, Moss M, Reineck LA, Rubin E, Schmidt EP, Standiford TJ, Ware LB, Wong HR, Aggarwal NR, Calfee CS. Advancing precision medicine for acute respiratory distress syndrome. Lancet Respir Med. 2021 Jul 23.  View on PubMed
  6. Sinha P, Delucchi KL, Chen Y, Zhuo H, Abbott J, Wang C, Wickersham N, McNeil JB, Jauregui A, Ke S, Vessel K, Gomez A, Hendrickson CM, Kangelaris KN, Sarma A, Leligdowicz A, Liu KD, Matthay MA, Ware LB, Calfee CS. Latent class analysis-derived subphenotypes are generalisable to observational cohorts of acute respiratory distress syndrome: a prospective study. Thorax. 2021 Jul 12.  View on PubMed
  7. Meyer NJ, Gattinoni L, Calfee CS. Acute respiratory distress syndrome. Lancet. 2021 08 14; 398(10300):622-637.  View on PubMed
  8. Dutra Silva J, Su Y, Calfee CS, Delucchi KL, Weiss D, McAuley DF, O'Kane C, Krasnodembskaya AD. Mesenchymal stromal cell extracellular vesicles rescue mitochondrial dysfunction and improve barrier integrity in clinically relevant models of ARDS. Eur Respir J. 2021 07; 58(1).  View on PubMed
  9. Reddy K, Calfee CS, McAuley DF. Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Subphenotypes beyond the Syndrome: A Step toward Treatable Traits? Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2021 06 15; 203(12):1449-1451.  View on PubMed
  10. Hashem MD, Hopkins RO, Colantuoni E, Dinglas VD, Sinha P, Aronson Friedman L, Morris PE, Jackson JC, Hough CL, Calfee CS, Needham DM. Six-month and 12-month patient outcomes based on inflammatory subphenotypes in sepsis-associated ARDS: secondary analysis of SAILS-ALTOS trial. Thorax. 2021 Jun 10.  View on PubMed
  11. Zimatore C, Pisani L, Lippolis V, Warren MA, Calfee CS, Ware LB, Algera AG, Smit MR, Grasso S, Schultz MJ. Accuracy of the Radiographic Assessment of Lung Edema Score for the Diagnosis of ARDS. Front Physiol. 2021; 12:672823.  View on PubMed
  12. Sinha P, Calfee CS. Immunotherapy in COVID-19: why, who, and when? Lancet Respir Med. 2021 06; 9(6):549-551.  View on PubMed
  13. DeMerle KM, Angus DC, Baillie JK, Brant E, Calfee CS, Carcillo J, Chang CH, Dickson R, Evans I, Gordon AC, Kennedy J, Knight JC, Lindsell CJ, Liu V, Marshall JC, Randolph AG, Scicluna BP, Shankar-Hari M, Shapiro NI, Sweeney TE, Talisa VB, Tang B, Thompson BT, Tsalik EL, van der Poll T, van Vught LA, Wong HR, Yende S, Zhao H, Seymour CW. Sepsis Subclasses: A Framework for Development and Interpretation. Crit Care Med. 2021 05 01; 49(5):748-759.  View on PubMed
  14. Tsitsiklis A, Zha B, Byrne A, DeVoe C, Levan S, Rackaityte E, Sunshine S, Mick E, Ghale R, Jauregui A, Neff N, Sarma A, Serpa P, Deiss T, Kistler A, Carrillo S, Ansel KM, Leligdowicz A, Christenson S, Jones N, Wu B, Darmanis S, Matthay M, Lynch S, DeRisi J, Consortium C, Hendrickson C, Kangelaris K, Krummel M, Woodruff P, Erle D, Rosenberg O, Calfee C, Langelier C. Impaired immune signaling and changes in the lung microbiome precede secondary bacterial pneumonia in COVID-19. Res Sq. 2021 Apr 23.  View on PubMed
  15. Mac Sweeney R, Reddy K, Davies JC, Parker M, Kelly B, Elborn JS, Conlon J, Verghis RM, Calfee CS, Matthay MA, Alton EWFW, McAuley DF. Transepithelial nasal potential difference in patients with, and at risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome. Thorax. 2021 Apr 22.  View on PubMed
  16. Tsitsiklis A, Zha BS, Byrne A, Devoe C, Levan S, Rackaityte E, Sunshine S, Mick E, Ghale R, Jauregui A, Sarma A, Neff N, Serpa PH, Deiss TJ, Kistler A, Carrillo S, Ansel KM, Leligdowicz A, Christenson S, Jones N, Wu B, Darmanis S, Matthay MA, Lynch SV, DeRisi JL, COMET Consortium+ , Hendrickson CM, Kangelaris KN, Krummel MF, Woodruff PG, Erle DJ, Rosenberg O, Calfee CS, Langelier CR. Impaired antibacterial immune signaling and changes in the lung microbiome precede secondary bacterial pneumonia in COVID-19. medRxiv. 2021 Mar 26.  View on PubMed
  17. van der Wijst MGP, Vazquez SE, Hartoularos GC, Bastard P, Grant T, Bueno R, Lee DS, Greenland JR, Sun Y, Perez R, Ogorodnikov A, Ward A, Mann SA, Lynch KL, Yun C, Havlir DV, Chamie G, Marquez C, Greenhouse B, Lionakis MS, Norris PJ, Dumont LJ, Kelly K, Zhang P, Zhang Q, Gervais A, Voyer TL, Whatley A, Si Y, Byrne A, Combes AJ, Rao AA, Song YS, UCSF COMET consortium , Fragiadakis GK, Kangelaris K, Calfee CS, Erle DJ, Hendrickson C, Krummel MF, Woodruff PG, Langelier CR, Casanova JL, Derisi JL, Anderson MS, Ye CJ. Longitudinal single-cell epitope and RNA-sequencing reveals the immunological impact of type 1 interferon autoantibodies in critical COVID-19. bioRxiv. 2021 Mar 10.  View on PubMed
  18. Bos LDJ, Artigas A, Constantin JM, Hagens LA, Heijnen N, Laffey JG, Meyer N, Papazian L, Pisani L, Schultz MJ, Shankar-Hari M, Smit MR, Summers C, Ware LB, Scala R, Calfee CS. Precision medicine in acute respiratory distress syndrome: workshop report and recommendations for future research. Eur Respir Rev. 2021 Mar 31; 30(159).  View on PubMed
  19. Combes AJ, Courau T, Kuhn NF, Hu KH, Ray A, Chen WS, Chew NW, Cleary SJ, Kushnoor D, Reeder GC, Shen A, Tsui J, Hiam-Galvez KJ, Muñoz-Sandoval P, Zhu WS, Lee DS, Sun Y, You R, Magnen M, Rodriguez L, Im KW, Serwas NK, Leligdowicz A, Zamecnik CR, Loudermilk RP, Wilson MR, Ye CJ, Fragiadakis GK, Looney MR, Chan V, Ward A, Carrillo S, UCSF COMET Consortium , Matthay M, Erle DJ, Woodruff PG, Langelier C, Kangelaris K, Hendrickson CM, Calfee C, Rao AA, Krummel MF. Global absence and targeting of protective immune states in severe COVID-19. Nature. 2021 03; 591(7848):124-130.  View on PubMed
  20. Leisman DE, Ronner L, Pinotti R, Taylor MD, Sinha P, Calfee CS, Hirayama AV, Mastroianni F, Turtle CJ, Harhay MO, Legrand M, Deutschman CS. Assessing the importance of interleukin-6 in COVID-19 - Authors' reply. Lancet Respir Med. 2021 02; 9(2):e14-e15.  View on PubMed

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