Research Summary
Dr. Maher is Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology at San Francisco General Hospital and Director of the UCSF Liver Center. Research in her laboratory focuses on the pathogenesis of fatty liver disease. Special emphasis is placed on the effects of individual dietary macronutrients on liver injury. Her studies in mice implicate dietary sugar as an important inducer of fatty liver disease, through conversion to toxic saturated fatty acids. Ongoing work in her group concentrates on the synergistic toxicity of dietary sugar and saturated fat. Experiments also focus on the mechanism by which saturated fatty acids kill liver cells.
Education
Duke University School of Medicine, M.D., 1979
Duke University Medical Center, Residency, 1983, Internal Medicine
University of California, San Francisco, Fellowship, 1987, Gastroenterology