Jihane N. Benhammou, MD - LiverDr. Benhammou received her BS degree in biological sciences at the University of Texas, Austin. After graudation, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Susan Gottesman at the National Cancer Institute to study the role of small non-coding RNAs in the Escherichia coli stress response. She completed medical school at the University of California, San Francisco with a thesis in molecular medicine. Before her internal medicine training at the University of California, Los Angeles, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Marston Linehan at the National Cancer Institute to study the genetic perturbations of Birt-Hogg-Dubé Syndrome and identify deleterious genetic deletions and duplications. She is currently a gastroenterology fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles and a PhD candidate in Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Physiology Department. Her current projects include the study of genetic changes in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis patients (NASH). Her other interests include understanding the clinical risk factors and molecular changes that lead to hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with NASH.
Tien S. Dong, MD - LiverDr. Dong graduated from Stanford University with a BS in biological sciences. He completed his medical degree and internal medicine training at the University of Chicago. During medical school, he received the Calvin Fentress Fellowship Award and the Joseph P. Kirsner Research Award for his work with Dr. Eugene Chang analyzing the role of the gut microbiome on the development of colon cancer. At UCLA, he will be continuing his interest in the gut microbiome to understand its role in the development and progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Recent projects include analyzing the effect of SVR12 in HCV patients on HbA1c, racial disparity of SVR12 rates in HCV patients, the effect of SVR12 in CKD in HCV patients, and the foregut microbiome profile of cirrhotic patients.
Arpan Patel, MD - LiverDr. Patel earned his bachelor of science at Pennsylvania State University and subsequently received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College, where he graduated summa cum laude and was awarded membership in Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) and the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS). He completed his internship and residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania before beginning his fellowship training in the Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases at UCLA in 2014.
As a gastroenterology fellow, Dr. Patel joined the UCLA Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) and the NRSA (National Research Service Award) T32 Primary Care Research Fellowship programs through the Department of Medicine. He is currently pursuing a PhD in health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Dr. Patel’s research focuses on optimizing advance care planning and end-of-life care management in patients with end-stage liver disease. His work has been published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, including a large nationwide analysis that revealed low utilization rates of palliative care, high costs of care, and the potential for cost savings with palliative care in patients with end-stage liver disease at the end of life. His current projects include a qualitative study of advance care planning practices and an assessment of end-of-life quality indicators among veterans. Dr. Patel’s other research interests include transplant allocation ethics, alcohol rehabilitation, quality improvement, and cost-effectiveness analysis.
Carrie R. Wong, MD - LiverDr. Wong received her BA degree in public health at the University of California at Berkeley, followed by an MD degree at Stony Brook University School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency at Yale University. She intends to pursue a career in academic hepatology. Her primary research interests are in clinical epidemiology and treatment outcomes of chronic liver disease. She has special interests in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Most recently, she published an original study of over 17,000 patients using SEER-Medicare data to describe differences in overall survival after treatment with curative intent for HCC among patients with versus without NAFLD. She intends to study the epidemiology of NAFLD-related HCC during her gastroenterology fellowship.
