Our Doctors

Research Interest: Gout, Osteoporosis
Office Location: Westwood

Dr. Aung graduated from the Institute of medicine (1) Burma, in 1998 and later trained in Internal medicine and Geriatric medicine in Liverpool, United Kingdom. There she specialized in Orthogeriatrics for years with strong interest in Osteoporosis, while receiving Master of Science in Geriatric medicine from Keele University School of Medicine, MRCP and FRCP titles from the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh; and subsequently worked as a consultant physician at the Nottingham University Hospitals. After 13 years of patient care, teaching, clinical research and service development activities in the United Kingdom, she perused her career path in the United States. She completed residency training in Internal medicine at St May medical center, Long Beach, California and Rheumatology fellowship at UCLA. Dr. Aung is interested in the wide range of the rheumatic diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout, pseudo-gout, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, reactive arthritis, lupus, anti-phospholipid syndrome, polymyalgia rheumatica, giant cell arteritis, osteoporosis and various autoimmune diseases.

Dr. Marian Kaldas is a Southern California native and has been part of the UCLA family since her high school years when she won a scholarship for doing over 1000 hours of hospital volunteering. She received her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at UCLA, her medical degree from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and completed her internship, residency and fellowship in Rheumatology all with UCLA. She joined the UCLA Faculty practicing Rheumatology and Hospitalist medicine and is now excited to join UCLA Health practicing Rheumatology full-time. Dr. Kaldas is interested in the treatment of the full spectrum of the rheumatic diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout, lupus and over 100 other conditions. Her other interests include humanism in medicine and teaching. Dr. Kaldas is board certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. In her spare time Dr. Kaldas enjoys reading, beach walks, singing and spending time with her husband and children.

Dr. Gayle Kookootsedes earned her medical degree at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology fellowship at UCLA. She practices general rheumatology and treats the full spectrum of rheumatic diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, osteoarthritis, spondyloarthropathy, vasculitis, gout, myositis, and osteoporosis. Dr. Kookootsedes is board certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. Outside of medicine, Dr. Kookootsedes enjoys running on the beach trails, pilates, reading, and spending quality time with her family.

Dr. Masoom Modi completed her rheumatology training at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Originally from Northern California, she obtained her bachelor’s degree at the University of California at Berkeley. She attended medical school at St. George’s University School of Medicine, and completed internal medicine training at Maricopa Medical Center. Dr. Modi is an active member of the American College of Rheumatology. She enjoys participating in teaching activities with first year medical students at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and dog.

Dr. Rania Shammas is a board certified rheumatologist and an assistant clinical professor of rheumatology at UCLA. She was born and raised in Los Angeles. She completed her undergraduate studies at UCLA and then went to Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons for medical school, where she was part of the Gold Humanism in Medicine Honor Society and received the Joseph Garrison Parker Award for arts in medicine. She completed her internal medicine training at Albert Einstein and then her rheumatology fellowship at UCLA. She spent several years in private practice, while also actively participating in teaching and as an investigator for multiple clinical trials. In her spare time, she enjoys musical theater, playing the piano, tennis, and spending quality time with her family.

Dr. Taylor received her M.D. degree from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila in Bucharest, Romania, and completed her rheumatology fellowship at Loma Linda in June 2004. She practices general rheumatology, taking care of a variety of rheumatology conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, connective-tissue disorders, crystal arthritis such as gout and pseudogout, myofascial syndromes, polymyalgia rheumatica, and vasculitis. She performs ultrasounds of the joints and performs injections with hyaluronic acid for osteoarthritis. Her interests is in musculoskeletal sonography.

Dr. Brahn received his MD degree with Honors from the University of Chicago in 1978, and did his internal medicine residency at the University of California Medical Center, San Francisco. He then completed a rheumatology & immunology fellowship at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women's Hospital, and continued on as a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty prior to joining UCLA in 1986. Dr. Brahn runs a biomedical research laboratory in molecular immunology as well as a clinical research program primarily interested in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. He is the chair of the Clinical Laboratories Executive Committee and director of the Rheumatology Training Program at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

Dr. Grossman's general interests include lupus, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, spine, spondylolisthesis/spondylolysis and vasculitis.

Dr. King graduated from Harvard Medical School, and completed her internal medicine residency at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. She completed her rheumatology fellowship and PhD (STAR) at UCLA. Her clinical interests include general rheumatology, Sjogren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, and others. She has received multiple patient service awards for excellence in clinical care, diagnostic acumen, and bedside manner. She also embraces complementary and alternative medicine as adjuncts to gold standards of care for chronic conditions. Dr. King is a translational researcher with a special interest in B-cell mediated autoimmune diseases, including but not limited to Sjogren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis. She studies the role of non-coding RNAs in regulating autoimmune diseases. Her research focuses on defining new diagnostic markers to predict treatment responses and disease flares in autoimmune conditions.

Dr. Ranganath is a native Los Angelean. After graduating from Drew/UCLA Medical School and completing her residency at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System in internal medicine, she returned to UCLA for Rheumatology Fellowship in 2003. She joined the UCLA faculty in 2005 and obtained a Masters in Clinical Research at UCLA in 2010. Dr. Ranganath has a strong interest in rheumatoid arthritis research. Her specific research goal is to develop a model to predict early response to therapy in RA with biomarkers, imaging markers (ultrasound and MRI), and clinical measures.

Dr. Volkmann graduated from Pomona College where she majored in Neuroscience and minored in Dance. She received her medical degree from UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, and subsequently completed her residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Rheumatology at UCLA. During her fellowship, she participated in the Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) Program and earned her Master of Science degree in Clinical Research. Her clinical interests include systemic sclerosis, interstitial lung disease, pulmonary hypertension and systemic lupus erythematosus. Dr. Volkmann is an active clinical and translational researcher with a special focus on systemic sclerosis, and in particular, she investigates the pulmonary, gastrointestinal and vascular dimensions of this condition. She strives to provide humanistic and compassionate care, and she embraces complementary and alternative approaches to healing, in addition to traditional modalities.

Dr. Clements conducts clinical trials in scleroderma, and his research interest includes analysis of clinical features and response to therapies in scleroderma: emphasis on pulmonary interstitial disease and pulmonary hypertension.

Dr. Hahn received her M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she later trained in rheumatology. She trained in internal medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Hahn heads research groups that do basic studies in the immune abnormalities that cause systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and is developing interventions that help restore the immune response to normal. She also heads a group that studies clinical problems in patients with SLE, including accelerated atherosclerosis and potential new therapies (clinical trials).

Dr. Paulus received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in Philadelphia and completed a rotating internship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He then served in as Captain, MC, in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and practiced family medicine in Minnesota before completing a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in rheumatology at VA Wadsworth Medical Center and UCLA Medical Center, studied biostatistics at UCLA, and in clinical pharmacology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, also in Los Angeles.

Professor, Director of the FOCIS Center of Excellence at UCLA. Dr. La Cava received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the Federico II University of Naples, Italy, and did postdoctoral research at UCSD and The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, before joining UCLA as faculty in 2001. Dr. La Cava’s research interests focus on the development of new immunotherapies in systemic lupus erythematosus.