Stephen's main research interest is the evaluation of the safety and efficacy of herbal remedies and dietary supplements. He served as the project director for one of the first large randomized controlled trials of saw palmetto for enlarged prostate, which gained international recognition for demonstrating that this commonly used herb was no more effective than placebo. Stephen also served as the principal investigator or co-investigator of several other large randomized controlled trials, including a study of a Chinese herbal remedy used to treat fatigue in the elderly and an internet-based study examining the efficacy of the herbs valerian (for sleep) and kava (for anxiety). Recently, Stephen conducted clinical trials of complementary and alternative therapies in children with autism, including studies of omega-3 fatty acids, methyl B12, sulforaphane, and vitamin D. He was also the principal investigator of the first-ever fully internet-based randomized controlled trial of a pharmaceutical drug and the first internet-based trial of a treatment (omega-3 fatty acids) conducted in children with autism. He plans to further develop internet-based technology to speed the testing of promising new therapies. Stephen is an expert in evidence-based medicine and ambulatory care, and has coauthored textbooks in both areas.
James W. Ostroff
Years on UCSF Faculty: 1982-2022
After over 40 years at UCSF, Dr. James W. Ostroff is retiring at the end of June. Dr. Ostroff came to UCSF in 1980 to start his GI fellowship after obtaining his medical degree at Cornell Medical College and completing an internship and residency at New York Hospital. Upon completion of his GI fellowship in 1982, Dr Ostroff joined the faculty at UCSF and he holds the Lynne and Marc Benioff Endowed Chair in gastroenterology and the Kenneth Rainin Distinguished Professorship of Gastrointestinal Disease.
During his 40-year career at UCSF, Ostroff was the linchpin of the clinical gastroenterology service. For many years he directed the UCSF endoscopy units as well as the GI consult service. Dr. Ostroff was instrumental in modernizing endoscopic practices at UCSF, and he was the physician primarily responsible for building the endoscopy units at Parnassus, Mount Zion, and Mission Bay. Dr. Ostroff specialized in the endoscopic therapy of complex clinical problems such as obstructive jaundice, benign and malignant pancreatic diseases, and the endoscopic management of complications after orthotopic liver transplants in adults and children. He was widely renowned for his endoscopic skills, often taking on cases that others would not attempt, and he taught clinical gastroenterology and endoscopy to a generation of UCSF GI fellows, many of whom now hold leadership positions in academic gastroenterology across the country. Dr. Ostroff has authored more than 100 articles, chapters and abstracts on endoscopic management of gastrointestinal and liver diseases.
Matija Peterlin
Years on UCSF Faculty: 1981-2022
B. Matija Peterlin, MD, was educated at Duke University and Harvard Medical School. Following clinical training at Stanford Medical Center, he became assistant professor at UCSF. He rose through the ranks to full professor and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He defined the mechanism of action of several HIV proteins and discovered how elongation of transcription is controlled in eukaryotic systems. He was also among the first investigators to focus on the latency of HIV and its impact on the persistence of this infection. Dr. Peterlin is also a clinician and treats patients with autoimmune diseases.
Cheryl Stoddart
Years at Gladsone: 1995-2006
Years on UCSF Faculty: 2006-2022
Cheryl earned her PhD in Virology from Cornell University on the study of feline coronaviruses infections and did postdoctoral training on cytomegalovirus in the laboratory of Edward S. Mocarski at Stanford University School of Medicine. She then joined Shaman Pharmaceuticals as a staff scientist to discover novel antiviral compounds in plants used in traditional medicine, culminating in FDA approval of the antidiarrheal crofelemer (Mytesi) for adults living with HIV on ART. In 1995, Cheryl was recruited to the Gladstone Institutes to lead the NIAID-funded contract for HIV drug discovery in humanized mice that had recently been brought from SyStemix by Mike McCune. She became the contract PI in 2000 and was then promoted to Investigator at the Gladstone, heading a lab focused on the preclinical development of new HIV therapeutics. Cheryl was then recruited by Dr. McCune in 2006 to the newly formed UCSF Division of Experimental Medicine at ZSFG where she maintained the NIAID contract funding and expanded her research program into the molecular biology of cellular factors that promote HIV infection; in particular, heat shock protein 90.
Cheryl is co-PI of the UCSF Regional Biorepository for the AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource and has been a member of the UCSF Institutional Biosafety Committee since 2008.
As a scientist, Cheryl broke new ground, and her work provided important results in evaluating new antiretroviral drugs for HIV treatment and prevention. She worked to continuously improve the use of a small animal model for studies of HIV, and to optimize the immunological background and methods for reconstituting them with specific immune cell populations.
Margaret Wheeler
Years on UCSF Faculty: 1996-2022
Margaret came to UCSF as a resident in 1993 and became a faculty member in 1996. Her clinical home has been San Francisco General Hospital, where she has maintained a stalwart presence in General Medicine Clinic and the inpatient service. She was assistant program director, and then director, of the SFGH Primary Care Residency Track of the UCSF Internal Medicine Residency Program until 2006. She founded the Health Equity Academics and Advocacy Track for internal medicine residents. Since 2007, she has been the site director of the Medical Student Clerkship at ZSFG and co-medical director of the Model SFGH Longitudinal Clerkship and was elected to the Council of Master Clinicians in 2010.
Her clinical, educational, and academic activities concentrate on the care of marginalized patients. She pulled together a team of colleagues, including Talmadge King, Kevin Grumbach, Alicia Fernandez, Teresa Villela, Andrew Bindman, and Dean Schillinger to create a textbook on the care of the underserved, the Medical Management of Vulnerable and Underserved Patients. First published in 2006, the group is embarking on the newest edition. She has also been the co-director of a UCSF CME course on the same topic. She has worked in other eclectic settings: In 2010 she organized 50 UCSF health care professionals to respond to the 2010 Haitian earthquake; as a physician in West Yellowstone; for Survivors International; with the California Emerging Infections project, Disease Control at the SF Department of Public Health and Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease control at the state. Most recently she has been involved in Covid-outreach projects efforts in under-resourced communities.
