Our Expert Team
Team Bios - UCLA Endocrine Surgery Team - Los Angeles, California
The UCLA Endocrine Surgical Unit is committed to providing the highest level
of service to endocrinologists in the community.
If you are a general practitioner and seek endocrine medical consultation, our unit works
closely with the UCLA division
of endocrinology.
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Dr. Michael W. Yeh established the UCLA Endocrine Surgery Program in 2006. Under his leadership, the Program has gained national and international recognition for clinical excellence in the management of complex endocrine diseases.
After pursuing his studies at Stanford University and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Yeh trained in general surgery at UC San Francisco. He then completed the prestigious T.S. Reeve International Fellowship in endocrine surgery at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, Australia.
Dr. Yeh is an expert in minimally invasive parathyroid surgery, thyroid cancer, and adrenal tumors, including pheochromocytoma and adrenocortical carcinoma.  He has published more than 50 scholarly articles and book chapters on these topics. Dr. Yeh has been voted one of the Best Doctors in America »
Foreign languages spoken: Spanish, Mandarin Chinese
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Dr. Avital Harari joined the UCLA Endocrine Surgery team in 2010. She is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with Highest Honors and as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society. Thereafter, she received her medical degree with distinction at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, graduating in the top 10% of her medical school class. She trained in general surgery at Columbia University in New York City prior to completing a premier Endocrine Surgery fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. She is certified by the American Board of Surgery and is a member of the American College of Surgeons as well as the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons.
Dr. Harari has received many academic honors at all levels of her education and has a growing bibliography. Dr. Harari's clinical and research interests include the multidisciplinary management of benign and malignant tumors of the adrenal, thyroid, and parathyroid glands as well as the neuroendocrine pancreas. She is also interested in familial endocrine disorders (such as multiple endocrine neoplasia). She offers a wide range of unique services including retroperitoneal or transabdominal laparoscopic adrenalectomy, mini-incision thyroid and parathyroid surgery, central and modified neck dissection, and laparoscopic removal of pancreatic tumors. Her interests in addition to endocrine surgery include global health, surgical education and surgical outcomes.
Foreign languages spoken: Hebrew, Spanish
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Dr. Jacqueline Nieto Casillas |
Dr. Jacqueline Nieto Casillas is a pediatric oncologist
at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology
and the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research in UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive
Cancer Center. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biology from Loyola Marymount
University in Los Angeles, CA in 1988, her medical degree from UCLA in 1995, and her Masters
of Science in Health Services from UCLA in 2003. During her medical school training Dr. Casillas
completed a one year fellowship in pathology. She completed her pediatric internship and
residency at Harbor-UCLA in Torrance, CA, her clinical fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology
at UCLA, and a post-doctoral research fellowship in cancer prevention and control research
at UCLA.
Dr. Casillas is currently an assistant professor in the department of pediatrics, division
of hematology/oncology at UCLA. She is the director of the long-term follow-up program at
UCLA for childhood cancer survivors. Dr. Casillas’ research interest is in the area
of childhood cancer survivorship research with a particular focus on access to care and health
outcomes in minority populations. She is a member of the late effects committee in the Children’s
Oncology Group. She participates in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, the largest national
cohort of childhood cancer survivors. In addition, she is currently completing a primary
data collection project at UCLA to understand barriers to transitioning adolescent and young
adult survivors to adult-centered healthcare for surveillance of late effects due to their
cancer treatment exposure once they leave the pediatric oncology health care setting. |
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Dr. Jianyu Rao |
Dr. Jianyu Rao is an Associate Professor in Pathology
and Epidemiology at David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles.
He is a Director of Cytopathology Research and Director of Fellowship Program at Department
of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. He is board-certified pathologist with specialty board
in cytopathology, with extensive experiences in thyroid Fine Needle Aspiration cytology.
At the same time he is a faculty member of UCLA’s ACCESS graduate program and a member
of Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
His laboratory research is funded by federal, state, and private sources and his research
is focused on cancer chemoprevention, biomarkers, and molecular epidemiology of variety types
of cancers including thyroid cancer. He has over 20 years of research experience in these
areas, with near 70 publications in variety journals including PNAS, Cancer Research, Clinical
Cancer Research, and International Journal of Cancer, and he is also a primary author for
4 chapters specifically related to the biomarker for cancer. |
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Dr. Nagesh Ragavendra |
Nagesh Ragavendra, M.D.
Certifications:
Medical Board Certification: Nuclear Medicine, American Board of Nuclear Medicine, 1977,
Diagnostic Radiology, American Board of Radiology, 1977
Education:
Residency: Radiology, New York University Medical Center, 1973 - 1977
Surgery, Westchester Medical Center, 1972 - 1973
Internship:
Transitional, Westchester Medical Center, 1971 - 1972
Medical Degree:
M.D., Bangalore University Faculty of Medicine, 1970
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Dr. Wayne W. Grody |
Wayne W. Grody, M.D., Ph.D. is a
Professor in the Departments of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Pediatrics, and Human
Genetics at the UCLA School of Medicine. He is the director of the Diagnostic Molecular Pathology
Laboratory within the UCLA Medical Center, one of the first such facilities in the country
to offer DNA-based tests for diagnosis of a wide variety of genetic, infectious, and neoplastic
diseases, as well as bone marrow engraftment, patient specimen identification and paternity
testing by DNA fingerprinting.
He is also an attending physician in the Department of Pediatrics, specializing in the
care of patients with or at risk for genetic disorders. In addition, he is heavily involved
in basic molecular genetics research involving regulation of gene expression of arginase
and related enzymes in hereditary arginase deficiency and various cancers, population molecular
genetic screening, and construction of artificial human mutation samples. He has been one
of the primary developers of quality assurance and ethical guidelines for DNA-based genetic
testing for a number of governmental and professional agencies including the FDA, AMA, CAP,
ACMG, ASHG, NCCLS, CDC, NIH-DOE Human Genome Project (ELSI program), and PSRGN.
He served as a member of the NIH-DOE Task Force on Genetic Testing, and was the working
group chair for development of national guidelines for cystic fibrosis and factor V-Leiden
mutation screening. He did his undergraduate work at Johns Hopkins University, received his
M.D. and Ph.D. at Baylor College of Medicine, and completed residency and fellowship training
at UCLA. He is double board-certified by the American Board of Pathology (Anatomic and Clinical
Pathology, Molecular Genetic Pathology) and the American Board of Medical Genetics (Clinical
Genetics, Molecular Genetics, and Biochemical Genetics). |
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Erin O’Leary, MS, CGC |
Erin O’Leary, MS, CGC
Certified Genetic Counselor
Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center UCLA
Erin O’Leary is a genetic counselor by training. She received her Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry from Duquesne University in 2001. Erin worked as a clinical research coordinator in head and neck oncology at the University of Pittsburgh. She attended graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh where she received her Masters of Science in Genetic Counseling in 2005. While at the University of Pittsburgh, her thesis work involved the study of DNA damage repair genes related to cancer development. In 2007, she obtained certification in genetic counseling from the American Board of Medical Genetics.
Erin has counseled patients for prenatal, pediatric, and adult-onset genetic conditions. She has a strong interest in cancer genetic counseling.
More recently, Erin joined the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA. As part of the Cancer Genetics Program, she counsels patients and families at risk for inherited cancer syndromes and is involved in recruitment and coordination of a variety of research studies related to hereditary cancer. She is a member of the National Society of Genetic Counselors and the American Society of Human Genetics.
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Sharon Hirschowitz, MD |
Sharon Hirschowitz, MD
Education:
Residency: Pathology & Laboratory Med., South African Institute for Medical Research, 1982
- 1985
Pathology & Laboratory Med., Royal Free Hospital & School of Medicine, 1980 - 1981
Internship:
Surgery, Johannesburg Hospital, 1979 - 1980 Medical
Degree:
M.D., University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, 1978
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Sunita Bhuta, MD |
Sunita Bhuta, MD
Certifications:
Medical Board Certification: Clinical Pathology, American Board of Pathology, 1983
Anatomic Pathology, American Board of Pathology, 1979
Education:
Fellowship: Pathology & Laboratory Med., UCLA School of Medicine, 1979 - 1980
Residency: Pathology & Laboratory Med., UCLA School of Medicine, 1978 - 1979
Pathology & Laboratory Med., West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Med Ctr, 1974 - 1978
Internship: Pathology & Laboratory Med., Metropolitan Hospital Center, 1973 - 1974
Medical Degree: M.D., University of Bombay Faculty of Medicine, 1969
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Kuk-Wha Lee, MD |
Kuk-Wha Lee, MD
Certifications:
Medical Board Certification: Pediatric Endocrinology, American Board of Pediatrics, 2005
Pediatrics
American Board of Pediatrics, 2000
Education:
Fellowship: Pediatric Endocrinology
UCLA School of Medicine, 2000 - 2003
Residency: Pediatrics, Loma Linda Univ. Childrens Hospital, 1998 - 2000
Internship: Pediatrics, Loma Linda Univ. Childrens Hospital, 1997 - 1998
Medical Degree: M.D., Loma Linda University School of Medicine, 1996 |
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Christiaan Schiepers, MD |
Christiaan Schiepers, MD
Certifications:
Nuclear Medicine, American Board of Nuclear Medicine, 1986
Education:
Fellowship:
Diagnostic Radiology, UCLA School of Medicine, 1989 - 1990
Medicine/Nuclear Medicine, LAC + USC Medical Center, 1987 - 1989
Residency:
Cardiology, Albany Medical Center Hospital, 1986 - 1987
Medicine/Nuclear Medicine, Albany Medical Center Hospital, 1984 - 1986
Internship: Rotating (Internship), Catharina Ziekenhuis, 1982 - 1983
Medical Degree:
MD, Universiteit Utrecht, 1982 |
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Steven Wong, MD
Steven Wong, MD |
Dr. Steven G. Wong, is a board certified medical oncologist and hematologist in the UCLA
Division of Hematology/Oncology. He has been engaged in translational oncology research at
UCLA since 1985. Also, during that time he pursued his medical training at the David Geffen
School of Medicine at UCLA (M.D. 1993), including his medical internship, residency and clinical
and research fellowship in hematology and oncology. He joined the medical faculty in 2002
and currently engages in translational research in solid tumor oncology. He is currently
Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology
in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. He also
serves as an active member on one of the UCLA Medical Institutional Review Boards as well
as an active member of the UCLA Data, Safety and Monitoring Board in oncology research.
Significant research endeavors include playing a significant role in the discovery of
the clinical identification of the alteration of the HER-2/neu proto-oncogene in breast cancer,
which spawned the development of the novel biologic therapy, trastuzumab (Herceptin @)
(Slamon, D.J., Clark, G.M., Wong, S.G., et. al. “Human Breast Cancer: Correlation of
Relapse and Survival with Amplification of the HER-2/neu Proto-oncogene.” Science, Vol.
235, pp. 177–182. (1987); and Slamon, D.J., Godolphin, W., Jones, L., Holt, J., Wong,
S.G., et. al. .: “Studies of the HER-2/neu Proto-oncogene in Human Breast
and Ovarian Cancer.” Science, Vol. 244, pp., 707–712. (1989)). The discovery
and development of HER-2/neu biology and treatments of human breast cancer has led to major
advances in treatment and cure of breast cancer in all stages of HER-2/neu positive breast
cancer. Trastuzumab (Herceptin @) was FDA approved in 1998, followed by lapatinib
(Tykerb @) in 2007.
Dr. Wong’s current clinical practice and translational oncology research interests
focuses on genitourinary malignancies, phase 1 clinical research, head and neck cancer and
rare endocrine malignancies. He has a special interest in endocrine tumors such as adrenocortical
carcinomas, neuroendocrine tumors, and pheochromocytoma due to the understudied nature of
these rare tumors.
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