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Ajay V. Maker, MD, FACS

Professor of Surgery and Chief, Division of Surgical Oncology
University of California San Francisco
San Francisco, California, United States

Dr. Ajay V. Maker is Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology, Maurice Galante Distinguished Professor of Surgery, and Surgeon-in-Chief of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. He treats patients with complex hepato-pancreatico-biliary malignancies, gastrointestinal tumors, and melanoma. Maker's research aims to improve early detection of pancreas cancer, specifically developing biosignatures for IPMN, and to develop novel immune therapies for treating colorectal liver metastases under grants awarded by the Department of Defense and the R37 MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH/NCI).
Maker earned his medical degree at Yale School of Medicine. He completed a residency in general surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School. He completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at the NIH and completed postdoctoral studies in tumor immunology at the National Cancer Institute under Dr. Steven Rosenberg; this research included trials that led to approval by the Food and Drug Administration of ipilimumab as a new treatment for metastatic cancer. He later completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
In 2015, Maker was the European Society of Surgical Oncology's international traveling fellow and was later honored with the Society of Surgical Oncology's Clinical Investigator Award. He has published more than 280 manuscripts, abstracts and book chapters, and he lectures nationally and internationally. He serves on the editorial boards of many surgical and scientific journals; serves on NIH study sections, and has held positions in numerous academic and scientific societies, including program chair of the Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association and chair of the Society of Surgical Oncology's gastrointestinal working group. He has been named numerous times to Castle Connolly's Top Doctors and Top Doctors for Cancer lists.

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