Dr. Renuka Bhattacharya was recently highlighted as a new NIDA clinician. The NIDA Center for Functional Genomics at the University of Washington is a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) P30 Center. This center supplies the resources needed to apply cutting-edge genomic, proteomic, and bioinformatic technologies to the study of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and AIDS, chronic viral infections that are a direct consequence of drug abuse and addiction. They work with a variety of biologic resources, including serial liver biopsies from patients with recurrent HCV after liver transplantation, biopsies from patients co-infected with HCV and HIV-1, and experimental systems for HCV infection such as the SCID-beige/Alb-uPA chimeric mouse model and the HCV 2a in vitro infection system. Visit NIDA Website »


Our interview this quarter is with a new member of the hepatology team, Dr. Renuka Bhattacharya, M.D. Dr. Bhattacharya is chief of clinical hepatology for the University of Washington Medical Center’s liver care and transplant group. Dr. Bhattacharya took time out of her busy day to answer some questions for us:

As is true for many physicians, my desire to pursue medicine stemmed from my interest in biology and life sciences combined with a desire to work with and help people.

My interest in immunology began during medical school when I was working in a lab developing anti-sperm protein vaccine. This grew into an interest in transplant medicine and hepatology. I was inspired early in my career by several hepatology mentors, including Dr. Stephen Caldwell and Dr. Michael Lucey.

Despite the many advances in hepatitis C treatment in recent years, we still practice somewhat primitive medicine when treating this disease. We use toxic and costly anti- viral medications without knowing if the patient will respond. We use invasive techniques to determine the degree of liver injury. We transplant patients knowing that the disease will recur, but not knowing how or when it will recur. The key to improving these management issues and to “modernizing” HCV treatment lies in translational research, to give us the tools to answer these clinical questions. For example, if a serum test obtained 3 months after liver transplant can predict the severity of disease recurrence, we can focus on treating those patients more aggressively with antiviral therapy early in their course.

My time outside of work is spent enjoying my 3 and 5-year old children, who keep me on my toes!