University of California San Francisco

D. Montgomery Bissell - 144
D.
Bissell
MD

Professor of Medicine

Department of Medicine

Director Emeritus, UCSF Liver Center

Address

533 Parnassus Avenue, #004
San Francisco, CA 94117
United States

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 415-502-5356
Fax: 415-476-0659

    Biography

    Dr. D. Montgomery Bissell is Professor of Medicine and Director Emeritus of the UCSF Liver Center, an NIH-funded consortium of 40 independently funded researchers who study the liver and its diseases. Bissell has a career-long interest in liver disease, dating to when he conducted a project on hepatocellular carcinoma in East Africa as a Harvard medical student. He then turned his attention to defining the cellular responses and molecular regulation of the scarring process known as fibrosis and cirrhosis. The latter is the most important consequence of many chronic liver diseases including inborn errors of metabolism, viral hepatitis, autoimmune states, alcohol abuse and others. It also is the setting for most cases of liver cancer.

    Since 1981, Bissell has led the Rice-Liver Center Laboratory at San Francisco General Hospital, known internationally for basic research on fibrosis and defining new therapies to block fibrosis progression in patients. He is a member of several professional organizations including the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians and has served on numerous review panels for NIH, the Veterans Administration and other groups.

    Awards & Honors

    Award Conferred By Date
    Distinguished Achievement Award American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases 2004
    MERIT award NIDDK/NIH 1998/2004
    Advisory Council NIDDK/NIH 1997/2001
    President American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases 1994/1995
    Member American Society for Clinical Investigation 1977/--

    Education

    Institution Degree Dept or School End Date
    University of California, San Francisco Liver Research School of Medicine 1973
    Boston City Hospital Residency Harvard Medical Services 1970
    Harvard University M.D. School of Medicine 1967
    Harvard University A.B Harvard College 1962

    Board Certifications

    American Board of Internal Medicine

    Clinical Expertise

    Alcoholic Liver Disease
    Autoimmune Hepatitis
    Benign Liver Tumors
    Cirrhosis
    Fulminant Hepatic Failure
    Hepatitis B
    Hepatitis C
    Hepatocellular Carcinoma (Liver Cancer)
    Live Donor Liver Transplantation
    Liver Transplantation
    Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
    Primary Biliary Cirrhosis
    Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis

    Program Affiliations

    UCSF Liver Center
    Member, UCSF Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (BMS)

    UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center

    Grants and Funding

    • UCSF Liver Center | NIH | 1985-07-01 - 2023-05-31 | Role: Principal Investigator
    • General Clinical Research Center | NIH | 1974-10-01 - 2007-11-30 | Role: Co-Investigator
    • CELLULAR PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF HEPATIC FIBROSIS | NIH | 1982-07-01 - 2004-06-30 | Role: Principal Investigator
    • REGULATION OF THE FIBRONECTIN GENE IN LIVER CELLS | NIH | 1996-09-01 - 2000-08-31 | Role: Principal Investigator
    • CELLULAR PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF HEPATIC FIBROSIS | NIH | 1982-07-01 - 1995-06-30 | Role: Principal Investigator
    • MATRIX-DEGRADING PROTEINASES AND HEPATIC FIBROSIS | NIH | 1988-09-01 - 1991-08-31 | Role: Principal Investigator
    • LIVER CORE CENTER | NIH | 1985-07-01 - 1990-06-30 | Role: Co-Investigator
    • CELLULAR PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF HEPATIC FIBROSIS | NIH | 1982-07-01 - 1990-06-30 | Role: Principal Investigator

    Research Narrative

    My laboratory investigates tissue remodeling in liver injury. We have been focusing recently on oval cells, which are liver progenitor cells and proliferate in several forms of liver injury. Oval cells, can be isolated and, with expansion in culture, hold promise for cell-based therapy of a variety of liver diseases. We have recently defined a member of the TNF-alpha family of cytokines that appears to be a specific growth factor for a subset of oval cells. We are interested also in mechanisms of the fibrotic response to biliary injury. We have found that TGFβ and the integrin αvβ6 have key roles.

    Research Interests

    Liver Injury and Repair

    Publications

    MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM A TOTAL OF 4
    1. Porphyria.
      Bissell DM, Anderson KE, Bonkovsky HL| | PubMed
    2. Role of delta-aminolevulinic acid in the symptoms of acute porphyria.
      Bissell DM, Lai JC, Meister RK, Blanc PD| | PubMed
    3. Therapy for hepatic fibrosis: revisiting the preclinical models.
      Bissell DM| | PubMed
    4. Of mentors, mentoring, and extracellular matrix.
      Bissell DM| | PubMed