New chief of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at ZSFG

Silvia Vilarinho, MD, PhD, will be the new chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at ZSFG, effective July 1, 2026. 

Silvia comes to UCSF from the Yale School of Medicine. She completed her MD and PhD degrees at the University of Porto, Portugal, while conducting her graduate research in the laboratory of Jody Baron at UCSF and completing an internship in the physician-scientist pathway at the University of Minnesota. She completed her internal medicine residency in the physician-scientist pathway and a digestive diseases fellowship at Yale School of Medicine, where she worked in the laboratory of Richard Lifton. Following her fellowship, she joined the faculty at Yale, where she has appointments in Internal Medicine, Pathology, and Genetics.  

A deeply passionate clinician, scientist, and educator, Silvia’s background and experience will allow her to contribute to the UCSF GI and hepatology divisions, DOM, and SOM. Her research using genetics, genomics, and human samples to investigate the molecular and mechanistic basis of various liver diseases has identified novel genetic liver diseases. She hopes to expand her work in genomic medicine in hepatology to luminal GI and pancreatic diseases. She has served on the editorial boards of Hepatology, Gastroenterology, and The Journal of Hepatology. She is also committed to training and supporting the next generation of physician-scientists and clinician-educators. At Yale, she has been a leader in the training of physician-scientists as Director of the Internal Medicine Physician Scientist Training Program and Associate Director of Yale’s MD-PhD Program.