Christopher Carlos, MD, MAS

HS Assoc Clinical Professor

Dr. Christopher Carlos is a board-certified nephrologist who cares for patients with a wide range of kidney conditions in both the hospital and clinic. His outpatient practice focuses on acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, end-stage kidney disease, hypertension, electrolyte disorders, and glomerular diseases. He is a core faculty member of the UCSF Glomerular Disease Center, leading an interdisciplinary clinic with rheumatology, pathology, and oncology to care for patients with complex immune-mediated kidney disorders. He also serves as site principal investigator for clinical trials in rare glomerular diseases, helping expand access to new therapies.

Dr. Carlos received his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship at UCSF, where he also earned a master’s degree in clinical research from the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Carlos serves as Program Director for the UCSF Nephrology Fellowship Training Program. He is also a member of the American Society of Nephrology and the National Kidney Foundation.

Dr. Carlos’s passion for nephrology is deeply personal. His mother lived with kidney disease, which inspired his career and commitment to advancing care. He believes in partnering closely with patients and families, focusing on education and shared decision-making. He strives to make complex diagnoses easier to understand, so that patients feel empowered to live well with kidney disease.

Education
MAS, 2019 - Clinical Research, UCSF
Fellowship, 2018 - Nephrology, UCSF
Residency, 2016 - Internal Medicine, UCSF
MD, 2013 - School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University
BA, 2007 - Human Biology, Stanford University
Publications
  1. Gupta S, Kaunfer SA, Chen KL, Dias JA, Vijayan A, Rajasekaran A, Prosek J, Truong HL, Wood A, Bassil C, Renaghan AD, Shah CV, Zhang J, Glezerman I, Carlos C, Kelly K, Passero CJ, Drappatz J, Abudayyeh A, Shin D, Sperati CJ, Yelvington BJ, Kanduri SR, Neyra JA, Edmonston D, Shirali AC, Bansal A, Geara A, Mithani Z, Ziolkowski SL, Rashidi A, Jakubowski J, Pujari A, Bond DA, Dotson EK, Wall SA, Patton JT, Barreto JN, Herrmann SM, Sheikh MS, Baz RC, Lee JH, Lucchesi N, Kolman M, Rasheed MA, Afzal A, Kang D, Mahesh A, Hsu R, Nicolaysen A, Tefera K, Schretlen C, Miller RM, Velez JCQ, Flannery AH, Aklilu AM, Anand S, Chandrasekhara S, Donley V, Patel A, Ni J, Krishnamurthy S, Ali R, Yilmam OA, Wells SL, Ortega JL, Green-Lingren OL, Leaf RK, Sise ME, Nayak L, LaCasce AS, Leung N, Leaf DE. Glucarpidase for Treatment of High-Dose Methotrexate Toxicity. Blood 2025. PMID: 39760780


  2. Ku E, Copeland TP, McCulloch CE, Seth D, Carlos CA, Cho K, Malkina A, Lo LJ, Hsu RK. Intensive Home Blood Pressure Lowering in Patients with Advanced CKD. American journal of kidney diseases : the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation 2024. PMID: 39427725


  3. Gupta S, Garcia-Carro C, Prosek JM, Glezerman I, Herrmann SM, Garcia P, Abudayyeh A, Lumlertgul N, Malik AB, Loew S, Beckerman P, Renaghan AD, Carlos CA, Rashidi A, Mithani Z, Deshpande P, Rangarajan S, Shah CV, Seigneux S, Campedel L, Kitchlu A, Shin DS, Coppock G, Ortiz-Melo DI, Sprangers B, Aggarwal V, Benesova K, Wanchoo R, Murakami N, Cortazar FB, Reynolds KL, Sise ME, Soler MJ, Leaf DE, ICPi-AKI Consortium Investigators. Shorter versus longer corticosteroid duration and recurrent immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated AKI. Journal for immunotherapy of cancer 2022. PMID: 36137651


  4. Gupta S, Strohbehn IA, Wang Q, Hanna PE, Seethapathy R, Prosek JM, Herrmann SM, Abudayyeh A, Malik AB, Loew S, Carlos CA, Chang WT, Beckerman P, Mithani Z, Shah CV, Renaghan AD, de Seigneux S, Campedel L, Kitchlu A, Shin DS, Coppock G, Lumlertgul N, Garcia P, Ortiz-Melo DI, Rashidi A, Sprangers B, Aggarwal V, Benesova K, Jhaveri KD, Cortazar FB, Weins A, Zuo Y, Mooradian MJ, Reynolds KL, Leaf DE, Sise ME, ICPi-AKI Consortium. Acute kidney injury in patients receiving pembrolizumab combination therapy versus pembrolizumab monotherapy for advanced lung cancer. Kidney international 2022. PMID: 35964800


  5. Gupta S, Short SAP, Sise ME, Prosek JM, Madhavan SM, Soler MJ, Ostermann M, Herrmann SM, Abudayyeh A, Anand S, Glezerman I, Motwani SS, Murakami N, Wanchoo R, Ortiz-Melo DI, Rashidi A, Sprangers B, Aggarwal V, Malik AB, Loew S, Carlos CA, Chang WT, Beckerman P, Mithani Z, Shah CV, Renaghan AD, Seigneux S, Campedel L, Kitchlu A, Shin DS, Rangarajan S, Deshpande P, Coppock G, Eijgelsheim M, Seethapathy H, Lee MD, Strohbehn IA, Owen DH, Husain M, Garcia-Carro C, Bermejo S, Lumlertgul N, Seylanova N, Flanders L, Isik B, Mamlouk O, Lin JS, Garcia P, Kaghazchi A, Khanin Y, Kansal SK, Wauters E, Chandra S, Schmidt-Ott KM, Hsu RK, Tio MC, Sarvode Mothi S, Singh H, Schrag D, Jhaveri KD, Reynolds KL, Cortazar FB, Leaf DE, ICPi-AKI Consortium. Acute kidney injury in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors. 2021. PMID: 34625513


  6. Carlos C, Grimes B, Segal M, Johansen K. Predialysis fluid overload and gait speed: a repeated measures analysis among patients on chronic dialysis. Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation : official publication of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association - European Renal Association 2019. PMID: 31886859


  7. Carlos CA, Hsu RK. AKI with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: A Push beyond Case Reports. Clinical journal of the American Society of Nephrology : CJASN 2019. PMID: 31672795


  8. Carlos CA, McCulloch CE, Hsu CY, Grimes B, Pavkov ME, Burrows NR, Shahinian VB, Saran R, Powe NR, Johansen KL. Colon Cancer Screening among Patients Receiving Dialysis in the United States: Are We Choosing Wisely? Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN 2017. PMID: 28336719