About the Lab

Seema S. Aceves, MD, PhD

Seema Sharma Aceves, MD, PhD is a Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine in the Division of Allergy, and Immunology at UC San Diego and Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego. She performed her undergraduate studies at Claremont McKenna College, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She completed her MD and PhD as part of the NIH-funded Medical Scientist Training Program at UC San Diego after doing research with Nobel Laureate Edward B. Lewis at the California Institute of Technology. Her graduate work deciphered the tissue-specific elements of the homeobox factor PDX1 in the Montminy laboratory at the Salk Institute.

Dr. Aceves completed her pediatrics residency and allergy, immunology fellowship at UC San Diego. During her fellowship, she was awarded an American Lung Association Fellowship grant as well as a GlaxoSmithKline Respiratory Institute Fellowship award.

In 2002, Dr. Aceves joined the faculty at UC San Diego and Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego/Children’s Specialists of San Diego. She has been the director of the Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disorders clinic at Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego since 2005 and has evaluated thousands of children with eosinophilic gastrointestinal diseases are cared for each year.

Dr. Aceves is considered a thought leader in the field of pediatric eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). Her NIH/NIAID/NIDDK-funded lab works on the mechanisms of remodeling in EoE using human tissues, cells, and ex vivo functional platforms. She has had a number of pivotal findings in EoE including the presence of remodeling in the EoE esophagus, the role of transforming growth factor-beta in EoE remodeling, and the role of the rigid extracellular environment in changing esophageal structural cell function. Her clinical research has altered clinical EoE care and she is a co-inventor of oral viscous budesonide, currently a commonly utilized EoE therapy on its way to FDA approval. She serves as the principal investigator on several multi- and single-center EoE trials including those run by the Consortium for Gastrointestinal Eosinophil Researchers.

Dr. Aceves has been repeatedly named a “Physician of Exceptional Excellence” in "San Diego's Top Doctors" and is one of the nation's top doctors in the U.S. News & World Report "Top Doctors" List. She has lectured on EoE in multiple national plenaries, named lectureships, and been awarded the “Anjuli Seth Nayak Investing Together in Our Future” award from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. She is the recipient of a number of distinctions including junior faculty awards from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI); the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology; and the American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders (APFED). Dr. Aceves was inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2013 for her translational research accomplishments. Dr. Aceves has served on numerous NIH peer review sections and has served as a reviewer and on the editorial board of the top-ranking Allergy and Gastroenterology journals.

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