Faculty MEMBER

Seema Sharma Aceves, MD, PhD

Seema S. Aceves, MD, PhD

University of California San Diego, Rady Children’s Hospital

Seema Sharma Aceves, MD, PhD is a Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine in the Division of Allergy, Immunology at the University of California, San Diego and directs the Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disorders Clinic 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 itsway to FDA approval. She serves as the principal investigator on a number of multi-and single center EoE trials including those run by the Consortium for Gastrointestinal Eosinophil Researchers(CEGIR) is the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for CEGIR.Dr. Aceves has served on numerous NIH peer review sections andasa reviewer forthe top ranking Allergy and Gastroenterology journals.

Dr. Aceves has been repeatedly named a “Physician of Exceptional Excellence” in “San Diego’s Top Doctors” and isone of the nation’s top doctors in the U.S.News & World Report “Top Doctors” List. She has lectured on EoE in multiple national plenary and named lectureships and been awarded the “Anjuli Seth Nayak Investing Together in Our Future” as well as the “Hugh Sampson Lectureship in Food Allergy” awardsfrom the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. Dr. Aceves was inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2013 for her translational research accomplishments.In 2020 she became the inaugural holder of the MRD Endowed Chair in Pediatrics at UC San Diego.

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