Dr. Bruce Wang is a liver specialist who cares for patients with porphyrias, a group of rare genetic diseases in which illness results from a buildup in the body of porphyrins. (Porphyrins are compounds important to producing heme, which is part of metabolic enzymes in the liver and hemoglobin, the protein on red blood cells that carries oxygen.) He runs the UCSF Porphyria Center, the main referral center for porphyria patients on the West Coast. He also cares for patients with other genetic liver diseases, including hemochromatosis, Wilson disease, progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis, primary biliary cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis.
Wang conducts clinical research on the porphyrias, including clinical trials for new treatments for the condition. He also conducts basic science research on the liver. His laboratory studies how the different cell types in the liver are developed, patterned and maintained during adulthood, and how they regenerate after injury. He aims to improve the understanding of how liver diseases occur in order to develop new treatment methods.
Wang earned his medical degree from UCSF, where he also completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in gastroenterology. He completed additional training in developmental biology at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Wang is a member of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and American Gastroenterological Association.
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