Leah Witt, MD
Assistant Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

At the UCSF Pulmonary Faculty Practice, I see patients in an Interstitial Lung Disease subspecialty clinic and a General Pulmonary Medicine Clinic. I frequently see patients using telehealth technology.

I am committed to a career in interprofessional geriatrics and pulmonary clinical education as demonstrated by my teaching efforts. For second-year medical students, I lead small groups on various geriatrics topics during their Life Stages geriatrics block each year. I frequently work with clinical residents and fellows in clinical teaching settings at the UCSF Center for Geriatrics and in the UCSF Pulmonary Faculty Practice. I am also a leader in The Curbsiders, a widely distributed and highly impactful Internal Medicine podcast sponsored by the American College of Physicians (ACP) with episodes downloaded over 3 million times by health professionals across the globe.

My long-term goal as a Pulmonologist and Geriatrician is to improve wellbeing for patients with chronic lung disease by integrating the physiologic management of chronic lung disease with attention to psychosocial factors, such as mobility, cognition, and social connection, that impact quality of life.

• Rationing Limited Healthcare Resources in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond: Ethical Considerations Regarding Older Adults.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2020 Farrell TW, Francis L, Brown T, Ferrante LE, Widera E, Rhodes R, Rosen T, Hwang U, Witt LJ, Thothala N, Liu SW, Vitale CA, Braun UK, Stephens C, Saliba D
• Diaphragmatic Atrophy May Limit Progression of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.
  American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine 2020 Venado A, Witt LJ, Kallianos K, Wolters PJ
• Respiratory Organ Aging and Cancer.
  2020 Leah J. Witt, Carolyn J. Presley
• Glutamine Metabolism Is Required for Collagen Protein Synthesis in Lung Fibroblasts.
  American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology 2019 Hamanaka RB, O'Leary EM, Witt LJ, Tian Y, Gökalp GA, Meliton AY, Dulin NO, Mutlu GM
• Inhibition of Phosphoglycerate Dehydrogenase Attenuates Bleomycin-induced Pulmonary Fibrosis.
  American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology 2018 Hamanaka RB, Nigdelioglu R, Meliton AY, Tian Y, Witt LJ, O'Leary E, Sun KA, Woods PS, Wu D, Ansbro B, Ard S, Rohde JM, Dulin NO, Guzy RD, Mutlu GM
• N-acetylcysteine exposure is associated with improved survival in anti-nuclear antibody seropositive patients with usual interstitial pneumonia.
  BMC pulmonary medicine 2018 Oldham JM, Witt LJ, Adegunsoye A, Chung JH, Lee C, Hsu S, Chen LW, Husain A, Montner S, Vij R, Strek ME, Noth I
• Respiratory Organ Aging and Cancer.
  Geriatric Oncology 2018 Leah J. Witt, Carolyn J. Presley
• Phenotypic Clusters Predict Outcomes in a Longitudinal Interstitial Lung Disease Cohort.
  Chest 2017 Adegunsoye A, Oldham JM, Chung JH, Montner SM, Lee C, Witt LJ, Stahlbaum D, Bermea RS, Chen LW, Hsu S, Husain AN, Noth I, Vij R, Strek ME, Churpek M
• HIF-1α is required for disturbed flow-induced metabolic reprogramming in human and porcine vascular endothelium.
  eLife 2017 Wu D, Huang RT, Hamanaka RB, Krause M, Oh MJ, Kuo CH, Nigdelioglu R, Meliton AY, Witt L, Dai G, Civelek M, Prabhakar NR, Fang Y, Mutlu GM
• Interstitial Pneumonia With Autoimmune Features: Value of Histopathology.
  Archives of pathology & laboratory medicine 2017 Adegunsoye A, Oldham JM, Valenzi E, Lee C, Witt LJ, Chen L, Montner S, Chung JH, Noth I, Vij R, Strek ME, Husain AN
• Transforming Growth Factor (TGF)-β Promotes de Novo Serine Synthesis for Collagen Production.
  The Journal of biological chemistry 2016 Nigdelioglu R, Hamanaka RB, Meliton AY, O'Leary E, Witt LJ, Cho T, Sun K, Bonham C, Wu D, Woods PS, Husain AN, Wolfgeher D, Dulin NO, Chandel NS, Mutlu GM
• Azathioprine response in patients with fibrotic connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease.
  Respiratory medicine 2016 Oldham JM, Lee C, Valenzi E, Witt LJ, Adegunsoye A, Hsu S, Chen L, Montner S, Chung JH, Noth I, Vij R, Strek ME
• No Exit: Identifying Avoidable Terminal Oncology Intensive Care Unit Hospitalizations.
  Journal of oncology practice 2016 Daly B, Hantel A, Wroblewski K, Balachandran JS, Chow S, DeBoer R, Fleming GF, Hahn OM, Kline J, Liu H, Patel BK, Verma A, Witt LJ, Fukui M, Kumar A, Howell MD, Polite BN
• The Diagnosis and Treatment of Antisynthetase Syndrome.
  Clinical pulmonary medicine 2016 Witt LJ, Curran JJ, Strek ME
• Characterisation of patients with interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features.
  The European respiratory journal 2016 Oldham JM, Adegunsoye A, Valenzi E, Lee C, Witt L, Chen L, Husain AN, Montner S, Chung JH, Cottin V, Fischer A, Noth I, Vij R, Strek ME
• Benefit of adjunctive tacrolimus in connective tissue disease-interstitial lung disease.
  Pulmonary pharmacology & therapeutics 2016 Witt LJ, Demchuk C, Curran JJ, Strek ME
• TOLLIP, MUC5B, and the Response to N-Acetylcysteine among Individuals with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.
  American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine 2015 Oldham JM, Ma SF, Martinez FJ, Anstrom KJ, Raghu G, Schwartz DA, Valenzi E, Witt L, Lee C, Vij R, Huang Y, Strek ME, Noth I, IPFnet Investigators
• Safety and Efficacy of Tacrolimus in Connective Tissue Disease-Related Interstitial Lung Disease.
  CHEST Journal 2013 Leah Witt, Carley Demchuk, James Curran, Mary Strek