Sarah Patterson, MD
Assistant Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

She completed her Internal Medicine residency, rheumatology fellowship, and a postdoctoral research fellowship in Integrative Health at UCSF, joined the Rheumatology Division faculty in 2019, and became an Osher Center core research faculty member in 2022.

Dr. Patterson’s research focuses on understanding how lifestyle factors—including physical activity, nutrition, and stress—affect disease outcomes in people with rheumatic diseases. Her work examines the biologic and clinical effects of stress, stress resilience, and physical activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). She is the principal investigator of a pilot trial evaluating a mindfulness-based intervention for people living with RA and is committed to translating research on lifestyle and integrative health into improved patient-centered care.

Clinically, Dr. Patterson specializes in SLE and in integrating evidence-based lifestyle and integrative health approaches with standard-of-care disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in the treatment of systemic autoimmune rheumatic conditions. She provides care in the UCSF Lupus Clinic, the Osher Center Integrative Rheumatology Clinic, and on the inpatient rheumatology consult service.

• Transcriptomic analysis reveals immune signatures associated with specific cutaneous manifestations of lupus in systemic lupus erythematosus.
  bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2025 Lee EY, Patterson S, Cutts Z, Lanata CM, Dall'Era M, Yazdany J, Criswell LA, Haemel A, Katz P, Jimmie Ye C, Langelier C, Sirota M
• Epigenetic attenuation of interferon signaling drives aging-related improvements in systemic lupus.
  medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences 2025 Narendra R, Phan HV, Patterson SL, Almonte Loya AL, Lanata C, Love C, Park J, Lydon EC, Shimoda MA, Barcellos L, Mekonen H, Detweiler A, Deosthale P, Neff N, Criswell LA, Maliskova L, Eckalbar W, …
• Physical inactivity exacerbates pathologic inflammatory signalling at the single cell level in patients with systemic lupus.
  EBioMedicine 2024 Patterson SL, Van Phan H, Ye CJ, Lanata C, González SC, Park J, Criswell LA, Barbour KE, Yazdany J, Dall'Era M, Sirota M, Katz P, Langelier CR
• Cell-Specific Transposable Element and Gene Expression Analysis Across Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Phenotypes.
  ACR open rheumatology 2024 Cutts Z, Patterson S, Maliskova L, Taylor KE, Ye CJ, Dall'Era M, Yazdany J, Criswell LA, Fragiadakis GK, Langelier C, Capra JA, Sirota M, Lanata CM
• Positive psychosocial factors may protect against perceived stress in people with systemic lupus erythematosus with and without trauma history.
  Lupus science & medicine 2024 DeQuattro K, Trupin L, Patterson S, Rush S, Gordon C, Greenlund KJ, Barbour KE, Lanata C, Criswell LA, Dall'Era M, Yazdany J, Katz PP
• The association of trauma with self-reported flares and disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
  Rheumatology (Oxford, England) 2023 Katz P, Patterson SL, DeQuattro K, Lanata CM, Barbour KE, Greenlund KJ, Gordon C, Criswell LA, Dall'Era M, Yazdany J
• Clinical and biological heterogeneity of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults following SARS-CoV-2 infection: a case series.
  Frontiers in medicine 2023 Barth KE, Spottiswoode N, Hurabielle C, Subbaraj L, COMET Consortium, Calfee CS, Matthay MA, French S, Connolly A, Hewitt SM, Vannella KM, Barnett C, Langelier CR, Patterson S
• 2022 American College of Rheumatology Guideline for Exercise, Rehabilitation, Diet, and Additional Integrative Interventions for Rheumatoid Arthritis.
  Arthritis care & research 2023 England BR, Smith BJ, Baker NA, Barton JL, Oatis CA, Guyatt G, Anandarajah A, Carandang K, Chan KK, Constien D, Davidson E, Dodge CV, Bemis-Dougherty A, Everett S, Fisher N, Fraenkel L, Goodman SM, …
• Perceived Stress and Prediction of Worse Disease Activity and Symptoms in a Multiracial, Multiethnic Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Cohort.
  Arthritis care & research 2023 Patterson S, Trupin L, Hartogensis W, DeQuattro K, Lanata C, Gordon C, Barbour KE, Greenlund KJ, Dall'Era M, Yazdany J, Katz P
• Physical Activity Associates With Lower Systemic Inflammatory Gene Expression in Rheumatoid Arthritis.
  The Journal of rheumatology 2022 Patterson SL, Sun S, Rychkov D, Katz P, Tsitsiklis A, Nakamura MC, Serpa PH, Langelier CR, Sirota M
• Physical Inactivity and Incident Depression in a Multiracial, Multiethnic Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Cohort.
  Arthritis care & research 2022 Patterson SL, Trupin L, Yazdany J, Dall'Era M, Lanata C, Dequattro K, Hartogensis W, Katz P
• Increased rates of secondary bacterial infections, including Enterococcus bacteremia, in patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
  Infection control and hospital epidemiology 2021 DeVoe C, Segal MR, Wang L, Stanley K, Madera S, Fan J, Schouest J, Graham-Ojo R, Nichols A, Prasad PA, Ghale R, Love C, Abe-Jones Y, Kangelaris KN, Patterson SL, Yokoe DS, Langelier CR
• Measures of Psychosocial Stress and Stressful Exposures.
  Arthritis care & research 2020 Patterson SL, Sagui-Henson S, Prather AA
• Gaps in Ambulatory Patient Safety for Immunosuppressive Specialty Medications.
  Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety 2019 Patterson S, Schmajuk G, Evans M, Aggarwal I, Izadi Z, Gianfrancesco M, Yazdany J
• Obesity is Independently Associated With Worse Patient-Reported Outcomes in Women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.
  Arthritis care & research 2019 Patterson SL, Schmajuk G, Jafri K, Yazdany J, Katz P
• Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) prophylaxis patterns among patients with rheumatic diseases receiving high-risk immunosuppressant drugs.
  Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism 2018 Schmajuk G, Jafri K, Evans M, Shiboski S, Gianfrancesco M, Izadi Z, Patterson SL, Aggarwal I, Sarkar U, Dudley RA, Yazdany J
• A Young Woman With Sudden Urinary Retention and Sensory Deficits.
  Arthritis care & research 2018 Patterson SL, Jafri K, Narvid JA, Margaretten M
• Discordance of the Framingham cardiovascular risk score and the 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association risk score in systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis.
  Clinical rheumatology 2017 Jafri K, Ogdie A, Qasim A, Patterson SL, Gianfrancesco M, Izadi Z, Katz P, Yazdany J, Schmajuk G
• Neuromyelitis Optica.
  Rheumatic diseases clinics of North America 2017 Patterson SL, Goglin SE
• Central Nervous System Manifestations of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.
  Rheumatic diseases clinics of North America 2017 Jafri K, Patterson SL, Lanata C
• Antimalarial myopathy in a systemic lupus erythematosus patient with quadriparesis and seizures: a case-based review.
  Clinical rheumatology 2017 Jafri K, Zahed H, Wysham KD, Patterson S, Nolan AL, Bucknor MD, Chaganti RK
• Cortisol patterns are associated with T cell activation in HIV.
  PloS one 2013 Patterson S, Moran P, Epel E, Sinclair E, Kemeny ME, Deeks SG, Bacchetti P, Acree M, Epling L, Kirschbaum C, Hecht FM
• When Is "Pseudo-Ludwig's Angina" Associated With Coagulopathy Also a "Pseudo" Hemorrhage?
  Journal of investigative medicine high impact case reports 2013 Lovallo E, Patterson S, Erickson M, Chin C, Blanc P, Durrani TS