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UCSF Medical Center UCSF Department of Surgery
Co-Lab Director
Professor & Chief of Surgery,
SFVA Medical Center
Co-Director, Cardiac Biomechanics Lab
Co-Lab Director
Associate Professor of Surgery, UCSF
Core Member, UCB/UCSF Bioengineering Graduate Group
Co-Director, Cardiac Biomechanics Lab
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Featured Video
A movie created from a finite element model of the left ventricle + mitral valve. The model is based on MRI images of a sheep with moderate ischemic mitral regurgitation [Wenk et al, Ann Thorac Surg, 89: 1546, 2010].
Principal Investigators
 Mark Ratcliffe, M.D. Professor of Surgery Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery, UCSF Chief of Surgery, San Francisco VA Medical Center Co-Director, Cardiac Biomechanics Lab 4150 Clement Street Dr. Ratcliffe received his B.A. in physics from Denison University and received his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University. Following his intern and residency in general surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Ratcliffe became a Culpepper Fellow at the U. Penn Harrison Department of Surgical Research. In 1987 Dr. Ratcliffe became Chief Resident of general surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and in the following years became a Fellow of Cardiothoracic surgery there. Presently Dr. Ratcliffe is the Chief of Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery at the SFVA, is the Cardiac Biomechanics lab director and is a Professor in Residence at UCSF. |
 Liang Ge, Ph.D Assistant Adjunct Professor SFVAMC 4150 Clement Street 112 San Francisco, CA 94121 Phone: (415) 221-4810 Fax: (415) 750-2181 Email: Liang.Ge@va.gov
Liang Ge received his BS and MS in Engineering from Tsinghua University of Beijing, China in 1996 and 1999. He made his way over to the US to pursue his Phd in engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta) graduating in 2004 and continuing his post doc education through 2005 at Georgia Tech. For the years following his Postdoc fellowship, he worked as a research associate at the University of Minnesota. In 2007, Liang became part of the UCSF, Department of Surgery staff as an Assistant Adjunct Professor. He has been an integral part of the CBL and currently serves as one of its PIs. |
 Julius Guccione, PhD Associate Professor of Surgery, UCSF Core Member, UCB/UCSF Graduate Group in Bioengineering Co-Director, Cardiac Biomechanics Lab SFVAMC Building 2, Room 101 Julius Guccione received his BS from Tulane University and his MS and Phd from the University of California, San Diego. He is an Associate Professor of Surgery at UCSF and is also a Core member for the UCB/UCSF Bioengineering Graduate Group. His research interests include Cardiac mechanics, finite element simulations of surgical procedures, mechanical testing of cardiac tissue, MRI tissue tagging, MR diffusion tensor imaging. He also functions as the Cardiac Biomechanics Lab's Co-Director.
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 Elaine Tseng, M.D. Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, UCSF SFVAMC 4150 Clement Street 112 San Francisco, CA 94121 Phone: (415) 221-4810 Fax: (415) 750-2181 Email: Elaine.Tseng@ucsfmedctr.org Dr. Elaine Tseng is an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the UCSF Medical Center. She has a special interest in the endovascular treatment of thoracic aortic diseases, including descending thoracic aortic aneurysms, acute and chronic type B aortic dissection. She also has a special interest in aortic valve surgery, ascending aortic and arch surgery, mitral valve repair, reoperative cardiac surgery, off-pump coronary artery bypass, and Maze procedure for atrial fibrillation. |
 Art Wallace, M.D. PhD Staff Physician, Anesthesiology Service, SFVAMC Professor of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, UCSF SFVAMC Phone: 415-750-2069 Email: wallacea@anesthesia.ucsf.edu Arthur Wallace has spent the last thirty years focused on prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. His initial work began with methods to use CT scans to image coronary anatomy and ventricular function. He then studied autonomic control of the vasculature. At UCSF he has continued to focus on cardiovascular research. The primary research focus is in the prevention of perioperative myocardial infarctions conducting numerous clinical trials of anti-ischemic agents. Dr. Wallace was a co-investigator on the initial perioperative beta blocker study which demonstrated a reduction in long term mortality. He then was PI of a clinical study of the alpha-2 agonist clonidine and demonstrated a reduction in both 30-day and 2-years perioperative mortality. Since the completion of these clinical studies the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology have made perioperative beta blockade a level-1 standard of care. Dr. Wallace then set up a program to assist hospitals and hospital systems implement perioperative beta blocker programs designed to reduce perioperative morbidity and mortality. Dr. Wallace has conducted four large scale epidemiologic studies of perioperative risk identifying a number of practice patterns that increased morbidity and mortality. Dr. Wallace has a long standing research collaboration with Dr. Mark Ratcliffe, a cardiac surgeon and the chief of surgery at the VA San Francisco, and has been an investigator on Dr. Ratcliffe's NIH grants for the last 15 years. His work may also be seen at www.cardiacengineering.com
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