Claudia Benkwitz

Claudia Benkwitz, MD, PhD, is a Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), affiliated with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and UCSF at Mission Bay. Her clinical specialty focuses on Pediatric Cardiac Education. She holds expertise in both clinical pediatric cardiology and neuroscience research, particularly investigating GABAergic mechanisms in brain function. Dr. Benkwitz’s work bridges clinical practice and basic science, with a focus on anesthetic agents’ effects on neural circuits and congenital heart disease management. She has contributed to studies on GABA receptor subunit deficiencies and their impact on hippocampal network dynamics.

Education: Completed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training in 2020 at the University of California.

Research Interests: Her research explores synaptic inhibition mechanisms in the hippocampus, including GABAA receptor subunit contributions to network oscillations and anesthesia-induced memory suppression. She also investigates clinical aspects of pediatric cardiac surgery, such as preoperative laboratory protocols and noncardiac surgery risks for children with congenital heart defects.

Grants & Funding: Her work is supported by NIH grants including R37 AA010422 (NIAAA), GM47818 (NIGMS), and NS-056411 (NINDS).

Labs/Teams: Collaborates with multidisciplinary teams in neuroscience and pediatric cardiology at UCSF, though specific lab affiliations are not explicitly detailed.