Teresa Chen

Teresa Chen, MD, MHS, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine. Her research focuses on kidney health, particularly biomarkers of kidney disease progression, immune activation in African Americans with CKD, and clinical epidemiology. She leads a NIH-funded study (K08DK117068) as Principal Investigator.

Dr. Chen completed her BS in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale University (2002), MD at University of Texas Houston (2006), and MHS in Clinical Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2012). She trained in Internal Medicine (Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital, 2009) and Nephrology (Johns Hopkins Hospital, 2012).

Her research explores kidney biomarkers, APOL1 genetic risk variants, and cardiovascular-kidney disease interplay. Notable contributions include studies on urine biomarkers for AKI recovery, proteomics in kidney failure, and racial disparities in kidney disease. She has received awards such as the W.H. Linda Kao Scholar Award (2017) and Clinician Scientist Career Development Award (2019).

Key publications include work on SPRINT study biomarkers, proteomics in African American kidney cohorts, and APOL1's role in cardiovascular outcomes. Her lab, the Kidney Health Research Collaborative, investigates kidney health disparities and translational biomarker applications.