Dr. Ajay Maker Named New Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology
We pleased to announce that Ajay Maker, MD, FACS has been named the Chief of the new Division of Surgical Oncology in the Department of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. He will lead Surgical Oncology services, including breast, colorectal, endocrine, hepatopancreatobiliary, and melanoma/sarcoma surgery, at UCSF via the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, the VA of San Francisco, and our centers across the greater Bay Area.
Dr. Maker comes to UCSF from his hometown of Chicago, where he is a tenured Professor of Surgery and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Director of Surgical Oncology for the Creticos Cancer Center/Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, and Director of Surgical Research for the UIC-Metropolitan Group Hospitals residency program. Dr. Maker has been consistently named to Chicago Magazine’s Top Cancer Doctors and Castle Connolly’s Top Doctor lists. He is an expert in the surgical management of complex gastrointestinal and hepatopancreaticobiliary diseases, melanoma, and sarcoma, and built a high-volume program that includes laparoscopic and robotic approaches to pancreatectomy and hepatectomy.
Dr. Maker's research is focused on expanding the role of immunotherapy for colorectal liver metastases and in establishing biomarkers of malignancy in pancreatic cystic tumors. He has been awarded grants from the NIH/NCI and the Department of Defense and is one of a few surgeons to receive the prestigious NIH MERIT award. Dr. Maker lectures nationally and internationally on the development of novel approaches to generate anti-tumor immune responses in gastrointestinal metastases, and biosignatures of malignancy in pancreatic cancer. In 2015 he was the European Society of Surgical Oncology International Traveling Fellow, and he was recently honored with the Society of Surgical Oncology Clinical Investigator of the Year award. He has published over 170 manuscripts, abstracts, and book chapters; serves on the editorial boards of the Annals of Surgical Oncology, Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Langenbeck’s Archives of Surgery, and the Journal of Surgical Research; serves on study sections for the NIH; and holds leadership positions in multiple academic and scientific societies, including being the current Program Chair of the Americas Hepatopancreaticobiliary Association (AHPBA).
Dr. Maker graduated with honors from Brown University with a double concentration in fine arts/drawing & painting, and biology. He enrolled in the Yale School of Medicine and then went on to do his residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He completed post-doctorate training in tumor immunology at the National Cancer Institute and a surgical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, as well as a visiting minimally-invasive fellowship at the University of Paris.
Dr. Maker is humbled by the support received from his family and mentors that include his surgeon-father. He and his wife, Dr. Manvi Prakash Maker, an accomplished ophthalmologist, are the proud parents of three young boys.
Dr. Maker will bring passion, expertise, deep scholarship, and vision to this important leadership position. Please join us in congratulating him on his new role and welcoming him to UCSF! We look forward to Dr. Maker joining UCSF Surgery starting March 1, 2021.