Susana Ortiz-Urda, MD, PhD

Dr. Susana Ortiz-Urda is a dermatologist and melanoma specialist who serves as co-director of the UCSF Melanoma Center. She cares for patients with early and advanced melanoma.

Ortiz-Urda’s lab works with human models of epithelial neoplasia and melanoma. She studies cancer signaling at a genetic sequencing level to identify novel transcripts, their functions and the factors that promote resistance to drugs or cancer progression. She hopes her findings may point to key biomarkers or new targets for treating melanoma.

Ortiz-Urda earned her medical degree and doctorate at the University of Vienna. She completed a residency in dermatology and a postdoctoral fellowship in epithelial biology at Stanford University, followed by a cutaneous oncology fellowship at UCSF. She earned her master of business administration degree at New York University.

Ortiz-Urda is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology, Austrian Society of Dermatology and Venereology, and Dermatology Foundation. She has received several honors, including the Kardinal-Innitzer Award for Outstanding Science in Dermatology and the Unilever Award from the Austrian Society of Dermatology and Venereology.

Learn more about Ortiz-Urda's research: http://cancer.ucsf.edu/research/ortiz-lab.