Professor of Surgery
University of California, San Francisco
Tippi C. MacKenzie, MD, Professor of Surgery, University of California San Francisco
Dr. Tippi MacKenzie is a Professor of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco and the Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Institute of Regeneration Medicine. She is a pediatric and fetal surgeon who is focused on developing better ways to diagnose and treat genetic diseases before birth. She leads a translational research lab examining the unique biology between the mother and fetus, with the idea that pregnancy complications such as preterm labor arise from a breakdown in maternal-fetal tolerance. At present, the MacKenzie group is focused on preterm labor and fetal therapies including stem cell transplantation, enzyme replacement therapy, and gene therapy. She co-founded the UCSF Center for Maternal-Fetal Precision Medicine, with the aim of accelerating the processes that link basic research to clinical trials to improve maternal, fetal, and neonatal health. Dr. MacKenzie has moved two fetal molecular therapies from the lab to the clinic as phase 1 clinical trials after obtaining FDA approval: in utero hematopoietic stem cell transplantation to treat fetuses with alpha thalassemia and in utero enzyme replacement therapy in fetuses with lysosomal storage disorders. Her research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the March of Dimes, the California Institute for Regeneration Medicine, and the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund. Dr. Mackenzie is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and she has been awarded the Jacobson Award by the American College of Surgeons for her innovative work.
