Faculty
Eila Skinner, MD
Professor and Chair
Clinical Focus: All aspects of Bladder Cancer diagnosis and treatment, Continent Urinary Diversion and lower urinary tract reconstruction, major open surgical treatment of locally advanced Kidney and Testis Cancer.
Research Focus: Translational research in bladder cancer, long-term surgical and functional outcomes of continent urinary diversion.
James Brooks, MD
Professor and Vice-Chair
Chief- Urologic Oncology
Clinical Focus: Prostate Cancer detection, risk assessment, active surveillance and surgical management using traditional and robotic approaches.
Research Focus: Discovery of biomarkers of Prostate Cancer risk and progression, understanding of the genetic and epigenetic regulators of Prostate Cancer.
Urologic Specialties
Craig Comiter, MD
Professor
Professor-by-courtesty Ob-Gyn
Clinical Focus: General Urology, Female Urology, Urinary Incontinence, Pelvic Prolapse.
Research Focus: Using various animal models of Bladder Outlet Obstruction as a representation of Human Prostatic Disease, investigating how intervening with pharmacotherapy, neuromodulation, and other novel therapies may help to reverse the adverse changes in the bladder due to the obstruction.
Ekene Enemchukwu, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor
Clinical Focus: Medical and minimally invasive surgical management of male and female conditions, including Pelvic Organ Prolapse (cystocele, rectocele, vault prolapse repairs, including concurrent vaginal hysterectomy), Female Genitourinary Fistula, Urinary Tract Infection, Overactive Bladder, Urinary Incontinence, Hematuria, Urinary Retention, Mesh Complications, Refractory Fecal Incontinence and Urethral Stricture Disease. She performs open, robotic, endoscopic and laser surgery.
Research Focus: Refractory overactive bladder in elderly and frail patient populations, detrusor underactivity, quality of life, patient outcomes, quality improvement, patient satisfaction, and shared decision making.
Robert Kessler, MD
Clinical Professor
Clinical Focus: General Urology
Research Focus: Male Infertility; Impotence; Urinary Calculi; Urinary Incontinence (male and female).
Simon Conti, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Director, Kidney Stone Program
Associate Program Director, Residency Program
Clinical Focus: Urology, Endourology
Michael Eisenberg, MD
Assistant Professor
Director, Male Reproductive Medicine and Surgery
Clinical Focus: All aspects of Male Infertility, Urologic Microsurgery (including vasectomy reversal, microscopic testicular sperm extraction (mTESE), varicocele), Erectile and Sexual Dysfunction, Low Testosterone, Peyronie's Disease
Research Focus: Research efforts include surgical innovation, epidemiologic studies, and basic science discoveries to improve the treatments, outcomes, and lives of infertile men.
Urologic Oncology
Benjamin Chung, MD
Assistant Professor
Director, Section of Minimally Invasive Urologic Surgery
Clinical Focus: Surgery for Kidney and Prostate Cancers, especially using minimally invasive and robotic approaches, management of small renal masses.
Research Focus: Population-based studies of Kidney Cancer risk and prognosis, and improvement of technical approaches to robotic Kidney Cancer surgery.
John Leppert, MD, MS
Assistant Professor
Director, of Urologic Oncology
Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS)
Clinical Focus: Care of patients with Urologic Cancers including Prostate, Bladder, and Kidney Cancer. Expertise in open, laparoscopic, and robotic surgical approaches.
Research Focus: The Leppert Lab is working to identify novel biomarkers of Urologic Cancers, as well as studying the comparative effectiveness and epidemiology of Kidney, Prostate, and Bladder Cancers. Leppert Lab page
Donna Peehl, PhD
Professor
Research interests: Development of tissue slice cultures to recapitulate the normal epithelial-stromal interactions in human Prostate Cancers in an animal model. Using this platform to study variations in the androgen receptor, discovery of Prostate Cancer specific cell surface molecules, and testing the efficacy of a novel arsenical compound.
Zijie Sun, PhD
Professor
Research interests: Development of a new generation of biologically relevant mouse models to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying Prostate Cancer initiation, progression, and CRPC development. Using these mouse models to screen new drugs for treatment of CRPC. Investigating androgen, Wnt, TGF-beta, and other cell signaling pathways in Bladder, Prostate, and other Urogenital Tumors.
Harcharan Gill, MD
Professor
Program Director, Residency Program
Clinical interests: Prostate, Bladder and Kidney Cancer Treatment with both open and minimally invasive/robotic techniques.
Research interests: Imaging of Prostate Cancer using MRI, focal and minimally invasive treatments of Benign Prostate Hypertrophy.
Joseph Liao, MD
Associate Professor
Chief of Urology
Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS)
Clinical Focus: General Urology, Urologic Neoplasms
Research Focus: Translational research to develop new in vitro and in vivo diagnostic tools for diseases of the urinary tract based on micro- and nanotechnology. Developing an integrated biosensor platform optimized for point-of-care urinary diagnostics, particularly for Urinary Tract Infections and Bladder Cancer.
Geoffrey Sonn, MD
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor by-courtesty, Radiology
Clinical Focus: Prostate Cancer management including image-targeted biopsy, active surveillance, and robotic prostatectomy. Open and robotic surgery for Kidney, Bladder and Testicular Cancer.
Research Focus: MRI and molecular imaging of Prostate and Kidney Cancer, MRI-Ultrasound fusion targeted prostate biopsy, fluorescent image-guided surgery, Prostate Cancer focal ablation therapy
Pediatric Urology
Linda Shortliffe, MD
Professor
Program Director, Pediatric Urology
Clinical Focus: Pediatric Urology, Hypospadias, Undescended Testes.
Research Focus: Our group has been interested in trying to define risk factors that may be involved in Urinary Tract Obstruction, Vesicoureteral Reflux, and Infectious Uropathies. We have examined the effects of sex hormones on urinary tract function to better understand their involvement in renal and urinary tract function.
William Kennedy, MD
Associate Professor
Chief of Pediatric Urology
Clinical Focus: Pediatric Urology
Hsi-Yang Wu, MD
Associate Professor
Program Director, Fellowship Program
Clinical Focus: Pediatric Urology
Research Focus: My lab studies the coordination of neonatal bladder and external urethral sphincter function. By understanding how the spinal cord creates efficient voiding in neonates and children, we hope to develop new treatments for Pediatric Voiding Dysfunction and Adult Urinary Incontinence.
Affiliated Faculty
Jennifer Abidari, MD
Clinical Professor (Affiliate)
Associate Chief or Urology
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
Clinical Focus: Pediatric Urology
Robert Harris, MD
Clinical Instructor (Affiliate)
Kaiser Santa Clara Medical Center
Clinical Focus: Urologic Oncology, Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
Dale Kunihira, MD
Clinical Instructor (Affiliate)
Kaiser Santa Clara Medical Center
Clinical Focus: Complex Endoscopic and Percutaneous Urologic Surgery, Stone Disease
Farhad Parivar, MD
Clinical Instructor (Affiliate)
Kaiser Santa Clara Medical Center
Clinical Focus: Urologic Oncology, Urethral Reconstruction, Peyronie's Disease
Christopher Elliot, MD
Clinical Instructor (Affiliate)
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
Clinical Focus: Male and Female Incontinence, Female Pelvic Organ Prolapse, Neurogenic Bladder, Urologic Reconstructive Surgery
Research Focus: Outcomes research of Incontinence, Pelvic Organ Prolapse and Neurogenic Bladder using national and state databases
Thomas Hsu, MD
Clinical Professor (Affiliate)
Director of Laparoscopic Surgery
Kaiser Santa Clara Medical Center
Clinical Focus: Laparoscopic, Robotic, and Minimally Invasive Urologic Surgery; Urologic Oncology
Research Focus: Novel technology and devices in laparoscopic, robotic, and minimally invasive surgery
John Lavelle, MD
Clinical Associate Professor (Affiliate)
Director, Urodynamics, Voiding Dysfunction and Neurourology
Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS)
Clinical Focus: General Urology, Urodynamics
Research Focus: Clinically Voiding Dysfunction (BPH, Incontinence, Urinary Retention, & Neurogenic Bladder), and outcomes research. Currently developing a project to review the management of Neurogenic Bladder within the VA.
Jeff Reese, MD
Clinical Professor (Affiliate)
Chief of Urology, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
Clinical Focus: Urologic Oncology with open and laparoscopic treatment of all Urologic Malignancies. Surgical treatment of Localized and Advanced Penile Cancer. General Urology with treatment of Complex Kidney Stones.
Research Focus:Advanced Prostate Cancer, Prostate Cancer in Vietnamese patients, Penile Cancer, cost effective hormonal therapy for Advanced Prostate Cancer.