Monica Yang, MD, Receives 2024 Irene Perstein Award to Grow UCSF’s Scleroderma Research Program

Monica Yang, MD, assistant professor in the Division of Rheumatology, has been awarded a 2024 Irene Perstein Award recognizing her deep scholarship on scleroderma and its causes and manifestations.

The Perstein Award will support Dr. Yang in continuing to expand the research program at the UCSF Scleroderma Center. She is particularly interested in the disease’s impact on the lungs given lung fibrosis is the leading cause of death in scleroderma patients. Her research focuses on understanding why certain patients develop lung disease and how to better treat them. 

Scleroderma, a rare disease that crosses many disciplines, has one of the highest morbidity and mortality rates among the rheumatic diseases. The UCSF Scleroderma Center’s research program aims to uncover factors that drive the disease, while also identifying new markers and treatment targets to advance personalized medicine in the field. 

“Scleroderma is a rare and complex disease,” Dr. Yang said. “However, because it can affect nearly every organ in the body a better understanding can lend itself to other diseases. Having a strong program at UCSF is important.”

Dr. Yang became interested in rheumatology during medical school when she was paired with an attending who happened to be a rheumatologist for her longitudinal clinic. It wasn’t until later in her training that she learned her mentor had scleroderma.

“I was really inspired by her and her patients,” Dr. Yang said. “I’m grateful to have gotten to learn about this field so early on in my training and to have had such a great teacher who serves as an inspiration for some of the research I do today.”

Soon after that, during residency Dr. Yang began working with mentors who taught her more about the clinical care of scleroderma patients as well as pursuing research in the field. She decided to explore patient-facing research after having already gained a substantial amount of lab experience in medical school and college. Today she employs a bench to bedside approach in her research to uncover molecular drivers of scleroderma lung disease and better define the disease’s heterogeneity.

“The marriage of the two types of research is scientifically stimulating, but it’s also the type of research that we need for patients,” Dr. Yang said. “There’s so much to be learned, and it’s all the unknown that keeps me excited about doing research in scleroderma.”

As a part of her research, Dr. Yang has established the UCSF Scleroderma Cohort and Biorepository, which collects clinical information and biospecimens for research. This effort is driven by the cohort of patients she and others see at the UCSF Scleroderma Center, having developed close relationships with many of them. She cites the struggle and suffering – but also perseverance – that can accompany living with a lifelong disease as particularly inspiring in her commitment to her work as well as being part of the scientific community at UCSF and beyond.

“People in the scleroderma field and at UCSF are so generous with their time. It’s one of my favorite things about being part of this scientific community,” Dr. Yang said. “They want to mentor you, nurture your science, and see you grow as an investigator.”

Dr. Yang has been part of the rheumatology and scleroderma research communities since medical school and acknowledges the sustained mentorship she has gained throughout the years and support she’s found in the field since then, including receiving the Irene Perstein Award.

“As a junior faculty member, and as a woman, you often question if the science you’re doing is good enough. Will this actually make a difference?” she said. “Awards like these are a testament to the work you’re doing, what mentors have put into you as you accumulate supporters in your science over time, and also brings new motivation. It’s wonderful to have the support of the UCSF research community.”

The Irene Perstein Award was founded in 2007 and honors the legacy of Irene Holmes Perstein who left a bequest to provide annual awards to outstanding junior women scientists in the UCSF School of Medicine. Two other UCSF faculty members, Sheiphali Gandhi, MD, MPH, and Courtney Lane-Donovan, MD, PhD, are also 2024 Irene Perstein Award recipients.