Fellow Spotlight: Sharon (Shari) Kennedy, MD, PhD

Sharon (“Shari”) Grossman Kennedy, MD, PhD, grew up in Princeton, N.J., earned her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and mathematics from Harvard University, her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and her PhD in computational and systems biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She completed her internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. “In both research and medicine, you put all the data together to solve a mystery, whether it’s your patient’s diagnosis or what’s happening at the cellular level in the lab,” said Dr. Kennedy. She has studied gene regulatory networks in yeast, positive genetic selection for adaptive mutation to disease, gender differences in heart failure, and how segments of the genome called enhancers work to turn specific genes on and off.

“At my fellowship interview, I was so impressed by how UCSF brings together basic scientists and clinical cardiologists to exchange ideas,” said Dr. Kennedy. She plans to eventually start her own lab focused on the cardiovascular genetics of heart failure, with a possible focus on heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and pregnancy-related heart conditions. She loves hiking, reading mysteries, and spending time with her husband, Rob Kennedy, and their three young children.