Fellow Spotlight: Luísa Ciuffo, MD

Luísa Ciuffo, MD, grew up in Salvador, Brazil, inspired to pursue research by her mother, a biologist. She earned her medical degree from the Federal University of Bahia in Salvador, conducting research on the hearts of young people who died due to violence and finding evidence of subclinical atherosclerosis in this relatively healthy population.

During medical school she spent a year conducting cardiovascular research at Johns Hopkins University, then returned there to complete a cardiovascular disease research fellowship, investigating ways to use imaging to predict which atrial fibrillation patients are most likely to benefit from catheter ablation. Dr. Ciuffo then completed internal medicine residency at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

She chose UCSF for her second cardiology fellowship in part because of its excellent electrophysiology program and the friendly academic environment. Her first rotation was at Zuckerberg San Francisco General. “It was mind-blowing – I loved it!” said Dr. Ciuffo. “As fellows, we have a lot of autonomy, and I really liked working with underserved patients.”

She is interested in using big data approaches to conduct translational atrial fibrillation research, and hopes to stay in California after fellowship. Dr. Ciuffo is married to Lucas Webster, PhD, a physicist who works in technology. Besides research, her passions include cooking Brazilian food and watching soccer.