UCSF Academic Senate’s Twenty-Second Annual Faculty Research Lecture in Clinical Science Awarded to Nisha Acharya, MD, MS
The Academic Senate is pleased to announce the selection of Nisha Acharya, MD, MS, as the recipient of the Twenty-Second Annual Faculty Research Lectureship in Clinical Science for her contributions to research on ocular inflammatory diseases. The lecture, titled, “Small Field, Big Data: Advancing Evidence for Ocular Inflammatory Diseases”, will take place on Thursday, March 05, 2026, at 3:30 p.m. on the Mission Bay Campus at the William and Ruth Hoffman Auditorium in the Wayne and Gladys Valley Center for Vision (490 Illinois St) and will be broadcast over Zoom.
Lecture Title: Small Field, Big Data: Advancing Evidence for Ocular Inflammatory Diseases
Date/Location: Thursday, March 05, 2026, at 3:30 p.m., William and Ruth Hoffman Auditorium in the Wayne and Gladys Valley Center for Vision (490 Illinois St), and broadcast over Zoom.
Zoom: https://tiny.ucsf.edu/mar05frl
Passcode: 319790
UCSF Events Calendar: 22nd Faculty Research Lecture in Clinical Science Event
Dr. Nisha Acharya is a world-renowned clinician-scientist with over two decades of experience as both a practicing ophthalmologist and a leader of a continuously NIH-funded research program focused on clinical trials and large-scale data analysis. She has been the PI, co-PI, or protocol chair of several NIH-funded large multicenter clinical trials, as well as big data projects. Her work has been grounded in addressing clinically meaningful questions related to ocular infectious and inflammatory conditions and translating evidence into clinical practice.
In her early career, under the mentorship of Dr. Tom Lietman of UCSF, she helped implement the Steroids for Corneal Ulcer Trial (SCUT) and the Mycotic Ulcer Treatment Trial (MUTT). These trials focused on the optimal treatment for bacterial and fungal corneal ulcers. She then established a research program focusing on uveitis, a group of conditions characterized by intraocular inflammation. She led the First-line Antimetabolites as Steroid-sparing Treatment (FAST) Trial, published in JAMA in 2019, which demonstrated that a widely available, inexpensive immunosuppressive drug is comparable to a more expensive drug for the treatment of uveitis, challenging long-standing assumptions in the field and shifting practice patterns worldwide. Dr. Acharya led the Adalimumab in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis-associated Uveitis Stopping Trial (ADJUST), published in The Lancet in 2025. This trial studied the discontinuation of adalimumab in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis-associated uveitis and demonstrated that 75% of children relapsed after stopping treatment, challenging current guidelines on treatment discontinuation and providing clinically relevant information for treating physicians and families on the implications of treatment withdrawal.
In addition to her clinical trials, Dr. Acharya has conducted groundbreaking epidemiologic studies using large data sources. She has had an R01 grant since 2018 to study the impact of the herpes zoster vaccine on herpes zoster and herpes zoster ophthalmicus, and has published studies assessing the effectiveness of the recombinant zoster vaccination for preventing herpes zoster and dementia. Her work has highlighted the need for greater public health efforts to identify and address potential barriers to herpes zoster vaccination. During the COVID pandemic, she reported on risks of hospitalization and death in patients taking immunosuppression for ocular inflammatory diseases, and she studied the impact of COVID vaccines on ocular inflammation.
Dr. Nisha Acharya is the Elizabeth C. Proctor Distinguished Professor at the F.I. Proctor Foundation and Departments of Ophthalmology and Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and she is the Director of the Uveitis and Ocular Inflammatory Disease Service. She is Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Mentorship in the Department of Ophthalmology. She has mentored many students, residents, fellows, and faculty, and was awarded a Dean’s Award for Research Mentorship of medical students in 2020, 2024, and 2025. She has served in many leadership roles, including President of the American Uveitis Society. She was awarded the 2026 Mildred Weisenfeld Award for Excellence in Ophthalmology by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, which is presented to an individual in recognition of distinguished scholarly contributions to the clinical practice of ophthalmology.
Since 2001, this award has been bestowed on an individual member of the UCSF faculty with outstanding achievements in clinical research. Nominations are made by UCSF faculty, who consider the clinical research contributions of their colleagues and submit nominations for this prestigious award to the Academic Senate Committee on Research. Each year, the Committee on Research selects the recipient of this award.