John C. Martin Endowed Chair in Liver Disease Established at UC San Diego

“It is an honor and privilege to support Rohit Loomba, a decades long colleague of John Martin, as the inaugural holder of the John C. Martin Endowed Chair,” said Lillian Lou, president of the John C. Martin Foundation and life-partner of Martin. “May the transformative research be inspired by the global work John initiated.”

Martin, who passed away in 2021, served as chairman and CEO at Gilead Sciences, Inc., from 2008 to 2016, and as president and CEO from 1996 to 2008. He joined Gilead in 1990 as vice president of Research and Development, and during his tenure there, the company revolutionized worldwide therapy for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

“UC San Diego is recognized as the world’s top institution for gastroenterology and hepatology research because of our outstanding faculty dedicated to innovative research and patient care,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “The appointment of Dr. Rohit Loomba to this chair named in honor of John Martin is fitting, as they shared the same goal of improving the quality of life for patients worldwide.”

Prior to Gilead, Martin held several leadership positions at Bristol Myers Squibb and Syntex Corporation and served on the Board of Directors at Scripps Research and Kronos Bio. Additionally, he served on the Centers for Disease Control/Health Resources and Services Administration’s Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention and Treatment and was a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

“John Martin was a scientific visionary who transformed how medicines for HIV, HCV and HBV reached patients around the world,” said Bill Lee, M.S. ’79, Ph.D. ’82, former executive vice president of research at Gilead Sciences and a friend of Martin. “John believed that life-saving therapies must be accessible to all, regardless of where patients lived. Guided by this conviction, he led global efforts to eradicate Hepatitis C and expand access to HIV and HBV treatment.”

Loomba, the inaugural holder of the chair that bears Martin’s name, is a professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and a gastroenterologist and hepatologist at UC San Diego Health. U.S. News & World Report ranks UC San Diego No. 1 in the world for gastroenterology and hepatology (liver) research.

In addition to leading the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at UC San Diego, Loomba is also the founding director of the UC San Diego metabolic-dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) Research Center, where a multidisciplinary team is pioneering noninvasive tests to evaluate liver disease and assess treatment response. These methods are already transforming clinical practice by reducing the need for invasive liver biopsies and offering more precise ways to track disease progression.

“This endowed chair allows us to research and develop new cures and novel treatment options for the management of digestive diseases,” said Loomba. “We work locally to impact globally and strive to be a beacon of excellence in all aspects of our clinical and academic endeavors.”

An internationally recognized leader in liver disease research, Loomba has played a critical role in developing MRI-PDFF as a noninvasive biomarker of treatment response in clinical trials for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). This advanced type of MRI allows doctors to measure fat in the liver without a biopsy, offering a safer and more precise way to track how patients respond to new therapies. The method, now adopted in more than 100 clinical trials worldwide, has already contributed to the FDA approval of new treatments and continues to guide large scale Phase 3 trials, the final global studies that confirm a therapy’s safety and effectiveness before approval.

Loomba has published more than 600 manuscripts in leading journals and serves as co-editor of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He is also the principal investigator on multiple NIH-funded projects and plays a leadership role in clinical research networks focused on advancing liver disease treatment.

To learn more about the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, please visit gastroenterology.ucsd.edu.

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