Aylin Ulku, MD, PhD

Professor

Aylin Ulku joined the faculty at UCSF in July 2012. After completing her Combined Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, she continued as Chief Resident in the Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency at Waterbury/Yale-New Haven Hospitals. From 2010-2012, she began work in Kigali, Rwanda, as an Assistant Clinical Professor for Yale School of Medicine, to assist in medical education capacity building within the National University of Rwanda (NUR) School of Medicine.
At UCSF, her focus remains in social justice and health equity through a variety of efforts. She is a member of an anti-racist committee working to reduce bias in documentation in the UCSF Health electronic record. She works as an advocate for adults living with sickle cell disease, accompanying patients throughout their hospital stays when admitted for complications of sickle cell disease. She has worked for over a decade as a mentor in global health education as the Director of the Global Health Elective in the Internal Medicine Residency program as well as in the HEAL (Health, Equity, Action, Leadership) Initiative, a fellowship for health practitioners across with world working or health equity. Currently, she serves as the Associate Director of the HEAL Initiative Global Fellowship.
Aylin works full time as a clinician in both internal medicine and pediatric hospital medicine providing direct care or working with trainees as a coach and mentor.

Education:
- Princeton University, Chemistry (BA)
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (MD-PhD - pharmacology)
- Yale-New Haven Hospital (internship, residency, chief resident)

Board Certifications:
- Internal Medicine (2010 to present)
- Pediatrics (2010 to present)
- Pediatric Hospital Medicine (2024)
Education
2018 - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training, University of California
06/2009 - Combined Medicine-Pediatric Residency, Yalen New Haven Hospital
MD PhD, 06/2005 - MD, PhD in Pharmacology, UNC Chapel Hill
Honors and Awards
  • Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators Excellence in Teaching Award, UCSF, 2021
  • Hugh Dwyer Award for Clincal Excellence, Yale-New Haven Hospital, 2010
Publications
  1. Campbell PM, Singh A, Williams FJ, Frantz K, Ulkü AS, Kelley GG, Der CJ. Genetic and pharmacologic dissection of Ras effector utilization in oncogenesis. Methods in enzymology 2006. PMID: 16757325


  2. Pruitt K, Ulkü AS, Frantz K, Rojas RJ, Muniz-Medina VM, Rangnekar VM, Der CJ, Shields JM. Ras-mediated loss of the pro-apoptotic response protein Par-4 is mediated by DNA hypermethylation through Raf-independent and Raf-dependent signaling cascades in epithelial cells. The Journal of biological chemistry 2005. PMID: 15831492


  3. Collette J, Ulku AS, Der CJ, Jones A, Erickson AH. Enhanced cathepsin L expression is mediated by different Ras effector pathways in fibroblasts and epithelial cells. International journal of cancer 2004. PMID: 15352030


  4. Eckert LB, Repasky GA, Ulkü AS, McFall A, Zhou H, Sartor CI, Der CJ. Involvement of Ras activation in human breast cancer cell signaling, invasion, and anoikis. Cancer research 2004. PMID: 15231670


  5. Vos MD, Ellis CA, Elam C, Ulku AS, Taylor BJ, Clark GJ. RASSF2 is a novel K-Ras-specific effector and potential tumor suppressor. The Journal of biological chemistry 2003. PMID: 12732644


  6. Ulkü AS, Der CJ. Ras signaling, deregulation of gene expression and oncogenesis. Cancer treatment and research 2003. PMID: 12613198


  7. Fiordalisi JJ, Johnson RL, Ulkü AS, Der CJ, Cox AD. Mammalian expression vectors for Ras family proteins: generation and use of expression constructs to analyze Ras family function. Methods in enzymology 2001. PMID: 11305105