ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2024
The Young Physician-Scientist Awards (YPSA) recognize physician-scientists who are early in their first faculty appointment and have made notable achievements in their research.
About the awardee
Maya Kotas, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep at the University of California, San Francisco. She completed her undergraduate degree and Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD) at Yale University, Internal Medicine residency at New York Presbyterian-Columbia University, and fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. As a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Richard Locksley, Dr. Kotas studied type 2 inflammatory circuits directed by innate type 2 immune cells and tuft cells. Her current research is centered on epithelial—immune communication in the airway during allergic inflammation and tissue injury. Her overarching goal is to uncover new molecular and cellular targets for the treatment of chronic inflammatory airway diseases like COPD, asthma, and cystic fibrosis. Dr. Kotas’s work has been recognized through a Rising Star in Research award from the American Thoracic Society, the Parker B. Francis Fellowship, a K08 from the NIH/NHLBI, and the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation Career Award for Medical Scientists. In addition to her research activities, Dr. Kotas serves as an attending intensivist at UCSF Medical Center.