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Mitchell J. Cohen, M.D.
Associate Professor of Surgery
Division of General Surgery
Director of Acute Care Research, San Francisco Injury Center
Contact Information
San Francisco, CA 94143-0807
(415) 206-8673 Appointments
(415) 206-4623 Office
(415) 206-5484 Fax
mcohen@sfghsurg.ucsf.edu
BiographyEducation
- Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, B.A., Politics, 1991
- Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, M.D., 1997
Residencies
- Rush University/Cook County Integrated Surgical Residency, Chicago, Illinois, 1997-2004
Fellowships
- Loyola University Medical Center,Department of Surgery, Burn and Shock Trauma Institute, Maywood, Illinois,1999-2001
- UCSF, Trauma and Critical Care Fellowships, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California, 2004-2006
Board Certification
- American Board of Surgery, 2005
- American Board of Surgery, Surgical Critical Care, 2005
Clinical Expertise
- Critical Care Surgery
- General Surgery
- Trauma Surgery
Biography
Dr. Mitchell Cohen, Assistant Professor of Surgery in Residence,
joined the faculty at UCSF-SFGH in July 2006. Dr. Cohen is a
Board-certified general surgeon with an additional board
certification in Surgical Critical Care.
Dr. Cohen received his undergraduate degree from Brandeis
University and his medical degree at the Mount Sinai School of
Medicine. He then completed his Residency at Rush
University/Cook County Integrated in 1994. He then completed
a Research Fellowship at Loyola University Medical Center in the
Department of Surgery, Burn and Shock Trauma Institute in 2001 and
a Fellowship in Trauma and Critical Care UCSF-SFGH from
2004-2006.
Dr. Cohen has an active basic science research lab where he
studies coagulation and inflammation perturbations after trauma. In
addition he is actively involved in the CDC San Francisco Injury
Center with projects related to inflammatory lung injury and
monitoring of resuscitation and coagulation after injury. Dr.
Cohen was recently awarded a fellowship award in Hemostasis and
Resuscitation from the American Association for the Surgery of
Trauma. Along with his clinical and basic science
translational research, Dr. Cohen has a keen interest in in silico
and informatic modeling of biological systems and patient
physiology. These interests have led to work with collaborators at
UCSF and UC Berkeley as well as the Intel Corporation.
Dr. Cohen currently is the Acute Care Director for the CDC San
Francisco Injury Center. He continues to have a busy clinical
practice and is one of the most productive research physicians at
the University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco General
Hospital.
Research Summary
Dr. Cohen's research centers on perturbations of coagulation after trauma. Specifically his lab continues to examine the mechanism of traumatic coagulopathy and complement dependent activation of the protein C system after trauma. Concurrently patient samples are collected to further examine traumatic coagulopathy and the activation of protein C after trauma. Over the past year his research group has published 5 manuscripts with two additional in review. In October, he submitted an NIH K08 application centered around in vivo, in vitro and in silico approaches to traumatic coagulopathy. Natasha Bir, MD has recently joined Dr. Cohen's lab and has begun an ambitious project looking at the effect of protein C on endothelial permeability.
In addition to the basic science work, Dr. Cohen continues work on the application of complex systems approaches to modeling coagulation, inflammation and high throughput physiologic data from severely injured patients. He contributes to and receives funding from the 2007-2009 UC Discovery Grant Grant No: GCP06 10226. This grant seeks to apply novel bioinformatics techniques to severely injured ICU patients.
Dr. Cohen has contributed to and is partially funded by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Grant No: R49/CCR903697-07. As part of the CDC San Francisco Injury Center he is overseeing acute care research. Specifically his work centers on the application of new monitoring technologies to detect the efficacy of our resuscitation conduct. In this role, he oversees several residents and medical students.
Selected Publications
- Cohen MJ, Shankar R, Stevenson J, Fernandez R, Gamelli RL, Jones SB: Bone Marrow Norepinephrine Mediates Development of Functionally Different Macrophages Following Thermal Injury and Sepsis. Ann Surgery 2004 Jul (1) 132-41.
- Brohi K, Cohen MJ, Ganter MT, Matthay MA, Mackersie RC, Pittet JF: The Pathogenetic and Prognostic Significance of The Protein C Pathway in Acute Traumatic Coagulopathy. Ann Surg 2007 May; 245 (5): 812-8.
- Cohen MJ, Shankar R, Carroll C, Li-ke H, Gamelli R, Jones S, Kuzhali M: Severity of Burn Injury and Sepsis Determines the Cytokine Responses of Bone Marrow Progenitor Derived Macrophages. J Trauma 2007 Apr; 62 (4): 858-67.
- Cohen MJ, Brohi K, Ganter M, Grush A, Mackersie RC, Manley, GT,
Pittet JF:
Early Coagulopathy After Traumatic Brain Injury: The Role of Hypoperfusion and The Protein C Pathway. J Trauma 2007 Dec; 63 (6) 1254-63. - Ganter MT, Cohen MJ*, Brohi K, Chesebro BB, Staudenmayer K, Rahn P, Christaans S, Bir N, Pittet JF: Angiopoietin-2 Marker and Mediator of Endothelial Activation with Prognostic Significance Early after Trauma. Ann Surg (2008 In press) *Co-First Author.
In the News
Code Red: Repairing Blood in the Emergency Room
New Scientist - Oct 22, 2011UCSF/SFGH surgeon and trauma researcher, Mitchell J. Cohen, MD, has teamed up with researchers around the globe to change the way acute traumatic coagulopathy is treated. His work is leading to a new understanding of the causes of and appropriate treatment for uncontrolled bleeding after trauma.
"It seems that sometimes major injuries trigger a problem with the blood-clotting process, causing blood to leak from the body faster than it can be stemmed. This clotting disorder affects as many as 1 in 4 major trauma victims. So Brohi and others have developed a way of treating people that prioritises fixing their blood over fixing their body. It's a radical departure from standard procedures, and one that is by no means widely accepted, but if they're right it could save thousands of lives every year worldwide, and a whole chapter of trauma care will have to be rewritten."
Department of Surgery at SFGH Launches Cohen Lab Website
Department of Surgery at San Francisco General Hospital - Jun 28, 2011The Department of Surgery at SFGH is pleased to announce the launch of the Cohen Lab website. Led by Mitchell J. Cohen, M.D., Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of Acute Care Research at the San Francisco Injury Center, the site will highlight the application of translational discoveries to acute traumatic coagulopathy. The Cohen lab is focused on elucidating the biology of coagulation and inflammation after injury. Incorporating clinical, in vivo, in vitro, and in silico approaches, the research embodies a truly translational approach for investigating the causes of uncontrolled hemorrhage, the leading cause of (potentially preventable) death in both combat casualties and civilian injuries.
Grant Supports UCSF Research in Lead Cause of Trauma Deaths
UCSF News - May 20, 2010Mitchell Cohen, MD, UCSF assistant professor of surgery, has received a $225,000 research grant from the National Trauma Institute to investigate the timing and mechanism of traumatic coagulopathy.
