UCSF Department Of Medicine | Division of Geriatrics

Dr. Michi Yukawa is an Associate Professor in the Division of Geriatrics and a Medical Director of Community Living Center (CLC) San Francisco VAMC.

Dr. Yukawa is a graduate of Brown University School of Medicine, and she completed Internal Medicine residency at Miriam Hospital, one of the teaching hospital for Brown University. In addition, Dr. Yukawa holds a Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She practiced primary care medicine in Boston before she participated in a Geriatric Medicine Fellowship at University of Washington. Dr.Yukawa was a member of the faculty in the Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at the University of Washington from 2000-2010. Dr. Yukawa joined the Division of Geriatrics of UCSF in October 2010 as an Associate Professor. She is interested in teaching and improving the care of older adults particularly around nutrition and prevention of malnutrition and weight loss.

Clinical Activities

Dr. Yukawa is committed to serving as the Medical Director for the Community Living Center (CLC) at the San Francisco VAMC and to working with others to provide compassionate and comprehensive care to the veterans. She also supervises geriatric medicine fellows in Geriatric Medicine outpatient clinic at the VAMC, and she attends on inpatient medicine service at the San Francisco VAMC. Her role includes leadership of the CLC in the Geriatrics and Extended Care Service Line and participation in the academic activities of the Division of Geriatrics.

Dr. Yukawa’s research interests include improving nutrition, preventing weight loss and improving perioperative care of older adults. She conducted several clinical trials while she was at University of Washington and she hopes to collaborate with others to pursue her research interests at UCSF. Her educational interests revolve around chronic illness management of geriatric patients in various settings: outpatient, inpatient and skilled nursing facility. She will be leading the geriatric section of Life Cycle course to educate second year medical students about geriatric syndromes and management of older adults. In addition, she directs the fourth year medical student elective in geriatric medicine. She hopes to collaborate with educators within the Division of Geriatrics and other department to teach medical students, residents and geriatric fellows about management of geriatric patients.

Selected Publications

Yukawa M, Cummings DE, Matthys CC, Callahan HS, Frayo RS, Spiekerman CF, Weigle DS. Effect of aging on the response of ghrelin to acute weight loss. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2006;54:648-653.
Won CW, Lee SW, Choi HR, Kim BS, Park HS, Yukawa M. Body mass index and C-reactive Protein in the healthy Korean aged men. Journal of the Korean Medical Science 2006;21:811-815.
Yukawa M, Phelan EA, Matthys CC, Callahan HS, Spiekerman CF, Abrass IB, Weigle DS. Leptin levels recovered normally in healthy older adults after acute diet-induced weight loss. Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging 2008;12:652-656.
Won CW, Fitts SS, Williams B, Snyder SJ, Yukawa M, Legner VJ, Logerfo JP, Phelan EA. What is the optimal duration of participation in a community-based health promotion program for older adults? Journal of Applied Gerontology 2008;27:201-214.
Kratz M, Purnell JQ, Breen PA, Thomas KK, Utzschneider KM, Carr DB, Kahn SE, Hughes JP,Rutledge EA, Yserloo BV, Yukawa M, Weigle DS. Reduced adipogenic gene expression in thigh adipose tissue precedes HIV-associated peripheral lipoatrophy. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 2008;93:959-966.
Yukawa M, Weigle DS, Davis CD, Marck BT, Wolden-Hanson T. Ghrelin preserves body weight after surgery in older Brown Norway rats. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2008 May;294:R1453-60.
Borson S, Scanlan J, Friedman S, Zuhr E, Fields J, Aylward E, Mahurin R, Richards T, Anzai Y, Yukawa M, Yeh SS. Modeling the impact of COPD on the brain. International Journal of COPD 2008;3:429-434.
Stirewalt DL, Choi YE, Sharpless NE, Pogosova-Agadjanyan EL, Cronk MR, Yukawa M, Larson EB, Wood BL, Appelbaum FR, Radich JP, Heimfeld S. Decreased IRF8 Expression Found in Aging Hematopoietic Progenitor/Stem Cells. Leukemia 2009;23:391-393.
Luks A, Yukawa M, Emery H, Robins L. Disseminating Best Practices for the Educator’s Portfolio. Medical Education 2009;43:497-498.
Yukawa M, Brown-Chang J, Callahan HS, Spiekerman CF, Weigle DS. Circulating TNF alpha receptor levels indentify older adults who fail to regain weight after acute weight loss. Accepted by Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging 2010;14:716-720.
Pogosova-Agadjanyan E L, Fan W, Georges G, Schwartz JL, Kepler C, Lee H, Suchanek A, Cronk MR, Brumbaugh A, Engel JH, Yukawa M, Zhao LP, Heimfeld S, Stirewalt DL. Identification of Radiation-induced Expression Changes in Non-immortalized Human T-cells. Radiation Research 2011;175:172-184.