Renata Gallagher

Dr. Renata C. Gallagher is a doctor who specializes in genetics. She cares for children and adults with rare disorders that affect important biochemical pathways in the body, including those that help make energy, recycle body components and facilitate communication between nerve cells in the brain. Her expertise includes blood tests given at birth as part of a test series designed to identify children with certain treatable conditions that appear early in life. She helps diagnose and treat patients with these rare disorders, and she designs individualized treatment plans together with a specialized team dedicated to the care of these conditions. She directs the UCSF Biochemical Genetic Medicine Service, and is medical director of the UCSF Metabolism Clinic.

Gallagher’s research focuses on improving diagnosis and therapies for the rare conditions she treats. Her primary areas of interest are improving and expanding newborn screening for these conditions, optimizing recognition and treatment of pyridoxine-dependent epilepsy (a treatable cause of early-onset, severe seizures), and clarifying the spectrum of liver disease in urea cycle defects (which interfere with the body’s ability to remove certain waste products from the bloodstream).

Gallagher earned her medical degree and a doctorate in biochemistry at UCSF. She completed a residency in pediatrics at the University of Washington, followed by fellowships in medical genetics and clinical biochemical genetics at Stanford University.

A fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics, Gallagher belongs to the Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders, Society for the Study of Inborn Errors of Metabolism and American Society of Human Genetics.

During a break in her education, Gallagher traveled around the world, visiting 27 countries in 10 months. In her free time, she loves cycling, swimming, sailing, kayaking and taking long walks on the beach with her family.