Lily Dara, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine

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Overview

Dr. Dara is an NIH funded physician-scientist and clinician. She completed her Gastroenterology training at USC, is board certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology and practices primarily as a hepatologist (liver specialist). She is the director of the USC Liver Autoimmune and Rare Conditions Clinic in Pasadena (SOLAR CLINIC), where her practice is focused on rare liver diseases autoimmune liver diseases such as Drug-Induced Liver Injury, and Autoimmune Liver Diseases: Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH) and Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC) and their variant syndromes. She is also on the liver faculty at the Los Angeles General Medical Center where she treats patients with liver disease (including alcohol associated liver disease, fatty liver disease, viral hepatitis, liver failure, cirrhosis of the liver, drug-induced liver disease, metabolic and genetic disorders of the liver among many others).

Her research focuses on disorders of the liver including drug induced liver injury and hepatotoxicity from medications, drugs, toxins, and herbal supplements in translational animal models as well as humans. She participates as an investigator on the NIH’s Drug Induced Liver Injury Network (DILIN) and is a reviewer for the LiverTox website. Additionally, she conducts translational studies in Autoimmune Hepatitis and PBC, and studies their outcomes in patients with a focus on understanding difficult to treat autoimmune liver diseases.

Research Funding

  • The impact of sex and cell death on checkpoint inhibitor hepatotoxicity
    NIH · R01DK144042 · Sep 8, 2025 – Jul 31, 2030 · Role: Principal Investigator
  • Targeting Cell Death Pathways in Immune-mediated Liver Injury from Checkpoint Inhibitors
    NIH · R03DK132437 · Apr 1, 2022 – Mar 31, 2025 · Role: Principal Investigator
  • Role of RIPK1 and RIPK3 in liver injury.
    NIH · K08DK109141 · Jul 1, 2016 – Nov 30, 2022 · Role: Principal Investigator
  • USC-UCLA Drug-Induced Liver Injury (DILI) Clinical Center.
    NIH · U01DK083020 · Sep 30, 2008 – Jun 30, 2023 · Role: Co-Investigator

Publications

  • Etiology of end-stage liver cirrhosis impacts hepatic natural killer cell heterogenicity. Front Immunol. 2023; 14:1137034.. View in PubMed
  • No Necroptosis in Hepatocytes: The Final Nail in the Coffin? Gastroenterology. 2022 12; 163(6):1492-1495. Dara L . View in PubMed
  • Autophagy impairment in liver CD11c+ cells promotes non-alcoholic fatty liver disease through production of IL-23. Nat Commun. 2022 03 17; 13(1):1440.. View in PubMed
  • Acute Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B Coinfection. ACG Case Rep J. 2021 Nov; 8(11):e00702.. View in PubMed
  • Mechanisms of immune checkpoint inhibitor-mediated liver injury. Acta Pharm Sin B. 2021 Dec; 11(12):3727-3739.. View in PubMed
  • We Are Not Immune: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Autoimmune Liver Diseases. Hepatology. 2021 11; 74(5):2876-2887.. View in PubMed
  • Interaction of RIPK1 and A20 modulates MAPK signaling in murine acetaminophen toxicity. J Biol Chem. 2021 Jan-Jun; 296:100300.. View in PubMed
  • Cell Death in Liver Diseases: A Review. Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Dec 18; 21(24).. View in PubMed
  • IgG:IgM Ratios of Liver Plasma Cells Reveal Similar Phenotypes of Primary Biliary Cholangitis With and Without Features of Autoimmune Hepatitis. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2021 02; 19(2):397-399.. View in PubMed
  • Cell death in drug-induced liver injury. Adv Pharmacol. 2019; 85:31-74.. View in PubMed