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

  • Receptor interacting protein kinase 1 mediates murine acetaminophen toxicity independent of the necrosome and not through necroptosis. Hepatology. 2015 Dec; 62(6):1847-57.. View in PubMed
  • Targeting signal transduction pathways which regulate necrosis in acetaminophen hepatotoxicity. J Hepatol. 2015 Jul; 63(1):5-7.. View in PubMed
  • Cellular uptake and cytotoxicity of a near-IR fluorescent corrole-TiO2 nanoconjugate. J Inorg Biochem. 2014 Nov; 140:39-44.. View in PubMed
  • MAT2B-GIT1 interplay activates MEK1/ERK 1 and 2 to induce growth in human liver and colon cancer. Hepatology. 2013 Jun; 57(6):2299-313.. View in PubMed
  • Regulation of drug-induced liver injury by signal transduction pathways: critical role of mitochondria. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2013 Apr; 34(4):243-53.. View in PubMed
  • Dynamic adaptation of liver mitochondria to chronic alcohol feeding in mice: biogenesis, remodeling, and functional alterations. J Biol Chem. 2012 Dec 07; 287(50):42165-79.. View in PubMed
  • The contribution of endoplasmic reticulum stress to liver diseases. Hepatology. 2011 May; 53(5):1752-63.. View in PubMed
  • Hydroxycut hepatotoxicity: a case series and review of liver toxicity from herbal weight loss supplements. World J Gastroenterol. 2008 Dec 07; 14(45):6999-7004.. View in PubMed