Swim Across America UCSF Faculty

Rob Goldsby, MD

The UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals’ and Swim Across America’s Survivors of Childhood Cancer Program addresses the unique needs of the growing population of childhood cancer survivors who face significant risks of chronic health conditions from their cancer and its treatments. Founded by Dr. Rob Goldsby, the program provides personalized survivorship care plans with evidence-based follow-up recommendations to enhance survivors’ long-term health. 

Dr. Goldsby is a pediatric cancer specialist at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals. One of his particular areas of interest is treating young patients with high-risk sarcomas. Listen to a podcast with Dr. Goldsby, discussing how Swim Across America benefits his work on childhood cancer.

Chong Bin (Edward) He, MD

Chong Bin (Edward) He, MD is currently a pediatric hematology/oncology fellow at UCSF with an interest in benign and malignant blood disorders as well as bone marrow failure syndromes. His fellowship research focuses on proteomic profiling of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia and other pediatric malignancies to identify potential therapeutic targets and develop new immunotherapies. He earned his medical degree from the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and completed his pediatric residency at the University of Miami Holtz Children’s Hospital.

S. John Liu, MD PhD

S. John Liu, MD PhD was selected for this grant by Dr. John DeGroot. Dr. Liu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology and Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Harvard University and obtained his MD/PhD as well as postdoctoral training at UCSF. He is Principal Investigator of a multidisciplinary cancer genomics laboratory within the UCSF Brain Tumor Center, which focuses on pediatric and adult brain tumors and uses epigenomic editing to understand and overcome treatment resistance pathways in malignant gliomas. Dr. Liu has over 35 peer reviewed publications in prestigious journals including Cell and Science, and he developed multiple CRISPR-based functional genomics methods for dissecting the functions of cancer genes using single cell screens within intact tumors. Dr. Liu is also an Attending Radiation Oncologist within the UCSF Brain Tumor Center where he treats adults and children with malignant cancers of the nervous system.

Dr. Liu is proud to be a part of Swim Across America as an external grants reviewer and swimmer at the annual San Francisco SAA open water swim.

Amanda Marinoff, MD

Amanda Marinoff, MD is a pediatric oncologist, translational researcher, and Assistant Professor at UCSF. She earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, completed her pediatric residency at Boston Children’s Hospital, and completed her fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at UCSF. Dr. Marinoff’s research centers on advancing genomic biomarkers and innovative treatment strategies for osteosarcoma, with a commitment to translating these discoveries into impactful clinical trials. In her clinical practice, she is an active member of the Early Phase Clinical Trials and Solid Tumor programs at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals.

Arun Rangaswami, MD

Arun Rangaswami, MD is one of the senior solid tumor faculty at UCSF, having joined the institution in 2019. His scholarly and clinical practice have focused on the treatment of pediatric liver cancers, rare cancers, and cancer predisposition. He was the US National PI for the International Hepatoblastoma therapeutic trials, SIOPEL 4 and SIOPEL 6, and is currently the senior sub-PI for the Hepatocellular Carcinoma treatment arm of the Pediatric Hepatic tumors International Therapeutic Trial (PHITT). He is also the Co-chair of the Children's Hepatic tumors International Collaboration (CHIC), the largest extant database for pediatric rare tumors.

Julie Saba, MD, PhD

Julie Saba, MD, PhD is the Director of the Swim Across America National Laboratory of Pediatric Cancer Research at UCSF. She holds the John and Edna Beck Chair in Pediatric Cancer Research and is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hematology. Dr. Saba’s research is focused on elucidating the role of sphingolipids in health and disease, with a specific interest in pediatric malignancies. She has over 100 publications relating to different aspects of carcinogenesis including inflammation-associated cancers, cell transformation, cell immortalization, oncogenes, and rare diseases with cancer predisposition. Her recent study demonstrating the role of the AF1Q oncogene as a universal marker of neuroblastoma that is essential for neuroblastoma tumorigenesis and controls the expression of N-Myc was published in 2024 in the Nature journal Oncogene.

Russell Valle, MD, MS

Russell Valle, MD, MS is a Pediatric Oncologist with a special interest in the treatment of Histiocytic disorders. His interest in the treatment of RASopathy-associated cardiomyopathies and lymphatic dysfunction arose from his experience with MEK-inhibitor therapy for Histiocytic neoplasms. Once introduced to this patient population, he recognized an unmet need for providers familiar with targeted RAS-MAP Kinase inhibitors who can deliver the specialized care that the most vulnerable RASopathy patients require.