Lily Dara, MD

Lily Dara, MD is a Member Scientist at the Ellison Medical Institute. In her role, Dr. Dara will provide scientific guidance and expertise in drug-induced liver injury (DILI) to support our drug development pipeline, partnering with the team to evaluate novel technologies for liver safety assessment, predict hepatoxicity risk, and investigate mechanisms of drug-induced toxicity.

She is a physician-scientist, hepatologist, and tenured Associate Professor of Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC). She directs the USC Autoimmune and Rare Liver Conditions (SOLAR) Clinic and leads a translational research program focused on developing precision medicine approaches for autoimmune and rare liver diseases. Her work integrates mechanistic studies, immune profiling, biomarker discovery, and clinical investigation to improve the diagnosis, prognosis, and individualized treatment of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), and liver injury caused by medications and herbal and dietary supplements. She leads an NIH R01-funded laboratory studying drug-induced and immune-mediated liver injury, with a particular focus on immune checkpoint inhibitors and cancer therapies using mouse models and patient-based translational studies. She serves as the USC Principal Investigator for the NIH-funded Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network (DILIN) and is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on the hepatic side effects of cancer immunotherapy. She is a frequent invited speaker at major international meetings and has delivered lectures across North America and Europe on drug-induced liver injury, autoimmune liver diseases, AIH, PBC, and hepatotoxicity.

An internationally recognized leader in hepatology, Dr. Dara serves on the NIH LiverTox Expert Review Committee, is the past Chair of the AASLD Hepatotoxicity Special Interest Group (SIG) and the current Vice Chair of the AASLD Cholestatic and Autoimmune Liver Disease SIG. Through her research and clinical practice, she aims to advance precision diagnostics and targeted therapies that improve outcomes for patients with autoimmune and rare liver diseases and those experiencing liver injury from  prescription and non-prescription medications including cancer therapies, and herbal and dietary supplements.