Selected Awards & Honors

M. Kari Connolly, MD

Professor of Dermatology and Medicine

I graduated from Yale University with a degree in biology in 1980. I received my medical degree from Albany Medical College in New York in 1984 with honors. I completed an internal medicine residency at UCLA. My fascination with autoimmune diseases brought me to UCSF where I did a combined fellowship in rheumatology (including immunology basic science laboratory training) and a residency in dermatology. I joined the UCSF faculty with appointments in both dermatology and medicine (rheumatology) in 1991.

My interests are in autoimmune skin diseases and immunofluorescence testing. Dermatopathology and immunofluorescence testing play key roles in the diagnosis and classification of blistering diseases, connective tissue diseases (such as lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis and scleroderma) and vasculitis. In 1995, I partnered with Drs. Phillip LeBoit and Timothy McCalmont to form the UCSF Immunofluorescence Laboratory. We currently process over 2,000 DIF cases per year. We strive to integrate the clinical, histopathologic and immunofluorescence findings to arrive at the most accurate diagnoses. I am interested in developing molecular and genetic markers for autoimmune skin diseases.

Back to list of faculty →

Selected Publications

Goreshi R, Okawa J, Rose M, Feng R, Lee LA, Hansen CB, Bangert CA, Connolly MK, Davis MD, Callen JP, Fett NM, Fakharzadeh SS, Clarke JT, Werth VP. Evaluation of reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the CDASI and the CAT-BM. J Invest Dermatol. 2012 Apr;132(4):1117-24. doi: 10.1038/jid.2011.440. Epub 2012 Jan 5. PMID: 22217740

Katsumoto TR, Whitfield ML, Connolly MK. The pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis. Annu Rev Pathol. 2011;6:509-37. Review. PMID: 21090968

Sargent JL, Milano A, Bhattacharyya S, Varga J,Connolly MK, Chang HY, Whitfield ML. A TGFbeta-responsive gene signature is associated with a subset of diffuse scleroderma with increased disease severity. J Invest Dermatol. 2010 Mar;130(3):694-705. Epub 2009 Oct 8. PMID: 19812599

Milano A, Pendergrass S, Sargent JL, George L, McCalmont T, Connolly MK, Whitfield ML. Molecular subsets in the gene expression signatures of scleroderma skin. PloS ONE 16;2696, 2008.

Klein RQ, Bangert CA, Costner M, Connolly MK, Tanikawa A, Okawa J, Rose M, Fakharzadeh SS, Fiorentino D, Lee LA, Sontheimer RD, Taylor L, Troxel AB, Werth VP. Comparison of the reliability and validity of outcome instruments for cutaneous dermatomyositis. Br J Dermatol. 159:887-94, 2008.

Yu,SS, Connolly, MK, Berger, TG, McCalmont, TH. Dermatitis herpetiformis associated with administration of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog. J Am Acad Dermatol. 54:S58-9, 2006.

Neuhaus IM, Connolly, MK. An unusual presentation of amyopathic dermatomyositis associated with interstitial lung disease. Arch Dermatol. 142:113-4, 2006.

Whitfield, ML, Finlay DR, Murray, JI, Troyanskaya, OG, Chi JT, Pergamenschikov, A, McCalmont, TH, Brown, PO, Botstein, D, Connolly, MK. Systemic and cell type-specific gene expression patterns in scleroderma skin. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 100:12319-12324, 2003.

Toro, JR, Finlay, D, Dou, X, Zheng, SC, LeBoit, PE,Connolly, MK. Detection of type 1 cytokines in discoid lupus erythematosus. Arch Dermatol. 136:1497-1501, 2000.

Connolly, MK, McCalmont, TH. Fetal DNA and cells in women with systemic sclerosis (letter). N Engl J Med. 339:771-772, 1998.