Kimberley J. Evason
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Kimberley J. Evason, MD, PhD

Languages spoken: English

Dr. Evason is an assistant professor of pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and currently serves as head of Hepatobiliary Pathology. Dr. Evason also directs a basic science research program at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. The overarching goal of the Evason laboratory is to define mechanisms involved in liver tumorigenesis in order to develop improved therapies to treat hepatocellular carcinoma and other hepatobiliary malignancies. Dr. Evason received her MD/PhD from Washington University in St. Louis. She completed her anatomic pathology residency, along with fellowship training in surgical pathology and liver/gastrointestinal pathology, at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She then remained at UCSF as a clinical instructor while completing post-doctoral research funded by a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellowship Award and a K08 award from the NIH/NCI.

Specialties

  • Pathology, Anatomical

Board Certification

American Board of Pathology (Sub: Anatomic Path)

Dr. Evason is an assistant professor of pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and currently serves as head of Hepatobiliary Pathology. Dr. Evason also directs a basic science research program at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. The overarching goal of the Evason laboratory is to define mechanisms involved in liver tumorigenesis in order to develop improved therapies to treat hepatocellular carcinoma and other hepatobiliary malignancies. Dr. Evason received her MD/PhD from Washington University in St. Louis. She completed her anatomic pathology residency, along with fellowship training in surgical pathology and liver/gastrointestinal pathology, at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She then remained at UCSF as a clinical instructor while completing post-doctoral research funded by a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellowship Award and a K08 award from the NIH/NCI.

Board Certification and Academic Information

Academic Departments Oncological Sciences -Adjunct Assistant Professor
Pathology -Associate Professor
Board Certification
American Board of Pathology (Sub: Anatomic Path)

Education history

Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering - University of Iowa B.S.
Professional Medical Medicine/Developmental Biology - Washington University School of Medicine M.D., Ph.D.
Residency Anatomic Pathology - University of California, San Francisco Resident
Chief Resident Anatomic Pathology - University of California, San Francisco Chief Resident
Postdoctoral Fellowship Laboratories of Didier Stainier, Andrei Goga, and Mike Bishop - University of California, San Francisco Postdoctoral Fellow
Fellowship GI/Liver Pathology - University of California, San Francisco Clinical Research Fellow

Selected Publications

Journal Article

  1. Swanson EA, March JK, Clayton F, Couturier MR, Arcega R, Smith R, Evason K (2018). Epithelial Inclusions in Gallbladder Specimens Mimic Parasite Infection: Histologic and Molecular Examination of Reported Cystoisospora belli Infection in Gallbladders of Immunocompetent Patients. The American journal of surgical pathology, 42(10), 1346-1352.
  2. Pham DH, Kudira R, Xu L, Valencia CA, Ellis JL, Shi T, Evason KJ, Osuji I, Matuschek N, Pfuher L, Mullen M, Mohanty SK, Husami A, Bull LN, Zhang K, Wali S, Yin C, Miethke (2021). Deleterious variants in ABCC12 are detected in idiopathic chronic cholestasis and cause intrahepatic bile duct loss in model organisms: ABCC12 pathogenic variants lead to cholestasis. Gastroenterology, 161, 287-300.e16.
  3. So J, Khaliq M, Evason K, Ninov N, Martin BL, Stainier DYR, Shin D (2018). Wnt/ß-catenin signaling controls intrahepatic biliary network formation in zebrafish by regulating Notch activity. Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.),
  4. Juric V, Ruffell B, Evason KJ, Hu J, Che L, Wang L, Chen X, Bishop J (2016). Monocytes promote liver carcinogenesis in an oncogene-specific manner. Journal of hepatology, 64(4), 881-90.
  5. Dubey JP, Evason KJ, Walther (2019). Endogenous development of Cystoisospora belli in intestinal and biliary epithelium of humans. Parasitology, 146(7), 865-872.
  6. Cox AG, Tsomides A, Kim AJ, Saunders D, Hwang KL, Evason KJ, Heidel J, Brown KK, Yuan M, Lien EC, Lee BC, Nissim S, Dickinson B, Chhangawala S, Chang CJ, Asara JM, Houvras Y, Gladyshev VN, Goessling (2016). Selenoprotein H is an essential regulator of redox homeostasis that cooperates with p53 in development and tumorigenesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113(38), E5562-71.
  7. Cox AG, Hwang KL, Brown KK, Evason K, Beltz S, Tsomides A, O'Connor K, Galli GG, Yimlamai D, Chhangawala S, Yuan M, Lien EC, Wucherpfennig J, Nissim S, Minami A, Cohen DE, Camargo FD, Asara JM, Houvras Y, Stainier DYR, Goessling (2016). Yap reprograms glutamine metabolism to increase nucleotide biosynthesis and enable liver growth. Nature cell biology, 18(8), 886-896.
  8. Anderton B, Camarda R, Balakrishnan S, Balakrishnan A, Kohnz RA, Lim L, Evason KJ, Momcilovic O, Kruttwig K, Huang Q, Xu G, Nomura DK, Goga (2017). MYC-driven inhibition of the glutamate-cysteine ligase promotes glutathione depletion in liver cancer. EMBO reports, 18(4), 569-585.
  9. Runtsch MC, Nelson MC, Lee SH, Voth W, Alexander M, Hu R, Wallace J, Petersen C, Panic V, Villanueva CJ, Evason KJ, Bauer KM, Mosbruger T, Boudina S, Bronner M, Round JL, Drummond MJ, O'Connell R (2019). Anti-inflammatory microRNA-146a protects mice from diet-induced metabolic disease. PLoS genetics, 15(2), e1007970.
  10. Bensard CL, Wisidagama DR, Olson KA, Berg JA, Krah NM, Schell JC, Nowinski SM, Fogarty S, Bott AJ, Wei P, Dove KK, Tanner JM, Panic V, Cluntun A, Lettlova S, Earl CS, Namnath DF, Vázquez-Arreguín K, Villanueva CJ, Tantin D, Murtaugh LC, Evason KJ, Ducker GS, Thummel CS, Rutter (2020). Regulation of Tumor Initiation by the Mitochondrial Pyruvate Carrier. Cell metabolism, 31(2), 284-300.e7.
  11. Kotiyal S, Fulbright A, O'Brien LK, Evason K (2020). Quantifying Liver Size in Larval Zebrafish Using Brightfield Microscopy. Journal of visualized experiments, (156),
  12. Kalasekar SM, Kotiyal S, Conley C, Phan C, Young A, Evason K (2019). Heterogeneous beta-catenin activation is sufficient to cause hepatocellular carcinoma in zebrafish. Biology open, 8(10),
  13. Bowman KER, Ahne L, O'Brien L, Vander Mause ER, Lu P, Wallis B, Evason KJ, Lim C (2023). p53-Bad* Fusion Gene Therapy Induces Apoptosis In Vitro and Reduces Zebrafish Tumor Burden in Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Molecular pharmaceutics, 20(1), 331-340.
  14. Ellis JL, Evason KJ, Zhang C, Fourman MN, Liu J, Ninov N, Delous M, Vanhollebeke B, Fiddes I, Otis JP, Houvras Y, Farber SA, Xu X, Lin X, Stainier DYR, Yin (2022). A missense mutation in the proprotein convertase gene furinb causes hepatic cystogenesis during liver development in zebrafish. Hepatology communications, 6(11), 3083-3097.
  15. Ong AJS, Bladen CE, Tigani TA, Karamalakis AP, Evason KJ, Brown KK, Cox A (2023). The KEAP1-NRF2 pathway regulates TFEB/TFE3-dependent lysosomal biogenesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120(22), e2217425120.
  16. Boylan KE, Kanth P, Delker D, Hazel MW, Boucher KM, Affolter K, Clayton F, Evason KJ, Jedrzkiewicz J, Pletneva M, Samowitz W, Swanson E, Bronner M (2023). Three pathologic criteria for reproducible diagnosis of colonic sessile serrated lesion versus hyperplastic polyp. Human pathology, 137, 25-35.
  17. Leonard NB, Hale GL, Boylan KE, Ou Z, Zhang C, Kim R, Chandna S, Dong ZM, Evason K (2023). Histologic features of allograft livers in patients treated for rejection before biopsy. Human pathology, 135, 11-21.
  18. Brothwell MJ, Cao ¿¿¿ G, Maschek JA, Poss AM, Peterlin AD, Wang ¿¿¿ L, Baker TB, Shahtout JL, Siripoksup P, Pearce QJ, Johnson JM, Finger FM, Prola A, Pellizzari SA, Hale GL, Manuel AM, Watanabe ¿¿¿¿ S, Miranda ER, Affolter KE, Tippetts TS, Nikolova LS, Choi ¿¿¿ RH, Decker ST, Patil M, Catrow JL, Holland WL, Nowinski SM, Lark DS, Fisher-Wellman KH, Mimche PN, Evason KJ, Cox JE, Summers SA, Gerhart-Hines Z, Funai ¿¿¿¿ (2024). Cardiolipin deficiency disrupts CoQ redox state and induces steatohepatitis. (https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.106976.1). bioRxiv,
  19. Acuña-Pilarte K, Reichert EC, Green YS, Halberg LM, Golkowski M, Maguire KM, Mimche PN, Kamdem SD, Hu PA, Wright J, Ducker GS, Voth WP, O'Connell RM, McFarland SA, Egal ESA, Chaix A, Summers SA, Reelitz JW, Maschek JA, Cox JE, Evason KJ, Koh M (2024). HAF prevents hepatocyte apoptosis and progression to MASH and HCC through transcriptional regulation of the NF-¿B pathway. Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.), 82(2), 438-453.
  20. VanSant-Webb C, Low HK, Kuramoto J, Stanley CE, Qiang H, Su AY, Ross AN, Cooper CG, Cox JE, Summers SA, Evason KJ, Ducker G (2024). Phospholipid isotope tracing suggests ß-catenin-driven suppression of phosphatidylcholine metabolism in hepatocellular carcinoma. Biochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular and cell biology of lipids, 1869(6), 159514.
  21. Freeburg SH, Shwartz A, Kemény LV, Smith CJ, Weeks O, Miller BM, PenkoffLidbeck N, Fisher DE, Evason KJ, Goessling (2024). Hepatocyte vitamin D receptor functions as a nutrient sensor that regulates energy storage and tissue growth in zebrafish. Cell reports, 43(7), 114393.
  22. Levic DS, Niedzwiecki D, Kandakatla A, Karlovich NS, Juneja A, Park J, Stolarchuk C, Adams S, Willer JR, Schaner MR, Lian G, Beasley C, Marjoram L, Flynn AD, Valentine JF, Onken JE, Sheikh SZ, Davis EE, Evason KJ, Garman KS, Bagnat (2024). TNF Promoter Hypomethylation Is Associated With Mucosal Inflammation in IBD and Anti-TNF Response. Gastro hep advances, 3(7), 888-898.
  23. Shen Z, Wu Y, Manna A, Yi C, Cairns BR, Evason KJ, Chandrasekharan MB, Tantin (2024). Oct4 redox sensitivity potentiates reprogramming and differentiation. Genes & development, 38(7-8), 308-321.
  24. Gallop MR, Vieira RFL, Mower PD, Matsuzaki ET, Liou W, Smart FE, Roberts S, Evason KJ, Holland WL, Chaix (2025). A long-term ketogenic diet causes hyperlipidemia, liver dysfunction, and glucose intolerance from impaired insulin secretion in mice. Science advances, 11(38), eadx2752.
  25. Velasco-Silva JN, Wilkerson JL, Ramos D, Low HK, Bowman F, Evason KJ, Boudina S, Holland WL, Ducker G (2025). Loss of hepatic autophagy induces ¿-cell proliferation through impaired glutamine-dependent gluconeogenesis. Physiological reports, 13(10), e70381.
  26. Levic DS, Niedzwiecki D, Kandakatla A, Karlovich NS, Juneja A, Park J, Stolarchuk C, Adams S, Willer JR, Schaner MR, Lian G, Beasley C, Marjoram L, Flynn AD, Valentine JF, Onken JE, Sheikh SZ, Davis EE, Evason KJ, Garman KS, Bagnat (2024). TNF promoter hypomethylation is associated with mucosal inflammation in IBD and anti-TNF response.
  27. VanSant-Webb C, Low HK, Kuramoto J, Stanley CE, Qiang H, Su A, Ross AN, Cooper CG, Cox JE, Summers SA, Evason KJ, Ducker G (2023). Phospholipid isotope tracing reveals ß-catenin-driven suppression of phosphatidylcholine metabolism in hepatocellular carcinoma. bioRxiv,

Review

  1. Kalasekar SM, Garrido-Laguna I, Evason K (2021). Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Novel Combinations for Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.), 73(6), 2591-2593.
  2. Kalasekar SM, VanSant-Webb CH, Evason K (2021). Intratumor Heterogeneity in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Challenges and Opportunities. Cancers, 13(21),
  3. Kotiyal S, Evason K (2021). Exploring the Interplay of Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase and ß-Catenin in Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Cancers, 13(16),

Letter

  1. Evason KJ, Swanson E (2019). Epithelial Inclusions in Gallbladder May Mimic Parasite Infection. American journal of clinical pathology, 152(3), 399-402.

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