Rising Stars in Healthcare Innovation

Pengbo Jiang, MD, and Aditi Sharma, MD, were honored at an Oct. 14 luncheon as recipients of the Fall 2026 Rising Stars award, in recognition of their innovative approach to improving care. 

“Each spring and fall, we honor faculty who are advancing discovery, innovating in clinical care and serving our community with distinction — work that reflects our Discover, Teach, Heal mission and strengthens both the School of Medicine and UCI Health,” said Michael J. Stamos, MD, welcoming attendees on Oct. 14 to the final Rising Stars awards luncheon of 2026. 

Stamos, interim vice chancellor of UC Irvine Health Affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, continued: “Today, we’re going to celebrate two exceptional faculty members.” He then introduced 

• Pengbo Jiang, MD, assistant professor of urology, and 
• Aditi Sharma, MD, assistant professor of dermatology. 

Jiang is finding new ways to prevent life-threatening health complications and developing novel tools for improved surgical outcomes, while Sharma is building an innovation ecosystem that turns clinical needs into scalable solutions. 

Pengbo Jiang: Innovation in Preventive and Surgical Care 

“A patient is coming in for a very simple stone procedure and ends up in the ICU … those are the horror stories that we hear,” said Jiang, speaking to the audience gathered at the Rising Stars luncheon. He explained how complications from kidney stone removal, caused by an infection at the surgery site, can quickly lead to life-threatening sepsis. 

As vice chair of innovation and practice transformation in the UC Irvine Department of Urology, Jiang’s vision is simple: “Fewer complications, fewer stones and smaller incisions.” 

Specializing in minimally invasive surgery for complex kidney stone disease, Jiang’s research focuses on a new surgery protocol to prevent infection. His studies have shown, including one recently published in the Journal of Endourology, that delivering antibiotics directly into the kidney during operation eliminates post-operative sepsis in high-risk patients: zero cases among treated patients, compared with 16% of matched controls. 

The work is now the basis of a multicenter University of California study submitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with Jiang as one of two principal investigators. 

He is also exploring how to better prevent kidney stones in the first place using a barely used but readily available tool — a 24-hour urine collection. 

“Physicians look at this as just another pathology report,” said Jiang, “but it’s actually more of a feedback tool for the patient.” He hopes that by better explaining and sharing the data, it will empower patients to see how an abstract instruction, such as “drink more water,” directly impacts their health. 

And when surgery is required, Jiang is working to build faster and safer options that result in smaller incisions. He is a named inventor on three issued U.S. patents: 

• a thermosensitive gel that traps stone fragments while shielding the kidney from laser heat, 
• an electromotive catheter that uses electrical current to drive drugs into the lining of the ureter and renal pelvis, and 
• a modular wireless large-bore vacuum endoscope for clearing stone fragments faster during surgery. 

He has another pending patent for a “bubble access needle” that can cut the radiation dose by 74% and fluoroscopy time by 70%.

“Whenever we have a problem, and we don’t have a tool, let’s try to build it,” he said, reciting the mentality he and his colleagues at UC Irvine share. He thanked his fellowship directors, Ralph V. Clayman, MD, Distinguished Professor of urology, and Jaime Landman, MD, chair of the Department of Urology, for their foundational support. “I am building on what they built,” he said, stressing that the gel patent began in their laboratory, and that the proposed protocol change stems from watching Clayman use an antibiotic for an extreme-risk kidney stone case. 

In addition to his mentors, Jiang also mentioned current residents, fellows and students at UC Irvine, including Harel Sims, Kriselle Madamba, Bruce Gao, Aymon Ali and Ian Ong. “I really want to be giving them those opportunities that were given to me,” he said. “Without all of them, none of this would be possible!”

Aditi Sharma: Building an Innovation Ecosystem 

As Sharma took her place at the podium, a childhood photo appeared on the screen. We then learned that this young girl received her first toolbox at age 5, a gift from her grandfather, who lived down the street in Irvine. 

“I used to follow him around the house, and we would fix everything from lighting to plumbing,” said Sharma. “He instilled in me at a very young age a curiosity for how things work and how to leave anything that you’re working on better than how you found it.” 

That curiosity led Sharma on a long journey across the country and around the world, before circling back to Irvine. 

It started at UC San Diego, where Sharma studied biomedical engineering and gained biotechnology experience at Pfizer and Amgen. She then conducted infectious disease and immunology research at NIH before joining the World Health Organization in Geneva, helping improve access to medical devices in resource-limited settings. As a researcher in India, she addressed antimicrobial resistance, which helped inspire her decision to pursue medicine. 

She returned to the U.S. to attend the Medical College of Virginia, and during medical school, she performed clinical work in Rwanda, deepening her commitment to addressing barriers to care. She then returned to Irvine for a dermatology residency. “UC Irvine taught me the kind of physician that I wanted to be — someone who is curious, an expert in their field, empathetic, kind to their colleagues and kind to their patients,” she said. 

In 2022, after fellowship training in Micrographic Surgery and Dermatologic Oncology at UC San Francisco, Sharma again made Irvine her home. 

“I came back to UCI, that same engineering kid,” she said. So, when Kristen Kelly, MD, chair of dermatology, asked Sharma to help develop a cross-campus collaboration that turns clinical needs into scalable solutions, she was immediately on board. 

Clinicians encounter challenges in patient care every day but often lack the time, connections or infrastructure to develop their ideas into solutions. In 2024, Sharma and Kelly co-founded the Clinical Innovation Incubator to help bridge that gap, creating a pathway for clinicians to bring forward unmet needs and work with collaborators to address them. 

“What building the Clinical Innovation Incubator has meant for me is aligning with the Discover, Teach, Heal tripartite mission,” said Sharma. CII encourages colleagues to continue discovery, teaches clinicians how to be part of the innovation process, and helps change how care is delivered. 

For Sharma, the goal extends beyond any single project: she hopes to build an innovation ecosystem that gives clinicians the resources, relationships and support to turn their firsthand knowledge of patient needs into solutions that can improve care. 

Sharma’s work also extends to clinical operations, medical education and access to care. She serves as director of clinical operations and director of volunteer clinical faculty in the Department of Dermatology, as well as associate program director of the Micrographic Surgery and Dermatologic Oncology Fellowship. She also helped launch Mohs surgery at UC Irvine Health’s Laguna Hills clinic, expanding access to specialized skin cancer care in South Orange County. 

She concluded her presentation by expressing her gratitude for the mentors, colleagues, trainees, patients, friends and family who shaped her journey. “It takes a village,” she said. “I would not be standing here today without key people who have been really the backbone of everything that I do.” She thanked Kelly for pushing her out of her comfort zone, Nimisha Parekh, MD, for opening her to a foray of leadership opportunities at UC Irvine, and Bonnie Lee, MD, for being a great colleague and support. 

“When I was younger, it was about solving the problem in front of me,” said Sharma, “but now it’s about building the people, the programs and the systems that allow others to succeed.” 

Learn more about the Rising Stars program and see previous award recipients. (Photos courtesy of Puma Images.)

 — Shani Murray