Clifford Dacso

Clifford Dacso, MD, MPH, MBA

Professor of Clinical Medicine, Academic Institute
Full Clinical Member, Research Institute
Houston Methodist


Biography

While still in his influenza fellowship at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, Dr. Dacso joined the faculty there in 1978 as an Instructor of Internal Medicine. He received dual appointments there two years later as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, and as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. Dacso later moved to the University of South Alabama where he rose through the academic ranks and eventually became the Chief of both the General Internal Medicine Division and the Infectious Diseases Division, as well as the Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine.

In 1988, Dr. Dacso joined the University of California at San Diego where he served as the Chief of General Medicine and Geriatrics at the VA Medical Center, the Chief Medical Officer for the VA Outpatient Clinic, the Director of the UCSD Internal Medicine Group, and held the appointment of Professor of Medicine.

Dr. Dacso rejoined Baylor in 1992 as the Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs in the Department of Medicine, and the Chief of both General Internal Medicine and International Medicine. He became the Vice Chairman for Strategic Development there in 2000, and assumed his current positions at Houston Methodist and the University of Houston in 2005.

Description of Research

Dr. Dacso's research focuses on the development of novel delivery systems for healthcare in communities, especially medically underserved areas in the U.S. and the developing world. His basic research investigates the cultural and theoretical bases of health care decision making. His applied research program develops non-invasive devices for remote chronic disease monitoring and prediction. Dr. Dacso has developed a device that enables patients with congestive heart failure to accurately track their cardiac output at home. He has developed similar devices to measure blood glucose levels for diabetes, promote self-management in pediatric asthma, promote healthy aging in place, and evaluate exercise thresholds in real-time.

Areas Of Expertise

Healthcare delivery systems Medically underserved communities Global health Non-invasive monitoring Physiological measurements Decision making in health care Technology-enabled aging in place
Education & Training

MPH, The University of Texas School of Public Health
MBA, Pepperdine University
MA, University Of Pennsylvania
Publications

Steroid receptor coactivator 3 is a key modulator of regulatory T cell–mediated tumor evasion
Han, SJ, Jain, P, Gilad, Y, Xia, Y, Sung, N, Park, MJ, Dean, AM, Lanz, RB, Xu, J, Dacso, CC, Lonard, DM & OMalley, BW 2023, , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 120, no. 23, e2221707120, pp. e2221707120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2221707120

A steroid receptor coactivator small molecule “stimulator” attenuates post-stroke ischemic brain injury
McClendon, LK, Garcia, RL, Lazaro, T, Robledo, A, Vasandani, V, Luna, ZAE, Rao, AS, Srivatsan, A, Lonard, DM, Dacso, CC, Kan, P & O’Malley, BW 2022, , Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, vol. 15, 1055295, pp. 1055295. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnmol.2022.1055295

Defining the mammalian coactivation of hepatic 12-h clock and lipid metabolism
Meng, H, Gonzales, NM, Jung, SY, Lu, Y, Putluri, N, Zhu, B, Dacso, CC, Lonard, DM & OMalley, BW 2022, , Cell Reports, vol. 38, no. 10, 110491, pp. 110491. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110491

Oscillations in Biology
Meena, JK & Dacso, CC 2022, . in Realization and Model Reduction of Dynamical Systems: A Festschrift in Honor of the 70th Birthday of Thanos Antoulas. Springer International Publishing, pp. 375-386. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95157-3_20

A steroid receptor coactivator stimulator (MCB-613) attenuates adverse remodeling after myocardial infarction
Mullany, LK, Rohira, AD, Leach, JP, Kim, JH, Monroe, TO, Ortiz, AR, Stork, B, Gaber, MW, Sarkar, P, Sikora, AG, Rosengart, TK, York, B, Song, Y, Dacso, CC, Lonard, DM, Martin, JF & OMalley, BW 2020, , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 117, no. 49, pp. 31353-31364. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2011614117

XBP1 links the 12-hour clock to NAFLD and regulation of membrane fluidity and lipid homeostasis
Meng, H, Gonzales, NM, Lonard, DM, Putluri, N, Zhu, B, Dacso, CC, York, B & O’Malley, BW 2020, , Nature Communications, vol. 11, no. 1, 6215. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20028-z

Lessons on Doctoring from Where There Is No Doctor
Dacso, MM, Just, P & Dacso, CC 2020, , American Journal of Medicine, vol. 133, no. 3, pp. e75-e76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2019.07.020

ß-Adrenergic stimuli and rotating suspension culture enhance conversion of human adipogenic mesenchymal stem cells into highly conductive cardiac progenitors
Islas, JF, Abbasgholizadeh, R, Dacso, C, Potaman, VN, Navran, S, Bond, RA, Iyer, D, Birla, R & Schwartz, RJ 2020, , Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 306-318. https://doi.org/10.1002/term.2994

12-h clock regulation of genetic information flow by XBP1s
Pan, Y, Ballance, H, Meng, H, Gonzalez, N, Kim, SM, Abdurehman, L, York, B, Chen, X, Schnytzer, Y, Levy, O, Dacso, C, McClung, CA, OMalley, BW, Liu, S & Zhu, B 2020, , PLoS biology, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. e3000580. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000580

A novel mathematical method for disclosing oscillations in gene transcription: A comparative study
Antoulas, AC, Zhu, B, Zhang, Q, York, B, O’Malley, BW & Dacso, C 2018, , PLoS ONE, vol. 13, no. 9, e0198503. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198503

Unveiling "Musica Universalis" of the cell: A brief history of biological 12-hour rhythms
Zhu, B, Dacso, C & OMalley, BW 2018, , Journal of the Endocrine Society, vol. 2, no. 7, pp. 727-752. https://doi.org/10.1210/JS.2018-00113

In older men, 5a-reductase inhibitors were linked to increased risk for self-harm and depression but not suicide
Dacso, C 2017, , Annals of Internal Medicine, vol. 167, no. 2, pp. JC9. https://doi.org/10.7326/ACPJC-2017-167-2-009

A Cell-Autonomous Mammalian 12 hr Clock Coordinates Metabolic and Stress Rhythms
Zhu, B, Zhang, Q, Pan, Y, Mace, EM, York, B, Antoulas, AC, Dacso, C & OMalley, BW 2017, , Cell Metabolism, vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 1305-1319.e9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2017.05.004

Coactivator-Dependent Oscillation of Chromatin Accessibility Dictates Circadian Gene Amplitude via REV-ERB Loading
Zhu, B, Gates, LA, Stashi, E, Dasgupta, S, Gonzales, N, Dean, A, Dacso, C, York, B & OMalley, BW 2015, , Molecular Cell, vol. 60, no. 5, pp. 769-783. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2015.10.024

Self-contained diffuse optical imaging system for real-time detection and localization of vascular occlusions
Pollonini, L, Forseth, KJ, Dacso, CC, Parazynski, SE & Friedman, JD 2015, . in 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2015., 7319730, Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS, vol. 2015-November, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. pp. 5884-5887, 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2015, Milan, Italy, 8/25/15. https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC.2015.7319730

SRC-2 orchestrates polygenic inputs for fine-tuning glucose homeostasis
Fleet, T, Zhang, B, Lin, F, Zhu, B, Dasgupta, S, Stashi, E, Tackett, B, Thevananther, S, Rajapakshe, KI, Gonzales, N, Dean, A, Mao, J, Timchenko, N, Malovannaya, A, Qin, J, Coarfa, C, Demayo, F, Dacso, C, Foulds, CE, OMalley, BW & York, B 2015, , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 112, no. 44, pp. E6068-E6077. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1519073112

A multi-layer monitoring system for clinical management of Congestive Heart Failure
Guidi, G, Pollonini, L, Dacso, CC & Iadanza, E 2015, , BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, vol. 15, no. 3, S5. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6947-15-S3-S5

Pulse transit time measured by photoplethysmography improves the accuracy of heart rate as a surrogate measure of cardiac output, stroke volume and oxygen uptake in response to graded exercise
Pollonini, L, Padhye, NS, Re, R, Torricelli, A, Simpson, RJ & Dacso, C 2015, , Physiological Measurement, vol. 36, no. 5, 911, pp. 911-924. https://doi.org/10.1088/0967-3334/36/5/911

Current and Future Challenges in Point-of-Care Technologies: A Paradigm-Shift in Affordable Global Healthcare with Personalized and Preventive Medicine
Dhawan, AP, Heetderks, WJ, Pavel, M, Acharya, S, Akay, M, Mairal, A, Wheeler, B, Dacso, CC, Sunder, T, Lovell, N, Gerber, M, Shah, M, Senthilvel, SG, Wang, MD & Bhargava, B 2015, , IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine, vol. 3, 2800110. https://doi.org/10.1109/JTEHM.2015.2400919

Heart failure patients' perceptions and use of technology to manage disease symptoms
Hall, AK, Dodd, V, Harris, A, McArthur, K, Dacso, C & Colton, LM 2014, , Telemedicine and e-Health, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 324-331. https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2013.0146