Anthony Sebastian, MD
July 11, 1938 - October 12, 2018
We are writing with the sad news that Dr. Anthony "Tony" Sebastian passed away at age 80 last Friday after a relatively brief stay in the ICU at UCSF Medical Center. Tony was one of the most remarkable members of UCSF's Nephrology Division.
Despite battling progressive degenerative neurological disease for over half a century—which eventually resulted in him becoming quadriplegic, wheelchair-bound & ventilator-dependent—he was still actively publishing papers & contributing to scholarship until the end. He defined indomitable spirit for many of us who knew him.
Tony obtained his undergraduate degree from UCLA and then completed all his medical training at UCSF Medical School, including a nephrology fellowship from 1968-1972. Among his notable scientific accomplishments, he determined the mechanisms for renal potassium wasting in types 1 and 2 renal tubular acidosis (early work with Curtis Morris); identified a new type of RTA (so-called type 4), it's pathogenesis and treatment (work with Morrie Schambelan); defined the role of mineralocorticoid hormones in potassium and acid-base metabolism (also with Morrie Schambelan); and proposed a renal chloride shunt in the pathogenesis of type 2 pseudohypoaldosternism (with Floyd Rector and Morrie Schambelan).
His more recent work (with Curtis Morris and Lynda Frassetto) focused on the deleterious effects of net acid producing diets on bone metabolism and, in particular, pointed to the role that excess Na & insufficient K intake may play in the pathogenesis of hypertension. His latest first-author
publication was published this month! It proposed a provocative hypothesis arguing that our departure from pre-historic diets has led to multiple deleterious health consequences.
Tony's achievements have been recognized by honors such as the 5th Annual Distinguished Clinical Research Lectureship at UCSF in 2005 (together with Dr. R Curtis Morris, Jr. He and Curtis also received the American Society of Nephrology's Belding Scribner Award in 2002.
Tony is survived by his wife of 54 years, Dr. Patricia Schoenfeld Sebastian, who had been a UCSF Nephrology faculty member for 28 years at San Francisco General Hospital, including serving as Medical Director of the UC Renal Center.
To support to the Patricia and Anthony Sebastian Scholarship Fund at UCSF, go to http://www.makeagift.ucsf.edu, click on the blue box stating "Direct your gift to a specific area" and type in S8037, which will route your gift to the Class of 1965 Sebastian Scholarship.
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