Meet our fellows

2020 – 2021
ACCELERATOR FELLOW

Ashley Kita, MD

Ashley Kita is an Assistant Professor-In-Residence in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at UCLA Health. Ashley practices Comprehensive Otolaryngology and conducts translational research in point of care diagnostics, topical drug delivery, and contactless patient monitoring. Ashley’s innovation portfolio includes a patented point-of-care diagnostic for cerebrospinal fluid, which was funded by the UCLA Innovation Fund and UCLA Health Innovation Challenge, as well as an NIH R21. Her team is now working to obtain FDA 510(k) approval for the device. Ashley is also interested in prolonged topical drug delivery and the fabrication of drug-eluting scaffolds to protect the inner ear from the toxic effects of cisplatin-based chemotherapy, a project funded by the American Hearing Research Foundation. Ashley completed her MD and residency training at UCLA and earned her BS in Bioengineering from the University of California Berkeley.