Before she thought about becoming a physician, Wen-Yuan “Elena” Hsieh, M.D., learned a lesson that would impact her career in medicine. As she watched her parents serve customers at their Chinese food restaurant in Spain, Dr. Hsieh recognized the value of treating people in ways that went beyond serving a meal.

“I learned that making people feel seen and cared for is just as important as providing a service,” she said. “Medicine feels very similar to that: Patients entrust us with their fears and hopes, and our responsibility is not only to diagnose and treat disease but also to make them feel heard and supported. Hospitals and restaurants are alike in that they both provide comfort and emphasize dignity as part of the service.”

As a pediatric allergist-immunologist, Dr. Hsieh has drawn on that experience as she treats children with everything from common chronic inflammatory conditions to rare genetic disorders.

Dr. Hsieh plans to bring that service-focused and scientific-based perspective to her new role as Chief of the Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology. She joined UT Southwestern in April as Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Immunology, Internal Medicine, and in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development. Previously, Dr. Hsieh was an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine in the Departments of Pediatrics, Immunology, and Microbiology.

Dr. Hsieh, a physician-scientist whose specialty is inborn errors of immunity, earned her medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and completed a residency in pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She then received advanced training in pediatric allergy and immunology through a fellowship at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University.

Throughout her education, Dr. Hsieh said, mentors reinforced that the most meaningful research starts with patients.

“Every rare disease is an opportunity to learn something new about human biology that can ultimately improve care for many more people,” she said. “That intersection of compassion, curiosity, and discovery is what still motivates me every day.”

Although she was drawn to immunology because it is the common thread underlying many diseases, Dr. Hsieh later realized that clinical immunology offered an opportunity to combine caring for children with solving some of medicine’s most challenging diagnostic puzzles.

By bridging rare genetic disorders to more common conditions, her research has advanced the understanding of conditions such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and informed the development of targeted therapeutic strategies. Her research has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health and major foundations, including the Lupus Research Alliance and the Arthritis Foundation.

In her new position, Dr. Hsieh has set a goal of helping transform UT Southwestern into a global leader in precision medicine for immune-mediated diseases.

“I envision building a multidisciplinary center for immune dysregulation that brings together clinical immunologists, basic science immunologists, geneticists, computational biologists, engineers, and data scientists to solve the most challenging problems in atopy, autoimmunity/inflammation, infectious disease, malignancy – all manifestations of inborn errors of immunity,” she said. “Rather than studying diseases in isolation, I want us to understand the immune pathways that unite them and use that knowledge to deliver the right therapy to the right patient at the right time.”

She also wants to build a culture of collaboration and an environment where basic science and data scientists, clinicians, trainees, industry partners, and patient advocates all contribute to discovery and innovation.

“Ultimately, I want every child or adult with an immune-mediated disease to know that we’re not simply trying to manage their illness – we’re working to understand why they became sick and to deliver the right therapy to the right patient at the right time,” she said. “That vision is what motivates me every day, and it’s what I hope to build at UT Southwestern.”