William Ernest Karnes Jr.

Biography

William E. Karnes, Jr., M.D., is Clinical Professor of Medicine and Associate Chief of Gastroenterology at UCI. He received his M.D. from the University of Minnesota and completed a research fellowship in molecular biology at Mayo Clinic. Karnes has spent over three decades studying colorectal neoplasia, with particular focus on early detection and prevention. He has performed over 30,000 colonoscopies and 3,000 capsule endoscopies, maintaining an adenoma detection rate exceeding 45% and a sessile serrated polyp detection rate above 8%.

Karnes has been instrumental in developing artificial intelligence applications for colonoscopy, serving as co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Docbot, Inc. from 2018 to 2023. His work on deep learning for polyp detection, published in Gastroenterology in 2018, demonstrated 96% accuracy in real-time screening colonoscopy. He has extended AI applications to optical pathology, landmark recognition, bowel preparation quantitation, and inflammatory bowel disease scoring. His research has been recognized with multiple Presidential Poster Awards at national gastroenterology meetings and has been featured in numerous media outlets including CBS News and Medscape.

At UCI, Karnes serves as Director of the High Risk Clinic and Director of Endoscopy at the UCI Comprehensive Cancer Center and Lead of the Colorectal Research Group. He has held leadership positions including Interim Chief of Gastroenterology and President of the Orange County Gastroenterology Society. His research has been supported by multiple NIH grants, including R01 and K11 awards, and he has authored over 80 peer-reviewed publications and abstracts. Karnes is a Fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association and is board certified in both internal medicine and gastroenterology.

Education

• B.S. in Biology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1977
• M.D., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1982

Distinctions

• Fellow, American Gastroenterological Association, 2009
• NIH Fellowship Training Grant, 1987-1988, 1990-1992
• SCOPY Award, American College of Gastroenterology, 2017
• Category Award, American College of Gastroenterology, 2018
• Young Scholar Award, World Congress of Gastroenterology, 1994
• Merck Fellowship Training Grant, 1987-1988
• American Federation of Clinical Research Award, 1995
• Summa cum laude, University of Minnesota, 1977
• MHA PACE Star Award, Memorial Medical Center, Modesto, CA, 2003