News

The school celebrates the contributions of its staff whose work helps advance its mission.

The Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) at the UCSF School of Pharmacy has appointed two nationally recognized leaders in translational science, infectious disease research, and pandemic preparedness to newly created executive leadership roles aimed at scientific and strategic growth.

Surrounded by family, friends, faculty, alumni, and supporters, 129 members of the UCSF School of Pharmacy PharmD Class of 2029 took the stage at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre on July 17, 2026, to receive the white coats that symbolize their entrance into the pharmacy profession.

This first-of-its-kind master’s program is preparing scientists to bridge artificial intelligence and drug development — one real-world project at a time. 

Researchers Jason Sello, PhD, Jarret Weinrich, PhD, and Matthew McCarroll PhD, are working to develop a new generation of anesthetics that are significantly safer and more stable.

Charles Craik, PhD, and his colleague Anthony O’Donoghue, his former postdoc, help as many researchers as they can with a new tool they developed for analyzing enzyme activity. To meet the growing demand, they realized the technology needed a home beyond academia and founded Alaunus Biosciences.

Tony Capra, PhD, first came to UCSF as a postdoctoral fellow, where he learned to apply computational methods to genetics and human evolution. Now a professor in the UCSF School of Pharmacy's Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, Capra develops computational and AI methods to better understand genetic variation, rare disease, and the biology that makes us human.

After years leading infectious disease surveillance and outbreak investigations at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Faisal Minhaj, PharmD, MPH, DABAT, has joined the UCSF School of Pharmacy to lead the California Poison Control System (CPCS), where he sees a unique opportunity to advance public health through research, statewide collaboration, and patient care.

UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley have launched a joint program to develop the frontier of AI and biomedicine to accelerate advances in clinical care. James Fraser, PhD, a professor in the UCSF School of Pharmacy's Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, is among the program's leaders.

Researchers at the UCSF Quantitative Biosciences Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Institut Pasteur, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, report that a single amino-acid change alters how a coronavirus protein interacts with the human and bat immune systems, shifting the body's response to infection.

James Fraser, PhD, Brian Shoichet, PhD, and Balyn Zaro, PhD, have all been selected to join the Collaborative Research Network (CRN), an international consortium supported by Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP) in partnership with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research that aims to better understand Parkinson's disease and speed the development of future treatments. 

Postdoctoral scholars, specialists, and researchers (PSRs) from across the UCSF School of Pharmacy gathered at the Wayne and Gladys Valley Center for Vision on the Mission Bay campus on June 24, 2026, for the third annual PSR Symposium, an inspiring day of scientific exchange, career development, and community building hosted by the Center for Collaborative Innovation (CCI).

Researchers in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry’s Altschuler-Wu Lab have developed a robotic platform capable of tracking and testing thousands of miniature tumors simultaneously, revealing shared weaknesses that could be exploited by future cancer therapies.

Brian Komoto has become an innovative and influential pharmacy leader, growing what began as a four-employee community pharmacy into Komoto Healthcare which employs 180 people across five companies dedicated to helping underserved communities across California.

No single discovery is likely to cure Alzheimer's and related dementias, but Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry Professors Charles Craik and Jason Gestwicki are making progress on multiple fronts, from detecting disease earlier to developing therapies that target the biological processes driving neurodegeneration.

Watch a recording of the June 3, 2026 Town Hall.

A study authored by Jonathan Watanabe, PharmD, MS, PhD, chair of the UCSF Department of Clinical Pharmacy, shows that aligning approval across countries could make it easier for biosimilars to reach the market — and hopefully lower costs for all patients, just like generics.

For many aspiring pharmacists, the path to a PharmD begins with a moment of realization: They need more time, more preparation, or more confidence before taking the next step. For Jay Samson, PharmD ’26, Mariah Foley, PharmD ’21, RPh, and Sara Shaikh, PharmD ’21, that turning point was the UCSF School of Pharmacy’s Post-Baccalaureate Program.

On May 19, the UCSF School of Pharmacy celebrated 118 new pharmacists at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, honoring a class defined by perseverance, leadership, and a commitment to advancing patient care across every corner of the profession.

Scholarships play a vital role in supporting PharmD students, helping to remove financial barriers so students can flourish in their academic journeys and in their professional goals after graduation. See this year's list of scholarship recipients.