2009 News

Wed Dec 16, 2009
Research directed by senior author James Wells, PhD, chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, UCSF School of Pharmacy, has opened the door to a new way of studying and better understanding the processes of cell death (apoptosis), blood clotting, and other biochemical pathways. Insights...
Tue Dec 15, 2009
A computational method developed in the UCSF School of Pharmacy under the direction of faculty member Brian Shoichet, PhD, has the potential to predict new target diseases for existing drugs as well as unexpected side effects of approved drugs. While the development of a specific drug to affect a...
Fri Dec 11, 2009
The University of California, San Francisco-operated California Poison Control System (CPCS), which had already sent layoff notices to its employees January 15, 2010, has secured funding to rescind the notices and continue to care for Californians, through June 2010, via its free and immediate 24...
Mon Dec 7, 2009
The Scientist has cited a UCSF innovation among its top 10 list of tools to hit the life sciences in 2009. In the spotlight is a paper that reveals how to import plant "light switches" into mammalian cells to control complex regulatory processes. The paper appeared in the October 15, 2009 issue of...
Mon Dec 7, 2009
Helene Levens Lipton, PhD, faculty member in the UCSF School of Pharmacy, presents data in support of including pharmacists in the medical home model of health care. Her editorial appears in the November 23, 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Press Release: Team-Based Care and...
Mon Nov 2, 2009
Takeda San Francisco, Inc., announced September 21, 2009 that it has entered into a sponsored collaboration with UCSF to support antibody-related research in the laboratory of Charles S. Craik, PhD, faculty member in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, UCSF School of Pharmacy. Craik will be...
Fri Oct 16, 2009
UCSF researcher Deanna Kroetz, PhD, discusses the impact of genetic differences on how an individual responds to drugs in a KQED Quest radio interview that aired September 14, 2009. Fellow members of the interview panel were UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, and UCSF breast cancer...
Fri Oct 16, 2009
Breast cancer patients might not be getting full advantage from a genetic screening test for the protein known as HER2 to help determine if the use of trastuzumab (marketed as Herceptin) is the best course of treatment for them. For patients whose breast cancer cells produce excessive amounts of...
Thu Oct 15, 2009
Scientists from the UCSF School of Pharmacy's Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry have been selected to lead a new federal initiative aimed at developing new classes of drugs to target cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), "To advance the NCI's mission of bringing novel...
Wed Oct 14, 2009
UCSF School of Pharmacy researchers and colleagues have successfully created a mathematical model that genetically programs bacteria and causes the bacteria to "trace" images projected onto them in a petri dish. The bacteria sense and display the area of the projection where light meets dark by...
Wed Sep 30, 2009
UCSF School of Pharmacy researcher Lisa Bero, PhD, served with UCSF School of Medicine colleagues Bernard Lo, MD, and Deborah Grady, MD, MPH, on an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee that in spring 2009 published its findings on conflict of interest in medical research, education, and practice...
Fri Sep 18, 2009
Mitra Assemi, PharmD, UCSF School of Pharmacy associate professor of clinical pharmacy, has been named the School's assistant dean of accreditation and quality, effective September 1, 2009. "Mitra has the perfect qualifications for this pivotal position. She understands the complexities of the...
Tue Sep 8, 2009
Donald Kishi, PharmD, UCSF School of Pharmacy health sciences clinical professor of pharmacy, has been named the School's associate dean of student and curricular affairs by Dean Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD. The appointment was effective September 1, 2009. As associate dean, Kishi is responsible...
Thu Sep 3, 2009
UCSF researchers have identified the two key circuits, compared to hundreds as previously thought, that control a cell's ability to adapt to changes in its environment. These circuits are key to a cell's ability to reset itself after responding to a stimulus. Since disruption of the circuitry can...
Tue Aug 18, 2009
A team of scientists from UCSF and colleagues have identified a new potential drug target for the herpes virus that causes Kaposi’s sarcoma. Their research reopens the possibility of using a class of drugs called protease inhibitors, against diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer's Disease. This...
Mon Aug 3, 2009
Dear UCSF School of Pharmacy Family and Friends: Anxiety buffered by conviction is how I describe the mood here at UCSF as we face, with the rest of the nation, an intensely challenging economic period. In spite of the situation, we continue to make tremendous progress toward achieving the School'...
Mon Aug 3, 2009
Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy, shares her life story, passion for clinical pharmacy, and leadership philosophy in this July 29, 2009 video. Watch Voices - Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD: The video formerly available is defunct as of November 27, 2012. You can view a...
Wed Jul 29, 2009
A new medication management service in Fresno, California is now scheduling patient appointments to begin September 1, 2009. The UCSF [Medication Management Service][link defunct], Fresno helps California Central Valley health care providers select the best medications for their patients' needs and...
Wed Jul 29, 2009
Synthetic biologist and UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member Christopher Voigt, PhD, and Jeffrey Tabor, a postdoctoral scholar in Voigt's laboratory, discuss the field and promise of synthetic biology in this July 21, 2009 KQED television segment. Video Video of Decoding Synthetic Biology -...
Mon Jul 13, 2009
Tejal Desai, PhD, UCSF School of Pharmacy and Medicine faculty member, was chosen in January 2009 as a 2009 Emerging Scholar in Physiology by Diverse Issues in Higher Education, which is a news source, founded in 1984, that gathers and shares information to promote the higher education of people of...
Mon Jul 13, 2009
Dorie Apollonio, PhD, UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member and political science and health policy expert, received, with co-authors, the inaugural Best Article prize for 2007-2008 from the journal Regulation & Governance. In their report, the authors test and then counter the widely held...
Mon Jul 13, 2009
UCSF scientists from the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences and UCSF School of Pharmacy Dean Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD, spoke on June 23, 2009 about how their research is aiming to make therapeutics sophisticated, highly effective, and tailored to the different needs of...
Tue Jul 7, 2009
William Soller, PhD, UCSF faculty member and expert on food and drug law and regulations comments on the June 30, 2009 vote of a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee to lower the US maximum over-the-counter dose of acetaminophen and make the current maximum single dose of the...
Tue Jun 30, 2009
Poison experts nationally are tracking the fate of the California Poison Control System, as California state legislators work to pass an already overdue budget. Operation of the System is dependent upon sufficient state funding, the prospects for which remain bleak. Full story Poison Control...
Tue Jun 30, 2009
Layoff notices are predicted by mid-July 2009 for California Poison Control System employees unless adequate funding for the System is both included in a new California state budget and a new budget is soon passed by the state legislature. Full story California Poison Control System Faces Layoffs...
Thu Jun 25, 2009
As California legislators continued to wrangle over the details of a state budget bill, National Public Radio's Kelley Weiss covered the impact of potential cuts on the California Poison Control System. June 24, 2009 Morning Edition guests included Stuart Heard, PharmD, FCSHP, UCSF School of...
Thu Jun 25, 2009
UCSF School of Pharmacy Dean Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD (image left), and Marilyn Speedie, PhD (image right), dean of the College of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota, are advocating for immediate changes in how doctor of pharmacy programs are accredited in the United States. If these changes...
Thu Jun 25, 2009
Candy Tsourounis, PharmD, UCSF School of Pharmacy clinical faculty member and expert on integrative and complementary therapies, was chosen to participate in an international practicum on dietary supplement research. The June 1-5, 2009 course was attended by 80 university faculty members and...
Mon Jun 22, 2009
Thomas Yi, 4th-year student pharmacist in the UCSF School of Pharmacy, was honored by UCSF on June 10, 2009 with one of three Chancellor's Awards for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and/or Transgender Leadership. Yi has been active in eliminating GLBT health disparities, improving GLBT awareness within the...
Mon Jun 22, 2009
Esteban G. Burchard, MD, MPH, was elected in spring 2009 to the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI). Established in 1908, the ASCI is one of the oldest medical honor societies in the US. More than 2,800 physician-scientists from all medical specialties are elected members of the...
Mon Jun 22, 2009
Nancy Hessol, MSPH, UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member, was honored on June 10, 2009 by the City and County of San Francisco with two awards for her service to the San Francisco Public Health Foundation. Hessol received a certificate of honor from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and a...
Tue Jun 2, 2009
A team of scientists, who were led by UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member Frances Brodsky, DPhil, have found in humans a protein responsible for glucose metabolism that is not present in mice. Since mice are often used as models when studying diabetes and other diseases, the often unknown...
Wed May 20, 2009
San Francisco, CA (May 20, 2009)—Funding for poison control services has been completely eliminated from the California state budget. Beginning in September of 2009, California will become the only state in the nation without any emergency poison control services for residents or medical...
Fri May 8, 2009
Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, pioneering cancer researcher and biotechnology industry executive who most recently served as president of product development for the biotechnology company, Genentech, Inc., was named chancellor of UCSF on May 7, 2009 by the University of California Board of...
Fri May 8, 2009
Heather Hertema, third-year UCSF School of Pharmacy student pharmacist, is the 2009 student recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Public Service. The award recognizes members of the UCSF community who have served the public exceptionally well beyond the scope of their normal UCSF job duties,...
Fri May 8, 2009
Ashish Patel, a 4th-year University of California, San Francisco student pharmacist, is one of the next generation of pharmacists choosing to apply his training and expertise globally in new ways. In February 2009, Patel traveled to India to learn about eye health, current health care models and...
Tue May 5, 2009
Research under way at UCSF's Margaret Hart Surbeck Laboratory for Advanced Imaging applies powerful, non-invasive equipment to better understand disease and improve disease treatments. "Our overall focus is to develop new imaging techniques and apply basic engineering to biology- and disease-...
Mon Apr 27, 2009
The UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, which is UCSF's first department administered jointly by two schools, was announced today to the campus community by UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop, MD. "Creation of this joint department was a notable achievement in the history of...
Wed Apr 22, 2009
A chemical precursor molecule of gasoline can be produced from biomass and salt, according to research by UCSF School of Pharmacy's Christopher Voigt, PhD, and UCSF colleagues. In this case, the precursor is methyl halide, and the gasoline derived from it through catalytic conversion is chemically...
Thu Apr 9, 2009
Andrej Sali, PhD, faculty member and vice chair, Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences (BTS), UCSF Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy has been appointed director of the UCSF arm of the University of California's California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), according to a...
Tue Apr 7, 2009
Conan MacDougall, PharmD, UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member, will be honored April 8, 2009 with a 2008 - 2009 UCSF Academic Senate Distinction in Teaching Award. MacDougall will receive the Category 1 award, which is reserved for faculty members who have been at UCSF for five years or less....
Tue Apr 7, 2009
Lisa Bero, PhD, UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member, is the recipient of two inaugural UCSF awards for outstanding mentorship. She is the first recipient of the Harold S. Luft Award for Mentoring in Health Services and Health Policy Research and the 2008-2009 UCSF Academic Senate Distinction in...
Tue Mar 31, 2009
Kathy Giacomini, PhD, and Carl Peck, MD, faculty members in the UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences (BTS), received awards from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT) at the society's annual meeting held in National Harbor, Maryland, USA,...
Thu Mar 5, 2009
The UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty and its UCSF faculty colleagues are being aided by the campus in their requests for funds provided to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The act, which was signed into law by U.S. President Barack Obama...
Mon Mar 2, 2009
Dear UCSF School of Pharmacy Family and Friends: The economic and political changes that have occurred in all of our lives since I last wrote to you are astounding. There is no need to recount here what we are all experiencing in our homes and workplaces. As dean of this School, I am intensely...
Mon Feb 23, 2009
Michael E. Winter, PharmD, professor emeritus of clinical pharmacy, UCSF School of Pharmacy, has been selected as the 2009 recipient of the UCSF Pharmacy Alumni Association's Distinguished Alumnus of the Year award. In announcing the award, UCSF Alumni Association President Cooky Quandt, PharmD,...
Mon Feb 23, 2009
Two new associate dean positions have been created in the UCSF School of Pharmacy to expand the School’s partnerships with industry and extend its work globally. This work now will be coordinated by Daniel Santi, MD, PhD, associate dean of external scientific affairs and Steven Kayser, PharmD,...
Thu Feb 12, 2009
The UCSF School of Pharmacy was a key collaborator in the early January 2009 launch of a course in China that ultimately hopes to contribute to the improved quality and broader acceptance of Chinese pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical exports. Drug developers, academics, and officials from China's...
Mon Feb 9, 2009
Pharmacogenomics research at the UCSF School of Pharmacy extends from a better understanding of information derived from the Human Genome Project to research on specific genetic differences in humans and how they might affect an individual's response to a medication. It covers clinical research...
Thu Jan 15, 2009
In his academic journey at UCSF and nationally as a student pharmacist leader, Ashish Patel, creates lasting connections between his peers and the underserved, while paving the way for greater diversity within the profession. In his wake: a group of 30 UCSF student pharmacists gives back to...