News

Learn about the School of Pharmacy's March 25, 2026 Town Hall and watch the recording.

A study co-authored by professor Jonathan Watanabe, PharmD, MS, PhD, is driving federal changes in how pharmacists nationwide are counted, a shift that would more accurately reflect their increasingly diverse roles.

Rada Savic, PhD, has been awarded a $30.6M grant over five years from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for a cooperative agreement establishing a global consortium of tuberculosis (TB) preclinical and clinical experts to research the most effective treatment and testing options. 

California Poison Control System experts are using National Poison Prevention Week to warn about an especially dangerous hazard hiding in many homes: tiny button batteries found in everyday items.

Researchers at UC San Francisco have discovered that the SRC enzyme appears like a flag on the surface of bladder, colorectal, breast, pancreatic, and probably many other tumor cells.

Professor Zev Gartner, PhD, and fellow scientists have developed a new gel that could advance efforts to grow organs in laboratories by enabling researchers to 3D-print living cells that develop into complex tissue structures.

Su Guo, PhD, professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, is seeking to expand our understanding of the brain to help treat neuropsychiatric disorders.

Professors William DeGrado, PhD, and Tanja Kortemme, PhD, have landed three out of five inaugural awards given by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) that aim to strengthen the bioeconomy by translating advances in AI into real-world biotechnologies that support domestic manufacturing, sustainable materials, and resilient supply chains.

From designing smarter tuberculosis treatments to engineering new therapeutic proteins and decoding the genetic basis of disease, research at the UCSF School of Pharmacy is improving patient care and advancing medicine worldwide.

Jennifer Cocohoba, PharmD ’01, MAS, professor in the school’s Department of Clinical Pharmacy, has been selected to deliver the Last Lecture, an annual tradition in which UCSF students elect one faculty member to answer the question: “If you have but one lecture to give, what would you say?”

Sharon Youmans, PharmD ’85, MPH, executive vice dean and professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy, has been named to the California Pharmacists Association (CPhA) Hall of Fame, while alum and volunteer faculty member Maria Lopez, PharmD ’01, has been selected as CPhA’s 2026 Pharmacist of the Year.

Balyn Zaro, PhD, associate professor in the UCSF School of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, has been named a 2026 Bowes Biomedical Investigator, a highly competitive award that supports scientists pursuing bold, high-impact approaches to biomedical research.  

Having spent nearly 27 years overseeing pharmacy services for John Muir Health before retiring as chief pharmacy officer, Martin Iyoya, PharmD ’83, offers a strategic perspective on how pharmacists have become essential members of health care teams.

Aashish Manglik, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, has been awarded the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in recognition of his transformative work in cellular signaling.

Leaders from the UCSF School of Pharmacy and around the country are working on concrete steps to address pressing workforce challenges and advance the future of pharmacy.

The UCSF School of Pharmacy, through its partnership with Stanford University as the UCSF–Stanford Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (CERSI), convened more than 1,000 leaders from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), academia, and industry for the 7th Annual Innovations in Regulatory Science Summit on Jan. 11, 2026.

UCSF's legacy of global response to HIV continues at the HIV Accessory and Regulatory Complexes (HARC) Center, in based in QBI.

Pharmacogenetics — the use of genetic information to guide medication prescribing decisions — is a foundation of precision medicine, with growing implications for safety, efficacy, and cost savings. At the UCSF School of Pharmacy, Akinyemi Oni-Orisan, PharmD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy, conducts studies to help ensure that pharmacogenetics will benefit broad patient groups equitably.

George Herbert Pennebaker, PharmD '61, shaped the field of pharmacy through his contributions, including helping to create the Medi-Cal drug program and inventing one of the first pharmacy computer systems.

The staff members are being honored for their project-specific contributions during the first half of the 2025-2026 fiscal year.