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Update from the Dean - Fall 2013
By B. Joseph Guglielmo / Fri Nov 1, 2013
Dear UCSF School of Pharmacy Family and Friends:
Observations and actions: First 100 days
Transformation of health sciences research, education, and patient care is taking place at lightning speed. We could easily be pulled along by the current, but that has never been this School’s style. After my appointment as dean, I spent the first 100 days taking stock: analyzing our strengths, evaluating our weaknesses, probing challenges and opportunities that face the School.
With this in mind, I met one-on-one with our faculty members, particularly with my colleagues in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences and the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. (As past chair of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy, I was not as familiar with the work of those in our basic science departments as I was with that of our clinical faculty members.)
My meetings underscored the fact that across the board, the research questions our faculty members are asking—ranging from the actions of molecules to the implications of health policies—are crucial for patients to benefit from therapeutics that precisely detect and treat disease.
Last fall, the faculty participated in an all-day retreat to evaluate the School’s current status and to consider plans for the future. Since that time, I have consulted with the School’s associate deans, students, staff, alumni, campus leaders, and supporters. Just weeks apart, in April and May of this year, I had the opportunity to join in the annual Homecoming festivities and also to preside at graduation—two events that reinforced the many accomplishments of our seasoned graduates as well as the potential of our newest alumni. In October I was privileged to welcome the Class of 2017 to the profession of pharmacy through the White Coat Ceremony.
Since my permanent appointment, I have gained tremendous insight during meetings and retreats with campus leaders:
- As a member of the Chancellor’s Executive Cabinet, I am deeply aware of the issues that face our campus and the entire University of California.
- In collaboration with industry and government leaders, I supported Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann’s vision of precision medicine at a summit held at the Mission Bay campus. This summit was a first step toward harnessing UCSF’s power to individualize therapeutic solutions. (See “UCSF Steps Forward to Lead Advances in Precision Medicine.”)
- I continue as an active member of the Board for the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).
Through my pharmacy practice at UCSF Medical Center, I see firsthand the changing needs of patients within the evolving health care system in the United States, and I witness the power of medical center and School pharmacists to improve patient care by working together as “One UCSF.”
Beyond UCSF, my faculty colleagues and I supported the passage of California Senate Bill 493, which expands the scope of practice of California pharmacists; furthermore, we are actively engaged with other leaders to define how this bill will unfold in practice.
These first several months clarified for me that the UCSF School of Pharmacy must:
- Transform how we prepare our PharmD student pharmacists to lead at the edge of a new frontier.
- Solidify and aggressively support an innovative and comprehensive therapeutics research agenda—from basic science to health policy—like no other in the world.
- Create entirely new ways for patients to benefit from the unique expertise of pharmacists.
These three short aims add up to one very tall order. Only at UCSF, with its singular focus on health, would it be possible to succeed on all three fronts at the same time. The School’s faculty, administrative leaders, and others will gather in January to address these three aims and begin shaping a new future for the School, one that will lead us to a time when precise therapeutics—used safely and effectively—improve the health of people everywhere.
Immediate administrative changes
To advance our plans, and with the strong support of the Dean’s Leadership Group, I made several administrative changes:
Created and filled a vice dean position, centralizing the responsibility for the School’s Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree program.
Sharon L. Youmans, PharmD, MPH, assumed this new role on July 1. Our agenda calls for a vice dean who can help develop both the School’s broad plans and a targeted portfolio that includes education and diversity. As a pharmacist and educator with a deep commitment to pharmacy education and public health, Sharon is fearless in questioning the status quo. She previously served as vice chair of educational affairs in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and as the School’s associate dean of diversity. She will spearhead a transformation of our entire education agenda—in PharmD education and beyond.
Restructured, centralized, and expanded administrative and technical support for education.
We have moved from paper-based to electronic-based management systems for our PharmD program. In addition, we have enabled faculty members to effectively use new technologies in the optimal delivery of their coursework.
Streamlined and clarified the associate dean structure related to education.
The job responsibilities of the associate deans whose portfolios cover education have been reconfigured, and they now report to Vice Dean Youmans. As an integral step toward this reconfiguration, we consulted peers from the Schools of Dentistry and Medicine, another example of strong interprofessional campus collaboration.
Appointed a new chair of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy.
With the unequivocal support of department faculty, I appointed Lisa Kroon, PharmD, as chair, effective July 1. She is a pharmacist and educator as well as a clinical researcher in the fields of diabetes care and tobacco cessation. Lisa previously served as executive vice chair of the department. A strong leader and staunch supporter of clinical and health policy research, she is clear regarding pharmacists’ future roles toward improvement of health.
Department leadership
While administrative changes took root at the School level, the chairs also implemented change:
The shared chairship of the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences (BTS) was reorganized under a single chair, and department leadership was reorganized.
BTS was founded as a joint department of the Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine, with the School of Pharmacy’s Kathy Giacomini, PhD, and the School of Medicine’s Sarah Nelson, PhD, as founding chairs. Now on firm footing, the department has reorganized with Kathy as the single chair. Kathy also created a new leadership group. In December we will celebrate Sarah’s tireless contributions to the success of this unique joint department.
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry Chair James Wells, PhD received a successful stewardship review.
Now five years into his tenure as department chair, Jim has been responsible for a number of high-level faculty recruitments. In addition, as a leader in developing technologies that enable research on campus, he has further strengthened the department’s stature, both nationally and internationally.
The Department of Clinical Pharmacy reorganized its leadership.
Department of Clinical Pharmacy Chair Lisa Kroon, PharmD, has created a new leadership team, initiated formal leadership training for her team, and will soon launch department strategic planning.
My conclusions
My conclusions looking back since I became dean? The need for revolutions in therapeutics research, education, and patient care is clear, and we will lead those revolutions.
Watch the video of Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann’s latest State of the University Address. Her words and spirit beautifully capture UCSF—resolute, collaborative, fearless. “We pride ourselves at UCSF on having a culture in which researchers focus on the most important science, the big risks, and the big ideas—not the conservative ones that we think will get funded,” she said. “And we’re not going to compromise that.”
UCSF recognizes the immense challenges we face today—from funding to health care reform—and then steps up confidently to meet them. As we plan the School’s future, we do so backed by this campuswide resolve. This is a time for bold action and transformative change. I welcome—we all welcome—this change.
Update on School progress and activities
While reorganizing our leadership structure and preparing for the January 2014 all-faculty retreat, we also prepared for the accreditation site visit for our PharmD degree program, hired several new faculty members, received national recognition for our science, and much more, as I present below.
Accreditation review of the PharmD program
The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) examines all U.S. degree programs to ensure excellence in pharmacy education. Our last review, after which our program was reaccredited, took place in 2008; our current review took place in October. Preparations for this assessment were extensive, involving the creation of a detailed study report and the participation of the entire School. The process on our side was ably and flawlessly led by Mitra Assemi, PharmD, our associate dean of assessment and quality improvement.
We will not receive the initial ACPE report until the end of November and the final report until after the first of the year. However, I believe our program was viewed very favorably by the accreditation site team, and I look forward to their recommendations for improvement. These reviews are as refreshing and valuable as they are necessary, allowing us the opportunity to learn from the perspectives of our peers from around the nation.
Recently received research funding
Kathryn Phillips, PhD, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, received a four-year, $2.4-million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to lead the first U.S. study of how physicians and patients evaluate the benefits and risks of whole genome sequencing. (See “Kathryn Phillips leads national study of benefit/risk in emergent whole genome sequencing.”) The project will examine this encyclopedic option in personalized medicine in the general population and in a Harvard-led clinical trial (The MedSeq Project) in which half the enrolled physicians and patients receive “clinically meaningful information” from whole genome sequencing analysis. Kathryn and her colleagues at the UCSF Center for Translational and Policy Research on Personalized Medicine (TRANSPERS Center) will address a wide range of issues, from how patients and physicians assess the significance and usefulness of the test’s myriad potential findings, to what it will mean for our health care system. Potential impact: Answers to questions such as, “When should complete sequencing be recommended by health care providers and covered by insurers?”
Zev Gartner, PhD, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, received a five-year, $1.5-million NIH Director’s New Innovator Award to rapidly and precisely build 3-D human tissues in vitro—among the most structurally complex and detailed to date—for studying basic biology and testing therapeutics. Specifically, Zev plans to build a functional human mammary gland, starting with modular substructures such as the lining of the milk ducts, and working up through a hierarchy of complexity, incorporating the ducts with blood vessels, immune cells, and connective tissues. Potential impact: New insight into how normal human tissues assemble themselves during development, and conversely, how they break down with diseases such as breast cancer.
Adam Abate, PhD, Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, received a five-year, $750,000 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award to develop technology for rapidly determining the genetic makeup of individual cells in samples as large as a million cells. Adam’s technology uses microfluidics to speed processing by breaking open each cell inside a microdroplet of water as it flows through an oil emulsion channel at a rate of about 1,000 droplets per second. This approach also allows researchers to analyze each cell’s transcribed RNA, which reflects which genes are active. Such massively-parallel, ultrahigh-throughput individual cell analysis is vital because, for example, tumor cells are heterogeneous, with some cells expressing genes important for evading the immune system or inducing blood supply for malignant growth. Potential impact: Differentiation of cells’ genetic makeup and activity allows for better understanding of cancer and subsequent targeted therapy.
Recent faculty publications
Researchers in the laboratories of James Wells, PhD, and William DeGrado, PhD, both of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, were authors of a paper in Nature Biotechnology online in August. Jim, Bill, and their teams used protein design and selection to engineer antibodies that bind to proteins to which enzymes have attached phosphate groups, a ubiquitous regulatory modification that goes awry in many diseases, including cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. Potential impact: Such antibodies—generated using in vitro selection methods that are far more rapid and renewable than methods that immunize lab animals—could detect and quantify modified proteins for disease research and diagnosis or be used to monitor therapies.
Esteban González Burchard, MD, MPH, Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, was senior author of the largest study of its kind examining associations between minority infants’ exposure to air pollution and their later development of asthma, the most common chronic disease in American children. Published in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care online in June, the study of 4,320 Latino and African American children with and without asthma from five urban areas in the U.S. and Puerto Rico correlated residential histories with data from local air monitoring stations. Its conclusion: traffic-related pollution exposure in infancy, and specifically to increased levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), was linked with increased risk for subsequent asthma. Potential impact: The findings have significant implications for public policy, since all the participants lived in regions that met the current U.S. federal air quality standard for NO2.
Jaekyu Shin, PharmD, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, was lead author of a study published in Pharmacotherapy online in June that analyzed different formulations of metoprolol, the most widely prescribed oral beta blocker in the U.S., and the associated risk for bradycardia, a serious side effect in which the heart beats too slowly. Jaekyu and his co-authors analyzed more than five years of California’s Medicaid records, involving nearly 32,000 patients, to compare how often patients using either the immediate- or slow-release versions of the drug presented to the emergency room or were hospitalized due to drug-related bradycardia. While the overall risk of the side effect from either formulation was low, those starting on the immediate-release formulation were 50 percent more likely to suffer serious bradycardia. Potential impact: Safer medication decisions for patients prescribed metoprolol.
Research in the public eye
The Incredible Bionic Man
A prototype of the implantable bioartificial kidney being developed in a multi-institution effort led by Shuvo Roy, PhD, Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, was part of “The Incredible Bionic Man,” an exhibit at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in October. The robot, with dozens of synthetic organs, bionic parts, and even a circulatory system, was previously displayed in London’s Science Museum and featured in a documentary broadcast in the U.S. and in England.
- Watch the video: “The Incredible Bionic Man” [link defunct]
- Connect to The Kidney Project on Facebook
Ancestry of asthma
A video produced by the American Museum of Natural History featured the work of Esteban González Burchard, MD, MPH, Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences. The documentary described how Esteban’s lab is using differences in the ancestry of asthma patients to help find genetic variations contributing to the disease. The video was featured in the museum’s Hall of Human Origins, on its web site, and shared with other museums and schools.
- Watch the video: “Genes and Health—Moving Beyond Race”
Honors
Nadav Ahituv, PhD, Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, will receive the Leon I. Goldberg Young Investigator Award and will present a lecture on his research at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT) in March. The award recognizes “preeminent scientists in clinical pharmacology for early and significant career achievements.” Nadav’s lab focuses on the role of regulatory sequences (segments of DNA that do not encode proteins but rather control gene expression), analyzing how they normally function and how variations can lead to differences in drug response as well as to conditions such as limb malformations and epilepsy.
Ryan Hernandez, PhD, Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, was named an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. The prestigious two-year fellowships provide $50,000 in funding and seek “to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise.” Ryan uses computer modeling to learn more about human evolutionary processes and to discover regions of the genome vital to function and underlying disease.
Patient care
Tobacco
Our School has a notable history of leadership in tackling the issues of tobacco control and cessation. This spring we joined the Purdue University College of Pharmacy as the first pharmacy schools in the U.S. to adopt a broadly worded professional practice recommendation aimed at reducing tobacco’s public health burden. (See “UCSF School of Pharmacy adopts broad recommendation on tobacco.”) Approved by the School’s Faculty Council in April and the Dean’s Leadership Group in May, and presented at a full faculty meeting in June, the recommendation opposes the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies and stores that contain pharmacies. It also goes further, endorsing:
- “policies, regulations, and legislation” to reduce tobacco’s public health burden, and
- the “widespread dissemination of evidence-based strategies to prevent the onset of tobacco use, increase tobacco cessation rates, and reduce exposure to second-hand smoke.”
SB 493
In what could be a major step toward transforming pharmacy practice, especially in the community setting, California Governor Jerry Brown signed the pharmacy practice bill (SB 493) into law in October. The bill establishes a board-recognized advanced practice pharmacist who—with specified advanced training and experience and in collaboration with primary care providers—can bring full medication therapy management to bear to improve patient outcomes in the community setting. In addition, the bill allows pharmacists to furnish hormonal contraception, nicotine replacement products, and travel medication, and to order tests related to managing a patient’s medication regimen.
Perhaps the most significant sentence in the 13-page bill declares that “pharmacists are health care providers who have the authority to provide health care services.” This state recognition could allow many more pharmacists to practice to the full extent of their training and education, leading to new practice and payment models. For further discussion of the bill’s implications, read the interview with Marilyn Stebbins, PharmD, vice chair of clinical innovation in our Department of Clinical Pharmacy: “New law could expand role of pharmacists as health care providers.”
New faculty members
In the past nine months we have welcomed four new faculty members.
James Fraser, PhD, joins the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences (BTS). Jamie is a biophysicist whose research focuses on discovering the macromolecular structure and dynamics of proteins, defining conformational states essential for function, and understanding transitions among these states. He earned a PhD in molecular and cellular biology from UC Berkeley, where he studied protein structure and dynamics. Toward the end of his graduate studies he worked at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. He came to UCSF in 2011 as a QB3 fellow in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology. He is an avid squash and basketball player.
Sourav Bandyopadhyay, PhD, also joining BTS, is currently a fellow in the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Sourav is applying integrative systems biology approaches to understand how cellular pathways are organized and reshaped in disease. His major focus is on dissecting components of oncogene addiction (the dependency of certain cancers on a few genes to remain cancerous and thus survive) and to identify new personalized therapies in cancer. Sourav earned a PhD in bioinformatics and systems biology from UC San Diego.
Tiffany Pon, PharmD, joins the Department of Clinical Pharmacy. Tiffany will be based at UC Davis Medical Center where she will provide experiential training for our student pharmacists and support for internal medicine teams. Her research interests include the use of low-molecular-weight heparin in special populations and the reversal of new anticoagulants. Tiffany earned a PharmD degree from Purdue University and completed both a first-year general pharmacy practice residency and a second-year cardiology specialty residency at UC Davis.
Jason Gestwicki, PhD, joins UCSF’s Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and our Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Jason is interested in understanding how and why proteins fold and misfold in a variety of diseases. He is doing spectacular work discovering small molecules that affect “molecular chaperones” involved in neurodegeneration and cancer. He earned a PhD in biochemistry from University of Wisconsin.
New role for Brian Alldredge
Our associate dean of academic affairs, Brian Alldredge, PharmD, was selected by the campus to become UCSF’s new vice provost for academic affairs. (See “Brian Alldredge Named Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at UCSF.”) In this prestigious appointment, Brian now oversees all aspects of faculty and academic affairs. He supports the UCSF chancellor, as well as the executive vice chancellor and provost, in reaching campus goals related to faculty and academics. Brian will continue to hold an academic appointment in our Department of Clinical Pharmacy, working in the Epilepsy Center. This is a wonderful opportunity for an accomplished administrator and colleague, and we wish Brian all the best.
I am pleased to announce that Thomas Kearney, PharmD, DABAT, will assume the role of associate dean of academic affairs beginning winter quarter 2014, replacing Brian. Tom currently serves as chair of the campuswide Committee on Academic Personnel, a position he will relinquish as he becomes associate dean. Tom is a long-time member of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and is the managing director of the San Francisco Division of the California Poison Control System. He will retain his faculty appointment in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy.
Faculty retirements
We thank the following four faculty members who retired since my last Update. Their collegiality and sustained contributions have left a permanent and positive mark on the School.
Judith Alsop, PharmD; William Soller, PhD; and Andrew Leeds, PharmD; all retired from the Department of Clinical Pharmacy. A diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology, Judy served as the long-term director of the Sacramento Division of the California Poison Control System. In that role she also acted as preceptor for many student pharmacists. Bill represented the School on important issues specific to consumers, U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations, health communications, regulatory science, and drug labeling. He was also a popular and skilled mentor to our student pharmacists in the Health Services and Policy Research Pathway of our PharmD program. Andy was instrumental in developing early models of ambulatory care pharmacy practice. He coordinated a number of core PharmD program therapeutics courses and the advanced ambulatory care experiences in San Francisco.
Norman Oppenheimer, PhD, retired from the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Norm leaves a legacy as one of our PharmD student pharmacists’ favorite teachers. He taught pharmaceutical chemistry with a particular focus on anti-infective and anti-cancer drugs. I was fortunate to work closely with Norm for many years, as we taught the fundamentals of pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmacology together, in this case regarding anti-infective agents.
Roger Ketcham remembered
Roger Ketcham, PhD, a beloved professor emeritus, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, died at home on August 18, 2013, at the age of 87. An organic chemist specializing in the synthesis of aromatic compounds, he joined our faculty in 1956. He was adored by generations of students for his generous and caring nature, and he received numerous teaching awards over the course of his career. Roger’s devotion to the School continued well past his retirement in 1991, as he continued to teach for seven more years as a volunteer faculty member. He was a regular attendee of the School’s annual Homecoming celebration, right up until this past year.
An endowed scholarship in his honor was established in the School of Pharmacy by one of his students, Gordon J. Dow, PharmD. (See “Beloved Professor Honored through Endowed Scholarship.”) If you would like to join others in donating to the fund, please note on your check “Roger G. Ketcham Endowed Scholarship” and make the check payable to UCSF Foundation, P.O. Box 45339; San Francisco, CA 94145-0339.
Robert L. Day Collection
This past spring, during our annual Homecoming celebrations, the UCSF Library Archives and Special Collections unveiled the new Robert L. Day Collection, complete with archival material occupying more than 40 linear feet, 45 boxes, and many historic items.
When Bob “retired” in 2012 after serving on recall for years, he completed a 50-plus-year academic career at UCSF as a beloved member of our faculty and the School’s unofficial historian. You can easily enjoy the online items from the Collection, including a large assortment of wonderful photos, documents, and the must-read “Bob Day: An Oral History” (PDF, 245 pages, 749 KB).
Special thanks to our colleague, UCSF Archivist Polina Ilieva, for the skill required to turn this treasure into a usable and searchable asset. And thanks to Oral Historian Martin Meeker of The Bancroft Library, for transcribing Bob’s colorful stories for us all to enjoy. Read these fascinating blog posts for a behind-the-scenes look at the Collection.
From the UCSF Library blog Brought to Light: Stories from UCSF Archives and Special Collections:
- Anatomy of an Archival Project – Introduction
- Anatomy of an Archival Project – Part 1
- Anatomy of an Archival Project – Part 2
- Anatomy of an Archival Project – Part 3
- Anatomy of an Archival Project – Part 4
Multidisciplinary MOOC on diabetes launches at UCSF
On October 28, UCSF launched its fifth massive open online course (MOOC), the first in which the School has the convening role and the first involving faculty members from all the UCSF professional schools. Coordinated by Lisa Kroon, PharmD, and me, the course (Diabetes: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Opportunities) includes discussions about nutrition, pharmacotherapy, behavior modification, patient self-management, and appropriate uses of technologies for the management of diabetes. In addition, it summarizes new basic science research regarding pathophysiology and treatment, some of which is taking place right here at UCSF. At the time of this Update, about 20,000 people from around the world had signed up for the course.
Recent gifts
The $250,000 endowed Dohmen Life Science Scholarship, established recently, honors the memory of Sally Van Doren, PharmD, who completed a pharmacy residency at UCSF in 1986. The scholarship will support a promising UCSF PharmD student pharmacist who is focused on a career within the life science industry or in a non-traditional field.
Sally, who died in 2012, was a renowned drug safety expert and the founder, president, and CEO of BioSoteria, Inc., a pharmacovigilance consulting company, which is now a member of the Dohmen family of companies. She established the Pacific Drug Safety Summit, dedicated to advancing best practices and improving industry standards globally. She published more than 40 articles in the areas of drug safety, safety assessment, risk management, and drug utilization, and she co-authored several clinical studies during her career. Sally was also a devoted instructor, advisor, and community member of both University of Maryland and UCSF pharmacy schools.
PharmD students
GLBT award
Maher Abdel-Sattar, a fourth-year student pharmacist, is one of three recipients of the 2013 Chancellor Award for GLBT Leadership. Maher is an active member of the GLBT community and a champion within our School for including GLBT health topics in the PharmD curriculum. He joined other honorees at the Chancellor Diversity Awards ceremony in October. (See “2013 Diversity Awards Honors Efforts to Build Inclusive Campus.”)
Fireside chats on genomics
In a special series of fireside chats (without the fire), experts from industry and academia have come to UCSF to discuss with our health professional students and PhD science students how genomics will likely affect their careers. Organizing the series is Esteban González Burchard, MD, MPH, and second-year student pharmacist Dor Keyvani.
National honors at P&T competition
Once again, our student team won first place in the Annual Pharmacy and Therapeutics Competition, sponsored by the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Foundation. (See “UCSF Pharmacy Student Team Wins National Competition.”) Student teams are required to research a drug and its efficacy for a patient with a specific disease and also to assess its budget impact on the prescribing hospital or entity. The competition took place in April at the AMCP Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. Congratulations to Tien Ho (Class of 2014), Tiffany Nguyen (Class of 2016), Clint Owens (Class of 2016), and Judy Wu (Class of 2014). Special thanks to faculty member Glenn Yokoyama, PharmD, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, who once again provided the primary mentorship for this successful competition.
PhD students
One of the most exciting developments related to UCSF’s PhD programs is an exceptional gift of $30 million from Sequoia Capital Chairman Sir Michael Moritz, KBE, and his wife, Harriet Heyman. Together with $25 million of UCSF funds and a campus commitment to raise an additional $5 million from at least 500 donors, a new endowment of at least $60 million will ensure the future of doctoral programs in the basic sciences. (See “Michael Moritz, Harriet Heyman Form UC’s Largest Endowed Program for PhD Students.”) The UCSF Discovery Fellows Program will fund UCSF’s basic science PhD programs, which consistently rank among the top biomedical research doctoral programs in the U.S.
New UC President
We welcomed new UC President Janet Napolitano to campus in November. Napolitano took office on September 30 as the 20th president of the University of California and the first female president in UC’s 145-year history. (See “Regents Appoint Janet Napolitano as First Woman UC President.”) She served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and was a two-term governor of Arizona. We look forward to strong collaborations with President Napolitano and the UC Office of the President.
As always, stay tuned.
Yours sincerely,
B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD
Dean
Troy C. Daniels Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences
UCSF School of Pharmacy
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About the School: The UCSF School of Pharmacy aims to solve the most pressing health care problems and strives to ensure that each patient receives the safest, most effective treatments. Our discoveries seed the development of novel therapies, and our researchers consistently lead the nation in NIH funding. The School’s doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) degree program, with its unique emphasis on scientific thinking, prepares students to be critical thinkers and leaders in their field.