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2018 News
Wed Dec 19, 2018
A chest x-ray showing a possible lung cancer tumor (National Cancer Institute)
UC San Francisco scientists recently demonstrated the effectiveness of a combination drug therapy that halts the growth of drug-resistant lung cancer cells in the lab. The finding promises to improve standard treatments for lung cancer, which often lose their effectiveness in patients after less...
Mon Dec 17, 2018
Paul Ortiz de Montellano, PhD, is an expert on P450 enzymes and his latest work looks at their role in tuberculosis infections.
Paul R. Ortiz de Montellano, PhD, has been elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the oldest chemical society in the world. Ortiz de Montellano gained renown for his work with cytochrome P450 enzymes, which help the liver metabolize drugs and other chemicals, and regulate hormone...
Fri Dec 14, 2018
Nevan Krogan, PhD, senior author on the two studies and director of QBI
The Ebola, dengue, and Zika viruses wreak havoc on thousands of communities each year unchecked because there are no effective cures. But researchers from the Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) at UCSF and the Gladstone Institutes may have finally discovered how these viruses infect human...
Tue Nov 20, 2018
Rada Savic, PhD, senior author on the study, presented her team's work on tuberculosis treatments at the 49th Union World Conference on Lung Health in The Hague, The Netherlands, in late October 2018.
Tuberculosis (TB) kills more people each year than any other infectious disease. But the best available treatment requires taking antibiotics daily for six months, a daunting regimen for patients living in developing countries.
Recent findings from the UCSF School of Pharmacy show that millions of...
Thu Nov 15, 2018
UCSF
The 2018 UCSF Medal was awarded to three School of Pharmacy scientists (from left to right): Robert Langridge, PhD; Peter Andrew Kollman, PhD, in memoriam; and Irwin “Tack” Kuntz, PhD.
UC San Francisco was the birthplace of molecular simulation and visualization, two...
Fri Nov 9, 2018
Dear UCSF School of Pharmacy Family and Friends:
The challenges associated with our health care system—and the demands on pharmacists—have never been greater. These include an aging population, critical needs of underserved communities, and a tidal wave of medical advances. However, we see these...
Thu Nov 8, 2018
Johnny Matheny demonstrates how a modular prosthetic limb works during DARPA Demo Day 2016 at the Pentagon, May 11, 2016. Matheny is a test subject with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab.
After Johnny Matheny lost his left arm to cancer in 2008, he was determined to find a worthy replacement. But he eventually had to choose between giving up on available prosthetic arms, which were uncomfortable and caused severe skin problems, or betting on a new technology that hadn’t yet been...
Fri Oct 26, 2018
Vivian Chen
PharmD student Janelle Agustin, Class of 2021, prepares a flu vaccine for School of Pharmacy Dean B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD.
As a busy, 3rd-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) student, Henry Huang, Class of 2020, knows all too well how easy it is to forget to get his flu shot. So this fall, he made sure the dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy didn’t forget his, either. (Ouch!)
October is American Pharmacists Month, as...
Wed Oct 24, 2018
At the induction ceremony (left to right): Ann Poncelet, MD, Director of the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators; Sharon L. Youmans, PharmD, MPH; Catherine Lucey, MD, Executive Vice Dean and Vice Dean for Education, School of Medicine.
Leading the charge for a new curriculum, Vice Dean Sharon L. Youmans, PharmD ’85, MPH, was inducted into the UCSF Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators (AME) on September 26. Youmans, who directs the School’s PharmD program, was key to the School’s recent revamping of the PharmD curriculum,...
Tue Oct 16, 2018
Nevan Krogan, PhD, founded QBI two years ago aiming to build a thriving scientific community at UCSF.
Nevan Krogan, PhD, has studied genes, proteins, and cells for 20 years, but he’d be the first to say he doesn’t have all the answers.
“Earlier this year, we came across a molecular pathway that was hijacked by Zika and dengue fever, leading to each disease, but we lacked any way to block it,”...
Wed Sep 26, 2018
Shuvo Roy, PhD, is trying to make the same type of silicon filter that powers his artificial kidney work in an artificial pancreas.
Inspiration can be a hard thing to find. The history of science is filled with elusive “eureka moments” taking place under unlikely circumstances—Archimedes’ jump in a bath to intuit displacement, Issac Newton’s observation of a falling apple to grasp gravity, and Nikola Tesla’s inspiration for the...
Tue Sep 18, 2018
The Class of 2021T recites the Oath of a Pharmacist after receiving their white coats during the White Coat Ceremony.
“I promise to devote myself to a lifetime of service to others through the profession of pharmacy.” With those words, the 96 students of the UCSF School of Pharmacy’s newest doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) class took the Oath of a Pharmacist and inherited the responsibilities of their profession....
Mon Sep 17, 2018
Kathy Giacomini, PhD, an expert in pharmacogenomic transporter biology and regulatory science, is the 2018 Bill Heller Mentor of the Year Award recipient from the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education (AFPE) for her mentorship of students.
The award recognizes university faculty members...
Fri Aug 31, 2018
Michelle Arkin, PhD, has received the 2018 Breakthrough Science Initiative Award from the Ono Pharma Foundation to study a class of proteins, called 14-3-3 proteins, known to be involved in various cancers, with the ultimate goal of enabling discoveries that lead to new ways to treat cancer.
The...
Tue Aug 21, 2018
Robert D. Gibson, PharmD ’58, wearing his Remington medal at an event in 2010
A beloved educator and alumnus of the UCSF School of Pharmacy, Robert D. Gibson, PharmD ’58, died on July 19 at the age of 93. Gibson had an illustrious career over five decades at UCSF and was a strong national leader for diversity in the pharmacy profession.
“No other UCSF School of Pharmacy...
Tue Aug 21, 2018
Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S., trailing cancer and heart disease. Many of those errors can be traced to issues with medications.
By diligently tracking the medications that each patient takes, and bringing trained pharmacists into the fold of everyday patient care...
Wed Aug 8, 2018
New PharmD students, including Asher Jeong (right), arrive at the UCSF Parnassus campus for the first day of their pharmacy education
A new class of UCSF doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students came together on July 25 at the Parnassus campus to inaugurate a new curriculum built on critical thinking, problem solving, and an inquiry habit of mind.
“You are the most distinguished incoming PharmD students at the most distinguished...
Thu Jul 19, 2018
Cancerous breast tissue, with normal connective tissue (pink) and cancer cells (blue).
Cancer, fundamentally, is a problem of too much growth. For decades, health care providers have tried and failed to slow tumor growth using drugs that interfere with a particular signaling pathway, called PI3K, which is known to operate in proliferating cancer cells.
Recent findings in the...
Wed Jul 18, 2018
If it’s hard to take an accurate census of the 325 million people living in the US, it’s even more daunting to survey the 37.2 trillion or so cells that make up the human body. The brain alone, for instance, contains nearly 90 billion neurons, which can be classified into over a thousand distinct...
Mon Jul 16, 2018
Dear UCSF School of Pharmacy Family and Friends,
School of Pharmacy scientists are pushing back the frontier of disease prevention and treatment. You can read about the trailblazing work of 15 of our faculty members, in five research areas, in the cover story of the summer issue of UCSF...
Wed Jul 11, 2018
Antoine Koehl (Manglik lab)
Study captures an opioid drug (orange) binding to a µ-opioid receptor (green) and activating various signaling proteins (cyan, purple, gold), which produce the effects of opioid drugs, like pain relief and addiction.
Despite using opioids for centuries for pain management, we still don’t have a complete understanding of how drugs like morphine and oxycodone actually work. And that’s a problem for patients, who must weather side effects that can range from nausea and constipation to cognitive impairment,...
Fri Jun 29, 2018
Susan Merrell
Katherine Gruenberg, PharmD, BCPS
Katherine Gruenberg, PharmD ’15, BCPS, a faculty member in the UCSF School of Pharmacy’s Department of Clinical Pharmacy, was awarded the 2018 Sustainability Award in the faculty category by the UCSF Academic Senate Sustainability Committee on June 27, 2018.
Gruenberg works with UCSF internal...
Fri Jun 15, 2018
Levi Gadye
B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD, addressed Half Century Club Luncheon attendees.
For UCSF School of Pharmacy alumni who attended the event, Alumni Weekend 2018 offered a chance to explore how science connects the School’s research, education, and patient care agendas; learn about the lives and professional accomplishments of pharmacy school graduates; and get a glimpse of what’...
Fri Jun 15, 2018
On June 2, 2018, Kathleen B. Kennedy, PharmD ’78, received the 2018 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award from the UCSF Pharmacy Alumni Association, for her “outstanding contributions to the profession of pharmacy, to society, and/or to UCSF.”
As the dean of the College of Pharmacy, Xavier...
Thu Jun 14, 2018
Aashish Manglik, MD, PhD, the newest member of the faculty of the UCSF School of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, was named a Pew Biomedical Scholar on June 14. The award supports early career faculty members who have demonstrated “outstanding promise as contributors in science...
Wed Jun 13, 2018
Brian Stauffer
It’s a long and difficult journey from drug discovery to precise, safe, and effective therapeutics. UCSF School of Pharmacy scientists, across all three departments and in widely divergent fields, are continually questioning the status quo at key points along...
Tue Jun 12, 2018
Ian Seiple, PhD
Ian Seiple, PhD, was named a Beckman Young Investigator on May 29. The award “provides research support to the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments and...
Fri Jun 8, 2018
Joyce Rifkind (left) and Gary Rifkind, PharmD ’60
Studies on the use of tumor DNA analysis in selecting drug therapies, the risk of diabetes resulting from lung transplantation, and pharmacological management of elevated blood potassium, took top honors at the Department of Clinical Pharmacy’s 20th annual Spring Research Seminar.
UCSF School of...
Tue Jun 5, 2018
Conan MacDougall, PharmD ’02, a faculty member in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy, was recently selected for the Emerging Teaching Scholar Award by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Council of Faculties. The award “is designed to recognize excellence of our academic...
Tue May 22, 2018
It begins with a cough that just won’t go away. For more than 27,000 people worldwide, today will be the day they’re diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB). For much of the world population, and especially for those living in poverty in Asia and Africa, a TB diagnosis holds the stark possibility of death...
Fri May 11, 2018
Every day, on average, ten new genetic tests become commercially available to help doctors and patients make more informed decisions about health care. Yet few doctors know how to navigate the tens of thousands of tests that populate the genetic testing marketplace, which prevents patients from...
Thu May 10, 2018
On a sunny day in San Francisco, the 122 members of the UCSF School of Pharmacy graduating class of 2018 received their doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) degrees at commencement, held May 4 at Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall.
“Class of 2018, in the eyes of the staff and faculty, you have been a special...
Mon May 7, 2018
Yiqi Cao, a bioengineering PhD candidate in the UCSF School of Pharmacy, won the second-place prize in the University of California’s Grad Slam finals on May 3. Cao’s talk, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart… Again,” detailed a promising solution she developed for a heart stent that doesn’t trigger scar...
Wed May 2, 2018
Andrej Sali, PhD, associate dean of research in the UCSF School of Pharmacy and a leading expert in the computational modeling of complex molecular and subcellular structures, has been elected as a member of the 2018 class of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
Sali, a faculty member in the...
Tue May 1, 2018
Esteban G. Burchard, MD, MPH, started studying the genetics of lung disease as a medical student in 1990. However, his “aha!” moment came in 1997, when he was investigating the genetic determinants of differences in asthma severity between black and white patients at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s...
Thu Apr 26, 2018
Eleanor Vogt, PhD, RPh, has been named the president of the board of directors for the American Pharmacists Association Foundation (APhAF).
Vogt has had a distinguished career working in clinical pharmacy practice, the pharmaceutical industry, health policy and planning, regulatory affairs, and...
Wed Apr 18, 2018
UCSF
Sourav Bandyopadhyay, PhD, is senior author of the paper.
Chemotherapy is modern medicine’s first line of defense against cancer: chemotherapy drugs kill dividing cells by damaging DNA, preventing tumor cells from multiplying and tumors themselves from growing. To pick which chemotherapy regimens to use, oncologists rely on broad guidelines, based on the...
Mon Apr 16, 2018
Kathy Giacomini, PhD, has been named the 2018 Volwiler Research Achievement Award recipient by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP).
Giacomini was selected by her AACP peers for the award, which honors the recipient’s leading research and outstanding professional contributions....
Thu Apr 5, 2018
Kathleen Kennedy, PharmD ’78
Kathleen B. Kennedy, PharmD ’78, dean of the College of Pharmacy, Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, has been named the 2018 UCSF Pharmacy Alumni Association Distinguished Alumnus of the Year. The award honors alumni who have made “outstanding contributions to the profession of pharmacy...
Wed Apr 4, 2018
Alma Burlingame, PhD, is a faculty member in the UCSF School of Pharmacy and director of the UCSF Mass Spectrometry Facility.
Neurons, the building blocks of the brain and nervous system, use biological wires (axons and dendrites) to send signals to each other. Neurons can also rewire their connections as the nervous system learns and remembers. Most impressively, some neurons can even repair their far-flung axons, which...
Mon Mar 12, 2018
Susan Merrell
Lei Wang (left), PhD, works with postdoctoral researcher Nanxi Wang, PhD.
In 2017, and for the 38th consecutive year, the UCSF School of Pharmacy received more research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) than any other pharmacy school in the nation. The School’s $34,307,790 in funding approximated that of the second- and third-ranked pharmacy schools...
Wed Mar 7, 2018
If DNA is the blueprint for every cell in the body, then proteins are the cell’s construction workers, forklifts, and building materials. However, unlike DNA, which can be readily sequenced, proteins are difficult to sequence and identify, creating a formidable hurdle to understanding how cells...
Thu Mar 1, 2018
Elisabeth Fall
Dear UCSF School of Pharmacy Family and Friends,
When viewed from the perspectives of federal science funding and national rankings, the UCSF School of Pharmacy is a long-time world leader in research, in innovative and high-quality PharmD and PhD education,...
Tue Feb 27, 2018
The UCSF School of Pharmacy 2018 Mary Anne Koda-Kimble Seed Award for Innovation marked its fourth year of funding with the February 26 announcement by Dean B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD, of eight research award recipients. Awardees are from across the School and range from full faculty members to...
Fri Feb 23, 2018
Patricia C. Babbitt, PhD, has been named a Fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB), an honor that recognizes scientists who have “distinguished themselves through outstanding contributions to the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics.”
Founded in 1997, the...
Thu Feb 15, 2018
We last interviewed UCSF School of Pharmacy Vice Dean Sharon L. Youmans, PharmD, MPH, in the summer of 2015, as the School’s faculty was endorsing the blueprint for a new UCSF doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum.
What’s happened in the interim?
Youmans updates us in this conversation with the...
Mon Jan 29, 2018
Cancer is tough to beat because it hijacks the very genes and signaling pathways that control normal tissue growth and cellular function. Any cancer therapy that attempts to beat the disease by targeting these genes and signals inevitably affects healthy tissue.
This week, scientists at the UCSF...
Thu Jan 25, 2018
Susan Merrell
Bo Huang, PhD, at Byers Award Lecture reception
Despite all that we know about DNA, proteins, and cells, it’s still a challenge to visualize the “inner life” of the cell, even with the best of microscopes. How does a cell’s nucleus, spanning just ten microns (millionths of a meter), manage to store a genome that’s two meters long? Or how might...
Thu Jan 4, 2018
Scientists used contractile mesenchymal cells from mouse embryos to power self-folding living tissues.
As an animal develops from an embryo, vast platoons of cells grow, line up, and move around to form the complex shapes of a body—a heart, an ear, a thumb. Scientists have long sought to mimic this choreography to engineer better artificial limbs and organs.
Recent research in the UCSF School of...