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2019 News
Mon Dec 30, 2019
Two recent articles, one by Jane E. Brody in The New York Times and another by Erin Allday in the San Francisco Chronicle, highlight the problems associated with polypharmacy, the term for taking many different medications daily. Research points to almost 90 percent of Medicare beneficiaries 65...
Thu Dec 26, 2019
Business Wire
Trikafta is so effective that patients can live nearly normal lives while taking the drugs.
At the end of October, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Trikafta, a combination of three drugs that shows immense promise for treating the most common genetic mutation in cystic fibrosis (CF). But the news was bittersweet: Just days before Trikafta was approved, a team of...
Thu Dec 19, 2019
The newly installed artwork can be found on the ninth floor of the UCSF Medical Sciences Building.
A scientific way of thinking, with the patient top of mind. The philosophy that underlies the UCSF doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) degree program curriculum made a visual appearance in December with the installation of wall art on the ninth floor of the UCSF Medical Sciences Building—the hub of PharmD...
Mon Dec 9, 2019
Levi Gadye
PharmD student Kelsey Mott, Class of 2021 (right) looks up prescription insurance coverage information for a patient at the School’s Medicare Part D outreach event on December 3, 2019.
The job of the pharmacist is to make sure patients receive the safest, most effective, and most affordable drugs. Pharmacists are experts not only in medications and how they are managed in patients, but also in private insurance plans, public insurance plans such as Medicare, and insurance details...
Fri Dec 6, 2019
UCSF School of Pharmacy Vice Dean Sharon L. Youmans, PharmD, MPH, has been selected by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) to represent AACP on the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Board of Directors. Her six-year board term begins July 1, 2020.
ACPE is...
Thu Dec 5, 2019
© majedphoto.com and Todd Dubnicoff
Tejal Desai, PhD, and Francis Szoka, PhD
Tejal Desai, PhD, and Francis Szoka, PhD, were named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) on December 3. Both are faculty members in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, a joint department of the UCSF Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine. Desai is also the chair of...
Thu Nov 14, 2019
Class of 2021 PharmD student Susanna Lee gave Dean B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD, his 2019 flu shot.
Dear UCSF School of Pharmacy Family and Friends:
During his sixth State of the University address this past month, Chancellor Sam Hawgood characterized the current age of exponential change as a “dramatic punctuation in the scientific equilibrium” caused by breakthroughs ranging from genomics to...
Thu Nov 7, 2019
The Kidney Project, a national effort to develop an implantable bioartificial kidney that could eliminate the need for dialysis, announced a key milestone in a November 7 presentation at the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week 2019 conference in Washington, DC.
The project team reported...
Thu Nov 7, 2019
Fire was on the mind of Amber Denna the morning of November 8, 2018. Her hometown of Paradise, California, nestled in the foothills above the Central Valley, was one of dozens of towns in the state on high alert for wildfires due to low humidity, warm temperatures, and high winds. Pacific Gas and...
Wed Nov 6, 2019
Jacqueline Fabius (left) and Kwadwo (Kojo) Opoku-Nsiah
This fall, two members of the UCSF School of Pharmacy community earned UCSF Chancellor’s Awards for Diversity, a strong reflection of the School’s commitment to UCSF Pride Values. Jacqueline Fabius was given the Chancellor’s Award for Advancement of Women in the staff category, and Kwadwo (Kojo)...
Wed Nov 6, 2019
Gifts and pledges exceeding $500,000 total from UCSF School of Pharmacy doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) alumni and spouses, coupled with a $500,000 match by the University of California (UC) Office of the President, established the Toby Herfindal Presidential Chair for Entrepreneurship and Innovation...
Fri Nov 1, 2019
Mitra Assemi, PharmD, and Valerie Clinard, PharmD, were recently appointed to associate dean roles in the UCSF School of Pharmacy—Assemi to a newly reconfigured associate dean position and Clinard to a brand new position—both in direct support of the School’s evolving doctor of pharmacy (PharmD)...
Wed Oct 23, 2019
From left, Sabrina Bulla, Jessica Wisniewski, present Dean B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD, with Mayor London Breed’s proclamation, as Susanna Lee, and Joe Li watch.
The job of giving UCSF School of Pharmacy Dean B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD, his annual flu shot fell again this year to the student-run, interprofessional UCSF Flu Crew. The crew also presented Guglielmo with an official proclamation from San Francisco Mayor London Breed naming October 21, 2019...
Mon Oct 21, 2019
Scott H. Takahashi
Lisa Kroon, PharmD, is instrumental in expanding the scope of practice for California pharmacists.
Lisa Kroon, PharmD, was awarded the 2019 Pharmacist of the Year Award, the most prestigious award offered by the California Society of Health System Pharmacists (CSHP), on October 19 in Anaheim.
CSHP annually awards one member who has made significant and sustained contributions to pharmacy...
Wed Oct 16, 2019
Beth Apsel Winger, MD, PhD (left), and Matthew Jacobson, PhD (right) explore a cancer-causing mutation in a protein in virtual reality, using UCSF ChimeraX.
UC San Francisco pediatric oncologist Beth Apsel Winger, MD, PhD, was stumped. A colleague was struggling to successfully treat a young cancer patient. The child’s malignant tumor was tested for genetic anomalies to break the impasse. The test revealed a surprising mutation in an important protein...
Fri Oct 11, 2019
Todd Dubnicoff
Tejal Desai, PhD
Tejal Desai, PhD, joined, in September, the 2019 class of fellows of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE) for her in research in microparticle and nanoparticle engineering. IAMBE fellows are “recognized for their outstanding contributions to the profession of...
Fri Sep 6, 2019
Susan Merrell
Class of 2022 students Drew Dickinson and Ricardo Diaz donned symbolic white coats, marking their passage into the profession of pharmacy.
Members of the UC San Francisco doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) Class of 2022 took a formal step into their new careers on August 30, symbolically donning the white coat of health care professionals and taking the Oath of a Pharmacist at a ceremony in Cole Hall on the UCSF Parnassus campus.
“Today we...
Fri Aug 9, 2019
Left to right: Matt Ravalin, Charles Craik, PhD, and Jason Gestwicki, PhD.
When a muscle or lung cell gets damaged beyond repair, self-destruct enzymes, known as caspases, spring into action, safely dismantling the cell. But in neurons, which are essentially irreplaceable, one of those...
Fri Aug 2, 2019
Levi Gadye
B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD, dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy, addresses the latest PharmD class.
The first hour of the first day of class for UCSF doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students started with a real-life patient interview. The Class of 2022 is the School of Pharmacy’s second cohort to embark on a newly revamped curriculum built on a foundation of critical thinking, one of the essential...
Mon Jul 8, 2019
The UCSF School of Pharmacy received more LivingGreen certifications than any other UC San Francisco unit, taking five out of the 33 certifications on June 26 at the 9th Annual Sustainability Awards held on the Mission Bay campus.
The School’s Dean’s Office received Platinum LivingGreen...
Tue Jul 2, 2019
Angel Ku, PhD, recently earned his graduate degree from UCSF’s Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics program.
Angel Ku, PhD, has no memory of not being an American. Born in Mexico, the 29-year-old spent all but the first 18 months of his life in America. But because he’s undocumented, going to college and graduate school was a struggle.
Today, Ku is a full-time cancer researcher at a Bay Area oncology...
Fri Jun 28, 2019
Cat Sims
Every day, 700 Californians turn to the California Poison Control System (CPCS) for help during potential, or real, exposures to poisons. The “Masters of Poison” cover story of the summer issue of UCSF Magazine takes a look at the system, which is administered by the UCSF...
Mon Jun 24, 2019
As the second class of students in UC San Francisco’s new and evolving doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) degree program arrives on campus this summer, School of Pharmacy faculty members are developing and applying new ways to evaluate and further support the program’s success through an awards program...
Wed Jun 12, 2019
USAID’s “Stronger There, Safer Here” exhibit is on display June 12 to July 31, 2019, on the first floor of Mission Hall at UCSF’s Mission Bay campus.
A curated photography exhibit chronicling the comprehensive response by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to Zika virus outbreaks in Latin America and the Caribbean opened with a reception on June 12 in Mission Hall on the UC San Francisco Mission Bay campus.
Zika...
Fri May 17, 2019
Cynthia Watchmaker, MBA, MEd, was honored May 17 with a UC San Francisco 2019 Chancellor Award for Exceptional University Management. The award recognizes a UCSF career of extraordinary professional performance and management acumen, one that shines as a role model for future generations of...
Wed May 15, 2019
Dear UCSF School of Pharmacy Family and Friends:
At the UCSF School of Pharmacy we don’t just embrace change, we create it. We have a rich history as drivers of change in our profession, in science, and in education. That passion for change, coupled with a scientific mindset, is clearly evident...
Tue May 14, 2019
B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD, dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy, congratulates Peter Nguyen, PharmD, Class of 2019.
On May 3, in front of a crowd of more than one thousand gathered at Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, the 122 members of the UCSF School of Pharmacy graduating class of 2019 received their doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) degrees.
“Out of more than 1,100 applicants, we chose each of you—...
Tue May 14, 2019
Joyce Rifkind (left) and Gary Rifkind, PharmD ’60
Research into adolescent drug abuse, antidepressant medications in the emergency room, and complications from implanted heart pumps took top honors at the Department of Clinical Pharmacy’s 21st annual Spring Research Seminar.
UCSF School of Pharmacy PharmD students, residents, and faculty members...
Thu May 2, 2019
Conan MacDougall, PharmD, MAS, has been selected as the new holder of the Divine Family Endowed Chair in Clinical Pharmacy. The chair was created in 2003 by Philmore G. Divine, a 1945 UCSF pharmacy school graduate, to “support the research, teaching and service activities of the holder of the Chair...
Thu May 2, 2019
Shuvo Roy, PhD, earned an award from KidneyX that will fund the development of an easy-to-use home dialysis system for kidney disease patients.
A team of researchers from UC San Francisco, Vanderbilt University Medical School (VUMC), and Silicon Kidney are among the winners of the “KidneyX: Redesign Dialysis” prize competition for their design of an innovative, implantable hemofilter dialysis system that would enable patients to safely and...
Wed May 1, 2019
Former School of Pharmacy dean Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD ’69, left, chats with current dean B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD, after the morning session on the new doctor of pharmacy curriculum at UCSF Alumni Weekend 2019.
During the first few years of their pharmacy careers, even the most recent UCSF doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) graduates experience plenty of change as new health issues, new medications, and new research insights continually surface, and as the role of the pharmacist continually evolves. UCSF Alumni...
Tue Apr 30, 2019
Susan Merrell
Lisa Kroon, PharmD
In recent years, pharmacists’ scope of practice has increased in many states through new legislation, allowing pharmacists to expand the range of clinical services they can provide patients, particularly in community pharmacy settings. While these changes are a welcome addition to the pharmacist’s...
Fri Apr 19, 2019
Machine learning algorithms can be trained to distinguish wolves from dogs in photographs, but sometimes these algorithms learn incorrectly by assuming that any animal pictured with snow in the background is a wolf (bottom right). Two School scientists argue that scientific applications of machine learning also need to be monitored to ensure they are working properly.
Imagine you’ve just whipped up a computer program that can distinguish dogs from wolves in photographs, using machine learning. The program looks like it works fine, correctly labeling dog for dog, wolf for wolf. But as you test the code over and over, you realize that all of the wolf photos also...
Mon Apr 15, 2019
Betty J. Dong, PharmD ’72, is a world expert on HIV and hepatitis C medication therapy
Betty J. Dong, PharmD ’72, is the recipient of the 2019 Daniel B. Smith Practice Excellence Award from the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) for her trailblazing career in clinical pharmacy and her “superb teaching and on-the-mark clinical guidance around drug therapy” to pharmacy and medical...
Thu Apr 4, 2019
Janel Long-Boyle, PhD, PharmD, has spent her career making chemotherapy safe for young patients.
On her first Christmas Eve, when Janel Long-Boyle, PharmD, PhD, was a few months old, her two-year-old sister, Jenny, took a toddler-sized fall. But within minutes, Jenny was covered in deep bruises. At the hospital, doctors found an elevated white blood cell count under a microscope, a marker of...
Thu Mar 28, 2019
UCSF Precision Medicine
New and established AIMBE fellows (left to right): Shuvo Roy, PhD, Julius Guccione, PhD, Thomas Link, PhD, Tanja Kortemme, PhD, Atul Butte, PhD, and Tejal Desai, PhD.
Two UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty members, Tanja Kortemme, PhD, and Tejal Desai, PhD, were elected into prestigious roles at the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) this month. Kortemme was inducted into the AIMBE College of Fellows, and Desai, who is both a current...
Fri Mar 15, 2019
Glen L. Stimmel has had a distinguished career in pharmacy.
“Challenging the status quo leads to very good things,” said Glen L. Stimmel, PharmD ’72, who has spent a career doing just that. As a motto, it has served him, and his profession, quite well.
Stimmel, the 2019 UCSF Pharmacy Alumni Association Distinguished Alumnus of the Year, has taken his own...
Tue Mar 12, 2019
The UCSF School of Pharmacy 2019 Mary Anne Koda-Kimble Seed Award for Innovation marked its fifth year of funding with a March 5 announcement of award recipients by the School’s dean, B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD. The multiple awards will fund research into neuroscience, cancer treatment, and...
Thu Mar 7, 2019
A team led by Pamela England, PhD, identified a new target (yellow) for future Parkinson’s disease therapies within the Nurr1 protein (blue).
Scientists at UC San Francisco have discovered how a particular protein regulates dopamine production, creating new possibilities for research into Parkinson’s disease, which involves the loss of dopamine-producing neurons.
The new research was partially funded by a Mary Anne Koda-Kimble Seed...
Thu Feb 28, 2019
The Health Innovation Via Engineering (HIVE) program will be led by Tejal Desai, PhD.
UC San Francisco’s already successful research and education program in bioengineering is taking another evolutionary leap forward with the February 15, 2019 announcement of a new initiative being led by Tejal Desai, PhD, chair of the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences (BTS), a...
Wed Feb 27, 2019
Deanna Kroetz, PhD (right) was among dozens of faculty members who contributed to the School of Pharmacy becoming the top recipient of NIH funding among all pharmacy schools in 2018.
The UCSF School of Pharmacy received more research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) than any other pharmacy school in the nation for the 39th year in a row. In total, the School took in $28.9 million in NIH grants in 2018.
As a whole, UC San Francisco was the top public...
Wed Feb 27, 2019
The UCSF Fellowship in Quality of Medical Products will support research into excipients, or inactive ingredients found in pharmaceutical drugs.
A new fellowship offered at UC San Francisco promises to spur research into medicine quality through the study of the pharmacologically inactive ingredients in drugs, known as excipients.
The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) Quality Institute is partnering with UCSF to support the Fellowship in...
Fri Feb 22, 2019
Levi Gadye
Pharmacy student Shafat Selim (right) discusses the complexities of the orphan drug market with School of Pharmacy faculty member Rosa Rodriguez-Monguio, PhD, (left) during a mini-course session.
This January, Susan Miller, PhD, a UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member, and Scott Oakes, MD, a UCSF School of Medicine faculty member, jointly greeted an auditorium of UCSF medical and pharmacy students with a challenge instead of a syllabus: to explore.
The course, called Inquiry Immersion,...
Tue Feb 12, 2019
UC Regents
Jere E. Goyan, PhD, was the longest-serving dean of the School of Pharmacy and commissioner of the FDA.
A $500,000 gift commitment from Linda Lloyd Hart, PharmD—matched by the University of California Office of the President with $500,000—recently established the endowed Jere E. Goyan Presidential Chair for the Advancement of Pharmacy. This is the UCSF School of Pharmacy’s first presidential chair....
Mon Feb 11, 2019
Brian Shoichet, PhD, brought his drug discovery software to an enormous database of small molecules.
Ground-breaking drug discovery work by UCSF School of Pharmacy scientists, who search for drug candidates from stores of small molecules and through computer simulations, continued this week with the announcement of a new virtual library of more than 250 million drug-like compounds for researchers...
Mon Jan 28, 2019
QBI
Jacqueline Kyosiimire-Lugemwa, PhD, was the first recipient of QBI’s Scholarship for Women from Developing Nations in Biosciences.
When Jacqueline Kyosiimire-Lugemwa, PhD, arrived at UC San Francisco in January 2018, she was excited to finally have the tools and the team to analyze reams of data on people infected with HIV, which she had painstakingly collected for years in her home country of Uganda.
But science doesn’t move...
Thu Jan 17, 2019
Susan Merrell
Nadav Ahituv, PhD, right, was able to curb obesity in mice by tweaking two genes involved in controlling appetite.
A recent study by Nadav Ahituv, PhD, showed that obesity caused by a gene mutation could be treated in animal models using a modified version of the CRISPR gene editing system, called CRISPRa. Developed at UC San Francisco, CRISPRa (a for activation) doesn’t cut DNA like its CRISPR forerunner but...
Wed Jan 9, 2019
James Fraser, PhD, developed new ways of doing crystallography over a wide range of temperatures.
James Fraser, PhD, has been appointed to the Bowes Biomedical Investigator Program. Fraser studies the shapes and movements of macromolecules, a category of molecules that includes proteins and carbohydrates. Over the course of his career, he has developed several new tools for creating maps of...
Tue Jan 8, 2019
UCSF
Michael Keiser, PhD, received a Ben Barres Early Career Acceleration Award from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which will support his research into novel therapies for neurodegeneration.
Computational biologist Michael Keiser, PhD, was recently awarded $2.5 million over five years to study neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and speed the development of new drug therapies for these diseases using machine learning.
Keiser is one of 17 investigators to...