Jack S. Resneck Jr., MD, was inaugurated today as the 177th president of the American Medical Association (AMA). Resneck is a dermatologist, professor and vice-chair of the Department of Dermatology at UC San Francisco. Following a year-long term as president-elect of the nation’s premier physician organization, Resneck today assumed the office of AMA president.
As a worldwide shortage of contrast dye for medical imaging continues, a new UC San Francisco research letter in JAMA quantified strategies medical facilities can employ to safely reduce dye use in computed tomography (CT) by up to 83%. CT is the most common use for the dye.
UC San Francisco’s Cardiovascular team is welcoming two highly regarded cardiac surgeons to its renowned program. The specialists will join the newly formed Advanced Heart Failure Comprehensive Care Center (AHF CCC).
Research scientists and statisticians from UC San Francisco have developed improved biomarker classifications as part of their research results in the I-SPY 2 trial for high-risk breast cancer patients. The new cancer response subtypes reflect responsiveness to drug treatments and are intended to help clinicians be more precise in how they target therapies.
Eric Small, MD, has been announced as one of the winners of the 10th annual Giants of Cancer Care® awards. Small is being recognized for his achievements in the clinical practice and research of genitourinary cancers.
Scientists at the UC San Francisco (UCSF) Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) and the QBI Coronavirus Research Group (QCRG) have been awarded $67.5 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to support its mission of pandemic preparedness.
Feminizing chondrolaryngoplasty, also known as “tracheal shave,” is performed through an incision across the front of the neck. Regardless of the incision placement, it can leave undesirable ‘‘mark’’ on the patient. UCSF surgeons have developed and demonstrated the feasibility and clinical efficacy of a novel scarless transoral chondrolaryngoplasty (TOC) procedure.
When the COVID-19 pandemic limited in-person treatment options for cardiac rehabilitation, cardiovascular rehabilitation centers, including UC San Francisco, added virtual and hybrid options. In a study published in the most recent issue of The Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention, UCSF researchers looked at the efficacy of hybrid and virtual delivery of CR. They found that virtual and hybrid CR services produced similar improvements in patient function as in-person CR.
UCSF, in collaboration QLHC and the FDA, has developed the OneSource electronic data capture (EDC) system to seamlessly integrate clinical care and research by streamlining collection and distribution of patient health data for clinical trials. It is currently being deployed in the I-SPY COVID trial and expanding to I-SPY 2.2 trial for breast cancer.
Stephen L. Hauser, MD, Professor of Neurology and Director of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, has been chosen by the American Brain Foundation (ABF) to receive its second annual Scientific Breakthrough Award. Hauser is being honored for his career-long commitment to advancing the understanding of the genetic basis, immune mechanisms and treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS).
Gender-affirming facial surgery (GFS) is pursued by transgender individuals who desire facial features that better reflect their gender identity. Until now, there have been few objective guidelines to justify and facilitate effective surgical decision-making for gender-affirming facial surgery.
In order to validate surgical decisions for GFS, researchers from the UC San Francisco and the University of Calgary set out to quantify the effect of sex on adult facial size and shape through an analysis of three-dimensional (3D) facial surface images.
In a study published online this week in Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetic Medicine, the investigators undertook a surgically oriented analysis of 3D facial size and shape to quantify and visualize facial sex differences. Their findings reveal significant differences in both shape and size of male and female craniofacial features and provide data-driven anatomic guidance and justification for GFS, particularly for forehead contouring cran
UCSF’s Division of Hematology-Oncology is welcoming Krishna Komanduri, MD, as division chief of Hematology-Oncology at UCSF Health. Komanduri is an international leader in the fields of hematology-oncology, transplantation, and cellular immunotherapy. He will start at UCSF on July 1.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a leading cause of sudden death in adolescents and initial detection is often difficult. A new UCSF study finds that Artificial Intelligence-enhanced (AI)-Electrocardiograms (ECG) may help identify the condition in its earliest stages and monitor important disease-related changes over time.
Using data from over 100,000 malignant and non-malignant cells from 15 human brain metastases, UCSF researchers have revealed two functional archetypes of metastatic cells across 7 different types of brain tumors, each containing both immune and non-immune cell types. Their findings, published the February 17 issue of CELL, provide a potential roadmap for metastatic tumor formation that could be used to design therapies to improve the treatment of metastasized patients.
More than one in four older adults have not engaged in planning for end-of-life care or directives, despite significant public efforts to encourage the practice. This is especially true for African Americans, Latinos and those with less education and income, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco.
Researchers at UC San Francisco and the academically affiliated Gladstone Institutes have used a newly developed gene-editing system to find gene mutations that make human immune cells resistant to HIV infection.
A study of patient electronic medical records and genome sequences from adults with age-related hearing impairment by researchers at UC San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente Northern California, identified two genetic variations linked to the hearing disorder.
New research led by UC San Francisco scientists has revealed that mutations in a gene linked with brain development may dispose people to multiple forms of psychiatric disease by changing the way brain cells communicate.
Researchers at UC San Francisco have discovered a previously unknown mass migration of inhibitory neurons into the brain’s frontal cortex during the first few months after birth, revealing a stage of brain development that had previously gone unrecognized. The authors hypothesize that this late-stage migration may play a role in establishing fundamentally human cognitive abilities and that its disruption could underlie a number of neurodevelopmental diseases.
The microbes living in a baby’s gut during its first month of life may directly impact the developing immune system, leading to a higher risk of allergies and asthma later in childhood. The findings highlight the importance of developing early interventions to improve microbial health in young infants.
Preventing cells of beige fat — a calorie-burning tissue that can help to ward off obesity and diabetes — from digesting their own mitochondria traps them in a beneficial, energy-burning state. In mice, this successfully protected against obesity and pre-diabetic symptoms, raising hopes for future applications in human patients.
The number of Americans diagnosed with concussions is growing, most significantly in adolescents, according to researchers at UC San Francisco. They recommend that adolescents be prioritized for ongoing work in concussion education, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
An international team of researchers has developed a new opioid drug candidate that blocks pain without triggering the dangerous side effects of current prescription painkillers. Their secret? Starting from scratch — with computational techniques that let them explore more than four trillion different chemical interactions.
A large international study of metformin, the world’s most commonly used type 2 diabetes drug, reveals genetic differences among patients that may explain why some respond much better to the drug than others.
UCSF researchers that it is possible to generate healthy new liver cells in the livers of living mice by converting the very cells that drive liver disease, thereby reducing liver damage and improving liver function at the same time.
Pregnant women can be protected from malaria, a major cause of prematurity, low birth weight and death in infants in Africa, with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP), an artemisinin combination therapy that is already widely used to treat malaria in adults, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco and in Uganda.
Homeless people in their fifties have more geriatric conditions than those living in homes who are decades older, according to researchers at UC San Francisco who are following 350 people who are homeless and aged 50 and over, in Oakland.
A newly discovered human gene mutation appears to contribute both to unusual sleep patterns and to heightened rates of seasonal depression, according to new research from UC San Francisco.
Researchers at UC San Francisco and Johns Hopkins may have found a new way to diagnose Lyme disease, based on a distinctive gene “signature” they discovered in white blood cells of patients infected with the tick-borne bacteria.
For the first time, an immunosuppressive agent has shown better organ survival in kidney transplant recipients than a calcineurin inhibitor, the current standard of care, according to a worldwide study led by UC San Francisco and Emory University investigators.
A study of 35 families led by a UC San Francisco psychiatric researcher showed for the first time that the structure of the brain circuitry known as the corticolimbic system is more likely to be passed down from mothers to daughters than from mothers to sons or from fathers to children of either gender.
Researchers at UC San Francisco have found that boys and girls with sensory processing disorder (SPD) have altered pathways for brain connectivity when compared to typically developing children, and the difference predicts challenges with auditory and tactile processing.
Documenting that it’s never too late to quit smoking, a large study of breast cancer survivors has found that those who quit smoking after their diagnosis had a 33 percent lower risk of death as a result of breast cancer than those who continued to smoke.
Contrary to current clinical belief, regular caffeine consumption does not lead to extra heartbeats, which, while common, can lead in rare cases to heart- or stroke-related morbidity and mortality, according to UC San Francisco researchers.
Twice as many patients with non-serious injuries, such as fractures or neck strain, are undergoing CT scans in emergency departments at California hospitals, according to a UCSF-led study, which tracked the use of the imaging from 2005 to 2013.
Electronic cigarettes are widely promoted and used to help smokers quit traditional cigarettes, but a new analysis from UC San Francisco found that adult smokers who use e-cigarettes are actually 28 percent less likely to stop smoking cigarettes.
New research by UC San Francisco stem cell biologists has revealed that a DNA-binding protein called Foxd3 acts like a genetic traffic signal, holding that ball of undifferentiated cells in a state of readiness for its great transformation in the third week of development.
Children and young adults with severe forms of epilepsy that does not respond to standard antiepileptic drugs have fewer seizures when treated with purified cannabinoid, according to a multi-center study led by researchers from UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco.
The workings of neural circuits associated with creativity are significantly altered when artists are actively attempting to express emotions, according to a new brain-scanning study of jazz pianists.
Despite Congressional mandates aimed at diversifying clinical research, little has changed in the last 30 years in both the numbers of studies that include minorities and the diversity of scientists being funded, according to a new analysis by researchers at UCSF.
A new study by UC San Francisco scientists shows that the proportion of normal cells, especially immune cells, intermixed with cancerous cells in a given tissue sample may significantly skew the results of genetic analyses and other tests performed both by researchers and by physicians selecting precision therapies.
As health care shifts away from a fee-for-service model as a result of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), health care workers in California will be called upon to develop new skills and fill new roles, according to a study led by UC San Francisco researchers.
In the first U.S. safety trial of a new form of immunotherapy for type 1 diabetes (T1D), led by UC San Francisco scientists and physicians, patients experienced no serious adverse reactions after receiving infusions of as many as 2.6 billion cells that had been specially selected to protect the body’s ability to produce insulin.
It is worthwhile to give patients expensive new drugs that can cure their hepatitis C much earlier than some insurers are now willing to pay for them, according to a UC San Francisco study that models the effects of treating the disease early versus late in its development.
Magic tricks work because they take advantage of the brain’s sensory assumptions, tricking audiences into seeing phantoms or overlooking sleights of hand. Now a team of UC San Francisco researchers has discovered that even brainless single-celled yeast have sensory biases that can be hacked by a carefully engineered illusion, a finding that could be used to develop new approaches to fighting diseases such as cancer.
One in 20 survivors of gunshot violence in an urban area with high crime died within five years, mainly by homicide, according to the results of a study that tracked patients after they had been discharged from the hospital that treated them.
A study that tracked tens of thousands of midlife and older men for more than 20 years has found that vigorous exercise and other healthy lifestyle habits may cut their chances of developing a lethal type of prostate cancer by up to 68 percent.