University of California San Francisco
Consider the lab mouse. The rodent is used to model tumor growth in countless studies of genes and cancer. About 99 percent of mouse genes also appear in humans. Mouse and human also are similar when one compares the DNA code within these genes. Mice get cancer, and they get more cancer when genetically engineered with human cancer-causing genes.
New research published in the scientific journal Nature this week strongly suggests that underappreciated cells of the immune system, called natural killers, play a more important role than previously thought when it comes to fighting viruses that cause chronic disease – including a common herpesvirus called CMV, and perhaps HIV, hepatitis C and many others.
New UCSF Faculty, January 2009
New UCSF Faculty, January 2009
Colon cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, is the nation’s fourth most common cancer in both men and women. Like other forms of cancer, colon cancer has a hereditary component, and individuals who are genetically predisposed to colon cancer have a lifetime risk of at least 80 percent.
The University of California, San Francisco has received a $7.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to address the shortage of healthcare workers in Tanzania. The two-year grant will support a strategic collaboration between UCSF Global Health Sciences and the Muhimbili University of Health Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Tanzania to develop, implement and document strategies to enable MUHAS and other African institutions to meet their countries’ health workforce needs.
Drug design is never easy, and few drug candidates make it through the development pipeline and into the medicine cabinet. Side effects loom large among potential bugaboos. In the Dec. 14 online edition of the leading scientific journal Nature, a UCSF laboratory research team now reports another unintended consequence of drugs targeted against enzymes, known as kinases, within the body.
New UCSF Faculty, January 2009
New UCSF Faculty, January 2009
Starting in January, a UCSF postdoctoral researcher will launch the first-ever study of the effects of prolonged nonuse on human cartilage.
Mark Laret, chief executive officer of UCSF Medical Center, says he is optimistic that even in this difficult economic environment, “we can achieve our financial goal for this fiscal year.”