UCSF plans to begin construction of the new 289-bed children’s, women’s and cancer hospital complex at Mission Bay this year, says CEO Mark Laret.

In April 2010, personnel aboard the International Space Station plan to carry out an experiment designed by a San Francisco VA Medical Center researcher that will investigate why the immune system’s T cells stop working in the absence of gravity. The experiment has implications for understanding the body’s ability to mount an immune response on earth, as well.

Red Hill Studios, a California-based serious games developer, in partnership with the UCSF School of Nursing, has been awarded two grants totaling $1.1 million from the National Institutes of Health to continue development, production and testing of computer-based physical therapy games for patients with Parkinson’s disease and cerebral palsy.

In light of the economic times, the University of California’s two newest chancellors decided to forgo a formal inauguration opting instead for a low-key celebration last week.

Talk of taxing sugary drinks may spread in light of a new study that connects soft drink consumption with diabetes.

Elazar Harel has been approved by the Regents to serve as vice chancellor for information technology, bringing to UCSF a rare combination of “technical expertise and vision,” says UCSF Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellmann…

After a candid and passionate discussion of recent racial incidents at University of California campuses, UC Regents pledged today to take responsibility for stamping out intolerance. Read the full story on the UC website.

The campus community is invited to join Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellmann and other leaders talk about the progress, challenges and solutions in achieving diversity at UCSF on April 13.

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Jeffrey Bluestone hopes to harness the “creativity, passion and focus of academic research, industry and the clinical communities to transform translational research from a concept to a reality”.