The University of California, San Francisco has named Sam Hawgood, MBBS, as dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and vice chancellor for medical affairs. The appointment was reported today to the UC Board of Regents. It is effective immediately.

UCSF professor of anatomy Shinya Yamanaka, a scientist at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and Kyoto University, has won the 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for his discovery of a method of reprogramming adult skin cells to become embryonic-like stem cells.

Donald Kishi, a health sciences clinical professor of pharmacy, has been named associate dean of student and curricular affairs in the UCSF School of Pharmacy by Dean Mary Anne Koda-Kimble. Read story on pharmacy school website.

UCSF researchers have identified collections of tiny molecules known as microRNAs that affect distinct processes critical for the progression of cancer. The findings, they say, expand researchers’ understanding of the important regulatory function of microRNAs in tumor biology and point to new directions for future study and potential treatments.

UCSF and the National Association For Continence (NAFC) are holding a public workshop on October 3 to help women understand how they can control and treat incontinence. Even though urinary incontinence can be improved in eight out of 10 cases, fewer than half of those with bladder problems ever talk about the condition with their health care professionals, according to the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research.

Telomeres — which are the DNA repeats that form the tips of chromosomes and are produced by the telomerase enzyme — play a crucial, and curious, role in the life of the cell.

Christopher Jones, director of emergency management at UCSF, will host the first in a series of emergency preparedness town hall meetings today (Sept. 15) at Rock Hall on the Mission Bay campus.

Lord Naren Patel, who led the British government’s recent inquiry into the potential challenges and benefits of genomic medicine, discussed his findings at UCSF on Sept. 10.