Lawrence Drew, MD, PhD, director of the clinical virology laboratory at UCSF, answered some questions related to an unusual swine flu that has infected and killed people in Mexico.

Countries and policy leaders gain new guidance today on how and when to eliminate malaria, paving the way for the potential global eradication of the deadly disease. The announcement is being made on behalf of the Malaria Elimination Group, a global body of researchers, policy experts and country program managers, by the Global Health Group of UCSF Global Health Sciences.

UCSF faculty members Abul Abbas, Nancy Adler, David Agard and Patrick O’Farrell were recently elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (AAAS).

The UCSF School of Medicine ranks fifth among all medical schools in the nation in a new survey on “America’s Best Graduate Schools” conducted by “U.S. News & World Report.”

UCSF Children's Hospital will present “Tomorrow....A Better Day,” a performance piece based on teens’ experiences with chronic illness and hospitalization. The play is a compilation of writings by current and former teen patients at UCSF, adapted for the stage by teachers and students at the arts-focused Northwest School in Seattle. Healthy teens from the Northwest School will travel to San Francisco to perform the piece, which captures the many facets of how teens experience healthcare, and shows how creativity and artistic expression marshal the healing process.

The Visiting Professor Program at UCSF is described as a national model for research training that promotes the success of scientists conducting innovative research in minority communities in a paper appearing in the April 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

State Senator Mark Leno, whose single-payer plan is moving through the state Legislature, says health care reform is urgent and encourages the campus community to help raise public awareness.