On the pilot episode of the PBS series WIRED SCIENCE airing Wednesday, January 3, 2007, host Brian Unger interviews leading stem cell researcher Renee Reijo Pera, PhD, co-director of the UCSF Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Center and associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences.

Scientists are discovering that subtle differences in our genes can affect the way we respond to drugs. Using genetic information to tailor disease prevention and treatment based on people's race and ethnicity is all part of the science of "genomics."

Sales of chewing tobacco are on the rise, and some public health officials are actually advocating it as an alternative to smoking—or at least as a tool to use while quitting smoking. Stanton Glantz, PhD, professor of medicine and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UCSF, and a leading anti-smoking crusader, agrees that smokeless tobacco isn't as deadly as cigarettes, but he doesn't think it's safe to promote any kind of tobacco use.

NPR's Farai Chideya interviews Andre Campbell, MD, a trauma surgeon and chief of the medical staff at San Francisco General Hospital, and professor of surgery at UCSF, about his daily work in SFGH's Emergency Department. Campbell recently was featured in the first of a four-part San Francisco Chronicle series on SFGH.

For the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, the honor of having the first baby of the new year born in San Francisco has gone to a mother who delivered at UCSF Children's Hospital. Six-pound, 13-ounce Elijah Rodolfo Bonilla-Hill came into the world at 2:13 a.m. on New Year's Day. Mother and child are doing well.

Jack Rowe, MD, an expert on health care economics and healthy aging, will speak at UCSF on Thursday, Jan. 11, as the second speaker in the UCSF Chancellor's Health Policy Lecture Series.

The first comparison of the long-term costs of all strategies for treating prostate cancer is presented in the February 1, 2007, issue of Cancer, published online December 21, 2006. Lead author is Leslie S. Wilson, PhD, associate adjunct professor of clinical pharmacy in the School of Pharmacy at UCSF.

Sharice Harrison, a convicted thief and known trespasser on campus property, was arrested on December 21, 2006, after alert staff members at Long Hospital recognized her from an October 30, 2006, crime bulletin and called UCSF Police. This is the second time this month that vigilance from the UCSF community has resulted in the apprehension of a criminal suspect.

Two novel treatments -- a basic compound found in every cell in the body and an extract of green tea -- may prevent brain damage caused from stroke, according to two studies in rats led by a researcher at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

A protein called HIPK2 is essential for the survival of dopamine neurons, the cells lost in Parkinson's disease, according to a study in mice. The results suggest that the molecular pathway in which the protein functions could be a possible new target for therapy, the study authors say.