The West Coast's first "Swim Across America" event on Saturday raised $100,000 for the Survivors of Childhood Cancer Program at UCSF Children's Hospital.

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, PhD, 57, Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has been named to receive the 2006 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research.

Although menthol and non-menthol cigarettes appear to be equally harmful to the lungs and cardiovascular system, menthol cigarettes may be harder to quit, according to a UCSF-led study that tracked more than 1,200 smokers over 15 years.

UCSF was the fourth largest recipient of National Institutes of Health research support in 2005, receiving a total of $452.2 million from all awards in the nationally competitive process, according to rankings released by NIH.

The campus community is invited to comment on design guidelines for enhancing the Parnassus Heights campus on Friday, Sept. 29.

UCSF got the green light to pursue plans to build a new hospital complex for children's, women's and cancer services at Mission Bay.

Allen recently returned from a trip to Russia and the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) U-20 Women's World Cup Championship, where she was the team physician for the US women's under-20 soccer team. She traveled with the team for three weeks during the tournament, which took place at stadiums in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Female AIDS researchers from 16 countries gathered this week for the UCSF Conference on Women and AIDS, hosted by UCSF AIDS researcher, Nancy Padian, PhD, MPH, who is teaching these researchers from around the globe how to build a network to control the spread of HIV/AIDS. Dr. Padian is currently researching the diaphragm as an effective HIV prevention method in Zimbabwe with a $40 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.