Summer 2021

Insomnia is miserable, and lost sleep can harm our health. Now, researchers are seeing the promise of solutions in our genes. PLUS: Hidden autoimmunity may explain why COVID makes some people deathly ill but not others, how Norway’s humane approach to prisons can work here too, and six experts grapple with how to address race in medicine without being racist.

About this Issue:

Vol. 10, No. 1
Editorial Team

Download PDF

Features

3-D illustration of a man surrounded by a sphere of immune cells and antibodies, resembling a coronavirus.

Science Summer 2021

Your Immune System Could Turn COVID-19 Deadly

Could hidden autoimmunity explain why the disease makes some people deathly sick but not others?

Photo of a man and woman in bed; the woman is fast asleep and the man eats popcorn, wide awake.

Health Summer 2021

Why Can’t I Sleep?

Photo of Amend director Brie Williams, MD (center), with San Quentin State Prison medical chief Alison Pachynski, MD ’02 (left), and Amend team members Fernando Murillo, Michele Casadei, and Daryl Norcott, JD.

Human Interest Summer 2021

Norway’s Humane Approach to Prisons Can Work Here Too

Collage photo illustration of a photo of a black woman, graph paper, charts and graphs symbols, dna symbol, Rx symbol, pen scribbles, and the anatomy of a human heart.

Health Summer 2021

What’s Wrong (and Right) With Race in Medicine

Health

The Best Treatment for Insomnia Usually Isn’t a Pill

Cognitive behaviorial therapy for insomnia, the gold-standard intervention, also suggests benefits for well-being.

Photo of a tired mother with a newborn baby, reaching for a bottle of milk from the refrigerator at night.

Insights & Voices

Perspectives

Capturing a Pandemic Moment

Bay Area photographer Barbara Ries shares her thoughts on one of her award-winning images of the Navajo Nation.
Mythbuster

Brain Boosters: Can Puzzles and Pills Make Us Sharper?

Games and supplements claim to strengthen memory and cognition. Should you buy them?
Ask the Expert

Uniting the Black Community to Defeat COVID

Kim Rhoads, MD, MPH, founded Umoja Health Partners to unite about 30 community organizations combating COVID-19 in the Bay Area’s Black communities. She shares why the Umoja approach is working.
Ask the Expert

Five Questions for UC’s New President

UCSF alum Michael Drake, MD ’75, weighs in on leadership and what’s ahead for the University of California.
Ask the Expert

How Can We Thwart the Next Pandemic?

Leading scientists share some of the tools and strategies that could help us better confront and contain future outbreaks.
Medical Mystery

The Case of the Recurring Fever

An elderly man had symptoms no one could explain – until Amy Berger, MD, PhD, and her team investigated.

Illustration of Stephen Hoge, UCSF alum and president of Moderna.

Alumni Stories
Summer 2021

Turns Out, Designing a COVID Vaccine Was Easy

The hard part was everything that came next, says Stephen Hoge, MD ’03, president of Moderna.

Books

Infiltrating Healthcare: How Marketing Works Underground to Influence Nurses

UCSF School of Nursing alum Quinn Grundy, PhD ’15, RN, shines a light on how sales reps from pharmaceutical and other health care companies skirt scrutiny, and get their products used in hospitals and doctors’ offices, by forging relationships with nurses.

Videos

TED Talk: “Can We Create Vaccines that Mutate and Spread?”

The viruses that cause polio and COVID-19 mutate, but treatments for the diseases don’t. For over 20 years, UCSF and Gladstone Institutes scientist Leor Weinberger, PhD, has been thinking of ways to make vaccines work more efficiently by being adaptive, rather than static.

Podcasts

“Science is Fun!”

Can dieting help you live longer? Do microbes control your immune system? Can studying snakes help stop the next pandemic? UCSF microbiologist Peter Turnbaugh, PhD, interviews famous scientists and rising stars about research quests that span the spectrum of health.