University of California, San Francisco
Encyclopedia
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is one of the world's leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. UCSF's medical, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world. The UCSF Medical Center is consistently ranked among the top 10 hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...

. Some of UCSF's most renowned treatment centers include kidney transplant
Kidney transplantation
Kidney transplantation or renal transplantation is the organ transplant of a kidney into a patient with end-stage renal disease. Kidney transplantation is typically classified as deceased-donor or living-donor transplantation depending on the source of the donor organ...

 and liver transplantation
Liver transplantation
Liver transplantation or hepatic transplantation is the replacement of a diseased liver with a healthy liver allograft. The most commonly used technique is orthotopic transplantation, in which the native liver is removed and replaced by the donor organ in the same anatomic location as the original...

, radiology
Radiology
Radiology is a medical specialty that employs the use of imaging to both diagnose and treat disease visualized within the human body. Radiologists use an array of imaging technologies to diagnose or treat diseases...

, neurosurgery
Neurosurgery
Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spine, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system.-In the United States:In...

, neurology
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...

, oncology
Oncology
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with cancer...

, ophthalmology
Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye. An ophthalmologist is a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems...

, gene therapy
Gene therapy
Gene therapy is the insertion, alteration, or removal of genes within an individual's cells and biological tissues to treat disease. It is a technique for correcting defective genes that are responsible for disease development...

, women's health
Women's health
Women's health refers to health issues specific to human female anatomy. These often relate to structures such as female genitalia and breasts or to conditions caused by hormones specific to, or most notable in, females. Women's health issues include menstruation, contraception, maternal health,...

, fetal surgery
Fetal surgery
Fetal surgery is any of a broad range of surgical techniques that are used to treat birth defects in fetuses who are still in the pregnant uterus.* Open fetal surgery involves completely opening the uterus to operate on the fetus....

, pediatrics
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...

, and internal medicine
Internal medicine
Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...

. Further, U.S. New & World Report ranked UCSF’s medical school specialty program in AIDS medical care first in the country. (See mention and reference below under School of Medicine.) Collaborations with African Universities such as the University of Zimbabwe
University of Zimbabwe
The University of Zimbabwe in Harare, is the oldest and largest university in Zimbabwe. It was founded through a special relationship with the University of London and it opened its doors to its first students in 1952. The university has ten faculties offering a wide variety of degree programmes...

 to deal with HIV have been established. UCSF is administered separately from Hastings College of Law
University of California, Hastings College of the Law
University of California, Hastings College of the Law is a public law school in San Francisco, California, located in the Civic Center neighborhood....

, another UC
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

 institution located in San Francisco. In recent years, UCSF and UC Hastings have increased their collaboration, including the formation of the UCSF/Hastings Consortium on Law, Science, and Health Policy.

Founded in 1873, the mission of UCSF is to serve as a "public university dedicated to saving lives and improving health." Though one of the ten campuses of the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

, it is unique for being the only University of California campus dedicated solely to graduate education, and this in health and biomedical sciences. UCSF has developed a reputation for unique interdisciplinary collaboration between the health science disciplines which has led to some of the most important discoveries in the biosciences. The graduate-focused environment of UCSF, its relatively small size, and its culture of collaboration allows for a flexibility to translate new discoveries into new treatments hard to find even at many of the world's other top medical centers.

History

UCSF traces its history to Dr. Hugh H. Toland, a South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

 surgeon who found great success and wealth after moving to San Francisco in 1852. A previous school, the Cooper Medical College of the University of Pacific (founded 1858), entered a period of uncertainty in 1862 when its founder, Dr. Elias Samuel Cooper, died. In 1864, Toland founded a new medical school, Toland Medical College, and the faculty of Cooper Medical College chose to suspend operations and join the new school.

The University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

 was founded in 1868, and by 1870 Toland Medical School began negotiating an affiliation with the new public university. Meanwhile, some faculty of Toland Medical School elected to reopen the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, which would later become Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine is a leading medical school located at Stanford University Medical Center in Stanford, California. Originally based in San Francisco, California as Cooper Medical College, it is the oldest continuously running medical school in the western United States...

. Negotiations between the Toland and the UC were complicated by Toland's demand that the medical school continue to bear his name, which he finally conceded. In March 1873, the trustee
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...

s of Toland Medical College deeded it to the Regents of the University of California
Regents of the University of California
The Regents of the University of California make up the governing board of the University of California. The Board has 26 full members:* The majority are appointed by the Governor of California for 12-year terms....

, and it became "The Medical Department of the University of California."
On September 15, 1874, the school opened its doors to female students.

Campus

UCSF operates four major campus sites within the city of San Francisco and one in Fresno
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...

, as well as numerous other minor sites scattered through San Francisco and the Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

.

Parnassus

Parnassus serves as the main campus and includes numerous research labs, the 600 bed UCSF Medical Center, Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute
Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute
The Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute is part of the Psychiatry Department at UCSF, one of the most highly regarded medical universities in the United States. Langley Porter is the oldest facility in the Psychiatry Department, and was the first psychiatric institute in California.It was...

, and UCSF Children's Hospital. The Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy and the Biomedical Sciences graduate program are also located at Parnassus. It also houses the UCSF neurology outpatient practice that serves as a referral center of most of Northern California and Reno
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...

, Nevada.

UCSF's Beckman Vision Center is also located at the Parnassus campus. It is a center for the diagnosis, treatment and research of all areas of eye care, including vision correction surgery
Eye surgery
Eye surgery, also known as orogolomistician surgery or ocular surgery, is surgery performed on the eye or its adnexa, typically by an ophthalmologist.-Preparation and precautions:...

.

Also located on the Parnassus campus is the UCSF Fetal Treatment Center
University of California, San Francisco Fetal Treatment Center
The Fetal Treatment Center at the University of California, San Francisco is a multidisciplinary care center dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, and long-term follow-up of fetal birth defects. It combines the talents of specialists in pediatric surgery, genetics, obstetrics/perinatology,...

, multidisciplinary care center dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, and long-term follow-up of fetal birth defects.

Mission Bay

UCSF's Mission Bay Campus, also located in San Francisco, is the largest ongoing biomedical construction project in the world. The 43 acres (17.4 ha) Mission Bay campus, opened in 2003 with construction still ongoing, contains additional research space and facilities to foster biotechnology and life sciences companies. It will double the size of UCSF's research enterprise over the next 10 years. The biotechnology company Genentech
Genentech
Genentech Inc., or Genetic Engineering Technology, Inc., is a biotechnology corporation, founded in 1976 by venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert Boyer. Trailing the founding of Cetus by five years, it was an important step in the evolution of the biotechnology industry...

 contributed $50 million toward construction of a building as part of a settlement regarding alleged theft of UCSF technology several decades earlier. Also located on the Mission Bay campus, the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Hall was designed by César Pelli
César Pelli
César Pelli is an Argentine architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects listed Pelli among the ten most influential living American architects...

 and opened in February 2004. The building is named in honor of Arthur Rock
Arthur Rock
Arthur Rock is an American venture capitalist of Silicon Valley, California. He was an early investor in major firms including Intel, Apple Computer, Scientific Data Systems and Teledyne....

 and his wife, who made a $25 million gift to the university. Byers Hall serves as the headquarters for the California Institute for Biomedical Research (QB3), a cooperative effort between the UC campuses at San Francisco, Berkeley, and Santa Cruz. The building is named after venture capitalist Brook Byers
Brook Byers
Brook Byers is a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the brother of Stanford University Professor Tom Byers and Atlanta, Georgia engineering entrepreneur ....

, co-chair of UCSF's capital campaign that concluded in 2005 and raised over $1.6 billion. Additionally, the William J. Rutter Center, designed along with the adjacent 600-space parking structure by Ricardo Legorreta
Ricardo Legorreta
Ricardo Legorreta Vilchis is a Mexican architect. He was born in Mexico City on May 7, 1931. He was awarded the prestigious UIA Gold Medal in 1999 and the Praemium Imperiale in 2011.He studied architecture at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México....

, opened in October 2005 and contains a fitness and recreation center, swimming pools, student services, and conference facilities. The building is named in honor of William J. Rutter, former chairman of the university's Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics and co-founder of Chiron Corporation
Chiron Corporation
Chiron Corporation was a multinational biotechnology firm based in Emeryville, California that was acquired by Novartis International AG on April 20, 2006. It had offices and facilities in eighteen countries on five continents. Chiron's business and research was in three main areas:...

. A housing complex for 750 students and postdoctoral fellows and an 800-space parking garage also opened in late 2005. And a fourth research building, designed by Rafael Viñoly
Rafael Viñoly
Rafael Viñoly is an Uruguayan architect living in the United States.-Biography:He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay to Román Viñoly Barreto, and Maria Beceiro ....

 and named the Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building, opened in June 2009. Two additional research buildings designated for neuroscience and cardiovascular research are currently in the planning and design phase. UCSF is also in the early stages of planning for a new specialty hospital focused on women, children, and cancer to be built at the Mission Bay campus and scheduled to open by the end of 2014.

Other

The Mount Zion campus contains UCSF's NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, its Women's Health Center, the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine
Integrative medicine
Integrative medicine or integrative health is the combination of the practices and methods of alternative medicine with conventional medicine. The term is relatively recent, and is mainly promoted by proponents of alternative therapies in the west...

 and outpatient resources. The San Francisco General Hospital
San Francisco General Hospital
San Francisco General Hospital is the main public hospital in San Francisco, California, and the only Level I Trauma Center serving San Francisco and northern San Mateo County...

 campus cares for the indigent population of San Francisco and contains San Francisco's only Level I trauma center. The hospital itself is owned and operated by the city of San Francisco, but many of its doctors carry UCSF affiliation and maintain research laboratories at the hospital campus. The earliest cases of HIV/AIDS were discovered at SF General Hospital in the 1980s. To this day SF General Hospital has the world's leading HIV/AIDS treatment and research center.

UCSF is also affiliated with the San Francisco VA
United States Department of Veterans Affairs
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is the United States government’s second largest department, after the United States Department of Defense...

 Hospital and the J. David Gladstone Institutes, a private biomedical research entity that has recently moved to a new building adjacent to UCSF's Mission Bay campus. The headquarters of the new California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine was created by California's Proposition 71 , which authorized it to issue $3 billion in grants, funded by bonds, over ten years for embryonic stem cell and other biomedical research. It is claimed to be the world's largest single backer of...

 are also located nearby in the Mission Bay neighborhood.

Academics

University of California, San Francisco is unique in that it performs only biomedical and patient-centered research in its Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...

, Nursing
Nursing
Nursing is a healthcare profession focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from conception to death....

, and Dentistry
Dentistry
Dentistry is the branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body. Dentistry is widely considered...

, and the Graduate Division, and their hundreds of associated laboratories. The university is known for innovation in medical research, public service, and patient care. UCSF's faculty includes four Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

 winners, 31 members of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

, 69 members of the Institute of Medicine
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences...

, and 30 members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...

. UCSF confers a number of degrees, including Master of Science
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...

, Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Pharmacy
Doctor of Pharmacy
A Doctor of Pharmacy is a professional doctorate degree in pharmacy. In some countries, it is a first professional degree, and a prerequisite for licensing to exercise the profession of pharmacist.-Kenya :...

, Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

, Doctor of Dental Surgery
Doctor of Dental Surgery
There are a number of first professional degrees in dentistry offered by schools in various countries around the world. These include the following:* Doctor of Dental Surgery * Doctor of Dental Medicine * Bachelor of Dentistry...

, and Doctor of Physical Therapy
Doctor of Physical Therapy
The Doctor of Physical Therapy or Doctor of Physiotherapy is a post-baccalaureate three-year degree conferred upon successful completion of a professional clinical doctoral level professional or post-professional physical therapist education program for the licensed physical therapist...

 in a variety of fields.

Rankings

In 1995, the National Research Council
United States National Research Council
The National Research Council of the USA is the working arm of the United States National Academies, carrying out most of the studies done in their names.The National Academies include:* National Academy of Sciences...

 ranked UCSF among the top ten schools in the U.S. in the subjects of biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

 and molecular biology
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...

 (1st), genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

 (2nd), cell
Cell biology
Cell biology is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level...

 and developmental biology
Developmental biology
Developmental biology is the study of the process by which organisms grow and develop. Modern developmental biology studies the genetic control of cell growth, differentiation and "morphogenesis", which is the process that gives rise to tissues, organs and anatomy.- Related fields of study...

 (3rd), neuroscience
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...

s (4th), physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...

 (5th), and biomedical engineering
Biomedical engineering
Biomedical Engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology. This field seeks to close the gap between engineering and medicine: It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to improve...

 (7th).

Overall, the campus ranked third in the nation in annual NIH
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...

 funding with $439 million in 2007.

The Academic Ranking of World Universities, published annually by Shanghai Jiaotong University, in 2008 ranks UCSF 3rd in the world for Life and Agricultural Sciences and 2nd in the world for Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy. The professional schools of the University of California, San Francisco are among the top in the nation, according to current (2006) US News and World Report graduate school and other rankings. The schools also rank at or near the top in research funding from the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...

. In addition, the UCSF Medical Center in 2007 was ranked by US News and World Report the 7th-best hospital in the nation, making it the highest-ranked medical center in northern California.

School of Medicine

In 2011, it ranked 5th overall among research-based medical schools by US News and World Report; the highest in the western United States. In rankings of medical schools for primary care, UCSF ranked 5th. It is one of only three medical schools that ranked top 10 in both research and primary care categories, the others being the University of Washington School of Medicine
University of Washington School of Medicine
The University of Washington School of Medicine is a public medical school located in Seattle, Washington.-Overview:UWSOM is a graduate school affiliated with the University of Washington, and is the only medical school in the states of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho...

 and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
The Perelman School of Medicine , formerly the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, was founded in 1765, making it the oldest American medical school. As part of the University of Pennsylvania, it is located in the University City section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is widely...

. In addition, the magazine ranked UCSF in the top 10 in seven of the eight medical school specialty programs assessed, including first in AIDS medical care, second in women's health, and third in internal medicine. The UCSF drug and alcohol abuse specialty ranks fifth nationally in the 2009 survey, while family medicine ranks sixth, pediatrics tenth, and geriatrics ninth.

In 2009, the School of Medicine was the second largest recipient of National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...

 research funds among all US medical schools, receiving awards totaling $417.7 million. This figure rose from 2008 when the School of Medicine received a total of $394.9 million in NIH funds, but was still the second largest recipient.

Biological Sciences, PhD Programs

US News and World Report in 2008 ranked UCSF seventh best overall. In that survey, UCSF ranked third in immunology
Immunology
Immunology is a broad branch of biomedical science that covers the study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. It deals with the physiological functioning of the immune system in states of both health and diseases; malfunctions of the immune system in immunological disorders ; the...

, fourth in biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

/biophysics
Biophysics
Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that uses the methods of physical science to study biological systems. Studies included under the branches of biophysics span all levels of biological organization, from the molecular scale to whole organisms and ecosystems...

/structural biology
Structural biology
Structural biology is a branch of molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics concerned with the molecular structure of biological macromolecules, especially proteins and nucleic acids, how they acquire the structures they have, and how alterations in their structures affect their function...

, cell biology
Cell biology
Cell biology is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level...

, and molecular biology
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...

, sixth in genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

/genomics
Genomics
Genomics is a discipline in genetics concerning the study of the genomes of organisms. The field includes intensive efforts to determine the entire DNA sequence of organisms and fine-scale genetic mapping efforts. The field also includes studies of intragenomic phenomena such as heterosis,...

/bioinformatics
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is the application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine. Bioinformatics deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, software...

 and neuroscience
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...

, and seventh in microbiology
Microbiology
Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters or no cell at all . This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes...

.

School of Nursing

In 2008, US News and World Report ranked the UCSF graduate programs in nursing
Nursing
Nursing is a healthcare profession focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from conception to death....

 as second in the nation. UCSF ranked in the top 10 in all seven of the rated nursing specialties, including first for training adult/medical-surgical nurses and second for its adult nurse practitioner
Nurse practitioner
A Nurse Practitioner is an Advanced practice registered nurse who has completed graduate-level education . Additional APRN roles include the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist s, CNMs, and CNSs...

, family nurse practitioner, and psychiatric
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...

/mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...

 programs. The pediatric nurse practitioner specialty ranked fifth nationally, while the gerontology/geriatrics and nursing service administration programs ranked seventh.

The School of Nursing in 2007 ranked first nationally in total NIH research funds with $13.8 million.

School of Pharmacy

The UCSF School of Pharmacy ranked as the top in the US, according to a 2002 survey published in The Annals of Pharmacotherapy, which weighed key criteria, including funding for research and the frequency of scientific publications by faculty, that are not considered in other rankings.

In 2008, US News and World Report ranked the UCSF School of Pharmacy number one in its "America's Best Graduate Schools" edition.

In 2010, the School of Pharmacy ranked first in NIH research funding among all US pharmacy schools, receiving awards totaling $19.6 million.

School of Dentistry

The School of Dentistry in 2007 ranked first among all dental schools in NIH research funding. It received awards totaling $18.3 million from the NIH.

In 2011, the School of Dentistry ranked first again in NIH research funding, this time receiving $19.5 million.
(sources:
http://report.nih.gov/award/trends/FindOrg.cfm
http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2011/02/9393/ucsf-tops-public-institutions-nih-funding-ranks-third-overall )

UCSF Medical Center

In 2007, US News and World Report named the UCSF Medical Center
UCSF Medical Center
The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center is a world renowned hospital in research and a teaching hospital in San Francisco, California. It is one of the leading hospitals in the United States and with the UCSF School of Medicine has been the site of various breakthroughs in all...

 the seventh-best hospital in the nation, making it the highest-ranked medical center in Northern California. Among pediatric care centers, UCSF Children's Hospital ranked no. 16 – among the highest-rated children's medical service in California.

In the magazine's "America's Best Hospitals" survey, the UCSF Medical Center ranked best in Northern California – as well as among the best in the nation – in the following specialties: endocrinology
Endocrinology
Endocrinology is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions called hormones, the integration of developmental events such as proliferation, growth, and differentiation and the coordination of...

, neurology
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...

/neurosurgery
Neurosurgery
Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spine, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system.-In the United States:In...

; gynecology; cancer; kidney disease; ophthalmology
Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye. An ophthalmologist is a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems...

; respiratory disorders; rheumatology
Rheumatology
Rheumatology is a sub-specialty in internal medicine and pediatrics, devoted to diagnosis and therapy of rheumatic diseases. Clinicians who specialize in rheumatology are called rheumatologists...

; urology
Urology
Urology is the medical and surgical specialty that focuses on the urinary tracts of males and females, and on the reproductive system of males. Medical professionals specializing in the field of urology are called urologists and are trained to diagnose, treat, and manage patients with urological...

; digestive disorders; ear, nose, and throat
Otolaryngology
Otolaryngology or ENT is the branch of medicine and surgery that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ear, nose, throat, and head and neck disorders....

; psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...

; heart
Cardiology
Cardiology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the heart . The field includes diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology...

 and heart surgery; and pediatrics
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...

.

In San Francisco Magazine's 2003 survey of the "Best Doctors" in the Bay Area, 55 percent of those honored were UCSF faculty.

UCSF Radiology and BioMedical Imaging Center

UCSF Radiology research programs were ranked second in 2009 in America.Radiology department is spearheaded by Dr Ronald L. Arenson who is a Alexander R. Margulis Distinguished Professor and also a part of Board of directors of RSNA(Radiological Society of North America
Radiological Society of North America
The Radiological Society of North America, Inc. is a professional membership society committed to excellence in patient care through education and research...

).

Distinctions

  • First to discover that normal cellular genes can be converted to cancer genes (Nobel Prize in Medicine, J. Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus, 1989)
  • First to discover (together with Stanford) the techniques of recombinant DNA, the seminal step in the creation of the biotechnology industry
  • First to discover the precise recombinant DNA techniques that led to the creation of a hepatitis B vaccine
  • First to perform a successful in-utero fetal surgery
    Fetal surgery
    Fetal surgery is any of a broad range of surgical techniques that are used to treat birth defects in fetuses who are still in the pregnant uterus.* Open fetal surgery involves completely opening the uterus to operate on the fetus....

     (Michael R. Harrison
    Michael R. Harrison
    Michael R. Harrison, M.D. served as division chief in Pediatric Surgery at the Children’s Hospital at the University of California, San Francisco for over 20 years, where he established the first Fetal Treatment Center in the U.S...

    )
  • First to clone an insulin gene into bacteria, leading to the mass production of recombinant human insulin to treat diabetes
  • First to synthesize human growth hormone and clone into bacteria, setting the stage for genetically engineered human growth hormone
  • First to develop prenatal tests for sickle cell anemia and thalassemia
  • First to train pharmacists as drug therapy specialists
  • First to establish special care units for AIDS patients and among the first to identify HIV as the causative agent of the disease
  • First to discover prion
    Prion
    A prion is an infectious agent composed of protein in a misfolded form. This is in contrast to all other known infectious agents which must contain nucleic acids . The word prion, coined in 1982 by Stanley B. Prusiner, is a portmanteau derived from the words protein and infection...

    s, a unique type of infectious agent responsible for a variety of neurodegenerative diseases (Nobel Prize in Medicine, Stanley B. Prusiner
    Stanley B. Prusiner
    Stanley Ben Prusiner is an American neurologist and biochemist. Currently the director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at University of California, San Francisco . Prusiner discovered prions, a class of infectious self-reproducing pathogens primarily or solely composed of protein...

    , 1997)
  • First to develop catheter ablation therapy for tachycardia, which cures "racing" hearts without surgery
  • First university west of the Mississippi to offer a doctoral degree in nursing
  • First to discover that missing pulmonary surfactant
    Pulmonary surfactant
    Pulmonary surfactant is a surface-active lipoprotein complex formed by type II alveolar cells. The proteins and lipids that surfactant comprises have both a hydrophilic region and a hydrophobic region...

    s are the culprit in the death of newborns with respiratory distress syndrome
    Infant respiratory distress syndrome
    Infant respiratory distress syndrome , also called neonatal respiratory distress syndrome or respiratory distress syndrome of newborn, previously called hyaline membrane disease, is a syndrome in premature infants caused by developmental insufficiency of surfactant production and structural...

    ; first to develop a synthetic substitute for it, reducing infant death rates significantly
  • With a work force of 18,600 people and annual economic impact of $2 billion, UCSF is San Francisco's second largest employer
  • UCSF has its own fully functional police department, which carries out policing duties for its two major campuses as well as all satellite sites within the city and in South San Francisco.
  • UCSF is home to the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library
    Legacy Tobacco Documents Library
    The Legacy Tobacco Documents Library is a digital archive of tobacco industry documents, funded by the American Legacy Foundation and created and maintained by the University of California, San Francisco...

    , an internationally recognized digital library of previously-secret internal tobacco industry documents. The Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (LTDL) contains more than 11 million documents created by major tobacco companies related to their advertising, manufacturing, marketing, sales, and scientific research activities.

Noted alumni/faculty

  • Shuvo Roy
    Shuvo Roy
    Shuvo Roy is a Bangladeshi American scientist and inventor of artificial kidney. -Education:* BS : Graduated Magna Cum Laude, with General Honors for triple majors in Physics, Mathematics , and Computer Science, University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio, 1992.* MS : Electrical Engineering and...

    , Inventor of Artificial kidney
    Artificial kidney
    Artificial kidney is often a synonym for hemodialysis, but may also, more generally, refer to renal replacement therapies that are in use and/or in development...

  • Andy Baldwin – bachelor for the tenth season of The Bachelor
  • J. Michael Bishop
    J. Michael Bishop
    -External links:**...

     – former UCSF Chancellor. Nobel
    Nobel Prize
    The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

     laureate in Medicine (1989), worked to discover the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes
  • Elizabeth Blackburn
    Elizabeth Blackburn
    Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, AC, FRS is an Australian-born American biological researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies the telomere, a structure at the end of chromosomes that protects the chromosome. Blackburn co-discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the...

    , professor of biology and physiology at UCSF, Nobel
    Nobel Prize
    The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

     laureate in Medicine (2009), discoverer of the ribonucleoprotein
    Ribonucleoprotein
    Ribonucleoprotein is a nucleoprotein that contains RNA, i.e. it is an association that combines ribonucleic acid and protein together. A few known examples include the ribosome, the enzyme telomerase, vault ribonucleoproteins, and small nuclear RNPs , which are implicated in pre-mRNA splicing and...

     enzyme
    Enzyme
    Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...

    , telomerase
    Telomerase
    Telomerase is an enzyme that adds DNA sequence repeats to the 3' end of DNA strands in the telomere regions, which are found at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. This region of repeated nucleotide called telomeres contains non-coding DNA material and prevents constant loss of important DNA from...

    . Appointed a member of the President's Council on Bioethics in 2001 and fired in February 2004, reportedly for her public disagreements and political differences with Council chair Leon Kass
    Leon Kass
    Leon Richard Kass is an American physician, scientist, educator, and public intellectual, best known as proponent of liberal education via the "Great Books," as an opponent of human cloning and euthanasia, as a critic of certain areas of technological progress and embryo research, and for his...

     and the Bush Administration, particularly on the issue of therapeutic cloning.
  • Richard Carmona
    Richard Carmona
    Richard Henry Carmona is an American physician, public health administrator, and politician. He was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the seventeenth Surgeon General of the United States. Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002, Carmona left office...

     – former Surgeon General of the United States
    Surgeon General of the United States
    The Surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government...

  • John Clements, first to isolate surfactant
    Pulmonary surfactant
    Pulmonary surfactant is a surface-active lipoprotein complex formed by type II alveolar cells. The proteins and lipids that surfactant comprises have both a hydrophilic region and a hydrophobic region...

     and to develop it artificially
  • Haile T. Debas, former UCSF Chancellor; former Dean, School of Medicine; founding Executive Director, Department of Global Health Sciences
  • Michael V. Drake
    Michael V. Drake
    Michael V. Drake is an American physician and current chancellor of the University of California, Irvine .-Early years:...

     – University of California, Irvine
    University of California, Irvine
    The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...

     Chancellor; former University of California Vice President-Health Affairs
  • Paul Ekman
    Paul Ekman
    Paul Ekman is a psychologist who has been a pioneer in the study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions. He has been considered one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the twentieth century...

    , who showed that human emotional expressions were universal and developed the Facial Action Coding System
    Facial Action Coding System
    Facial Action Coding System is a system to taxonomize human facial expressions, originally developed by Paul Ekman and Wallace V. Friesen in 1978...

  • Richard Feachem
    Richard Feachem
    Sir Richard George Andrew Feachem, KBE, FREng is Professor of Global Health at both the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the at UCSF Global Health Sciences...

    , founding Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (2002–2007)
  • Julie Gerberding
    Julie Gerberding
    Julie Louise Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H. , is an American infectious disease expert and the former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry .Gerberding led CDC's efforts to prepare for and counter terrorism...

     – Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...

     (CDC)
  • Stanton Glantz
    Stanton Glantz
    Stanton Arnold Glantz, Ph.D. is Professor of Medicine , American Legacy Foundation Distinguished Professor of Tobacco Control, and Director of the at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. Glantz's research focuses on the health effects of tobacco smoking...

    , regarded as the Ralph Nader
    Ralph Nader
    Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....

     of the anti-big-tobacco movement
  • Michael R. Harrison
    Michael R. Harrison
    Michael R. Harrison, M.D. served as division chief in Pediatric Surgery at the Children’s Hospital at the University of California, San Francisco for over 20 years, where he established the first Fetal Treatment Center in the U.S...

     – developed the initial techniques for fetal surgery
    Fetal surgery
    Fetal surgery is any of a broad range of surgical techniques that are used to treat birth defects in fetuses who are still in the pregnant uterus.* Open fetal surgery involves completely opening the uterus to operate on the fetus....

     and performed the first fetal surgery in 1981, and then went on to establish the UCSF Fetal Treatment Center, which was the first of its kind in the United States.
  • Julien Hoffman
    Julien Hoffman
    Professor Julien I.E. Hoffman, FRCP is a South African-American pediatric cardiologist and professor emeritus of pediatrics and a senior member of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco...

     – professor emeritus of pediatrics; senior member of the Cardiovascular Research Institute
  • Dorothy M. Horstmann
    Dorothy M. Horstmann
    Dorothy Millicent Horstmann was an American epidemiologist, virologist and pediatrician whose research on the spread of poliovirus in the human bloodstream helped set the stage for the development of the polio vaccine...

     (1911–2001), virologist who made important discoveries about polio.
  • David Kessler
    David Aaron Kessler
    David Aaron Kessler is an American pediatrician, lawyer, author, and administrator...

     – former dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and Yale University School of Medicine, and former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration
    Food and Drug Administration
    The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...

     in the Clinton Administration
  • Peter Kollman
    Peter Kollman
    Peter Andrew Kollman was a professor of chemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco....

     – developer of the AMBER
    AMBER
    AMBER is a family of force fields for molecular dynamics of biomolecules originally developed by the late Peter Kollman's group at the University of California, San Francisco. AMBER is also the name for the molecular dynamics software package that simulates these force fields...

     force field
    Force field (chemistry)
    In the context of molecular modeling, a force field refers to the form and parameters of mathematical functions used to describe the potential energy of a system of particles . Force field functions and parameter sets are derived from both experimental work and high-level quantum mechanical...

     in molecular dynamics
    Molecular dynamics
    Molecular dynamics is a computer simulation of physical movements of atoms and molecules. The atoms and molecules are allowed to interact for a period of time, giving a view of the motion of the atoms...

     simulation and an internationally renowned computational chemist
    Computational chemistry
    Computational chemistry is a branch of chemistry that uses principles of computer science to assist in solving chemical problems. It uses the results of theoretical chemistry, incorporated into efficient computer programs, to calculate the structures and properties of molecules and solids...

  • Herbert Daniel Landahl, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Biophysics and Mathematical Biology-Basic research in mathematical biophysics of the central nervous system, cell division dynamics, population interactions, and control of insulin bioynthesis.
  • Arthur Lander
    Arthur Lander
    Arthur D. Lander, M.D., Ph.D. is Director of the Center for Complex Biological Systems at the University of California, Irvine.He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and is an alumnus of John Dewey High School there. He received a B.A. from Yale University and a combined M.D., Ph.D from the University...

    , M.D. PhD Developmental biologist at University of California, Irvine
    University of California, Irvine
    The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...

  • Jay Levy, who, along with Robert Gallo
    Robert Gallo
    Robert Charles Gallo is an American biomedical researcher. He is best known for his role in the discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus , the infectious agent responsible for the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome , and he has been a major contributor to subsequent HIV research.Gallo is the...

     at the National Cancer Institute
    National Cancer Institute
    The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...

     and Luc Montagnier
    Luc Montagnier
    Luc Antoine Montagnier is a French virologist and joint recipient with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for his discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus...

     at the Pasteur Institute
    Pasteur Institute
    The Pasteur Institute is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who made some of the greatest breakthroughs in modern medicine at the time, including pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax...

    , was among the first to identify and isolate HIV as the causative agent in AIDS
  • C. Cameron Macauley
    C. Cameron Macauley
    Charles Cameron Macauley was a photographer, filmmaker and educator noted for his prizewinning still photographs, his ethnographic films and his expertise on historic films and photographs. His career spanned over 75 years....

    , photographer and film producer
  • Michael Merzenich
    Michael Merzenich
    Michael M. Merzenich is a professor emeritus neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco. His contributions to the field are numerous. He took the sensory cortex maps developed by his predecessors like Archie Tunturi, Clinton Woolsey, Vernon Mountcastle, Wade Marshall, and Philip...

     -Professor emeritus neuroscientist
    Neuroscientist
    A neuroscientist is an individual who studies the scientific field of neuroscience or any of its related sub-fields...

     -Brain plasticity research, Basic and clinical sciences of hearing pioneer- CEO Scientific Learning, Posit Science
  • Rita Ng
    Rita Ng
    Rita Ng from Tracy, California was Miss California 2000 and is currently a Medical Doctor of Cardiology. Ng won a preliminary talent award as a concert pianist and placed 2nd runner up at Miss America 2000. She received over $50,000 in scholarships by competing in the Miss America Organization...

     – Miss California
    Miss California
    For the state pageant affiliated with Miss USA, see Miss California USAThe Miss California competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America pageant. Delegates from the states of California, Ohio and Oklahoma have each won the title of Miss...

     2000, 2nd runner up
  • Thomas Novotny, former Assistant Surgeon General
    Surgeon General of the United States
    The Surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government...

  • Dean Ornish
    Dean Ornish
    Dean Michael Ornish, M.D., is president and founder of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, as well as Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco....

    , who first established that coronary artery disease could be reversed with lifestyle changes alone, author of the few bestseller books on the subject of healthy lifestyle choices
  • Stanley Prusiner – Nobel laureate in Medicine (1997), discovered and described prions
  • Steve Schroeder
    Steve Schroeder
    Steven A. Schroeder is Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care at the University of California, San Francisco . He served as the President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation from 1990 to 2002. Schroeder is known for his work in promoting smoking cessation strategies.Dr...

     – Former CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
    Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
    The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the United States' largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care; it is based in Princeton, New Jersey. The foundation's mission is to improve the health and health care of all Americans...

  • Harold Varmus – Nobel laureate in Medicine (1989), worked with J. Michael Bishop
    J. Michael Bishop
    -External links:**...

     to discover the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes. Also served as director of the National Institutes of Health
    National Institutes of Health
    The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...

     during the Clinton Administration, as president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
    Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
    Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center is a cancer treatment and research institution founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital...

     from 2000 to 2010, and currently as the director of the National Cancer Institute
    National Cancer Institute
    The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...

    .
  • Paul Volberding
    Paul Volberding
    Paul A. Volberding is an American physician who is best known for his pioneering work in treating persons with HIV.-Work:In 1983, Volberding founded the first inpatient ward for persons with AIDS in the San Francisco General Hospital....

    , whose pioneering work in the early days of the AIDS pandemic was noted in Randy Shilts
    Randy Shilts
    Randy Shilts was a pioneering gay American journalist and author. He worked as a freelance reporter for both The Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as for San Francisco Bay Area television stations....

    ' book And the Band Played On
    And the Band Played On
    And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic is a nonfiction book written by San Francisco Chronicle journalist Randy Shilts, published in 1987...

  • David A. Wood former head of the Cancer Research Institute and former president of the American Cancer Society.
  • Jere E Goyan – former Dean of the School of Pharmacy, former FDA Commissioner (during the Carter Administration)
  • Pablo Valenzuela (biochemist) - co-founder of the American biotech company Chiron Corporation, the first Chilean biotech company Bios Chile, and of Fundacion Ciencia para la Vida in Santiago Chile.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK