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, dental,
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 [1]. Some of
UCSF's most renowned treatment centers include kidney and liver
transplant, neurosurgery, neurology, oncology, gene therapy, women's
health, fetal surgery, pediatrics, and
internal medicine. UCSF also has the nation's leading HIV/AIDS treatment and research centers. Collaborations with African Universities such as the University of Zimbabwe to deal with HIV have been established.
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, 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 in 1908, with the streetcar that used to run on Parnassus Avenue
UCSF traces its history to Dr. Hugh H. Toland, a South Carolina surgeon who found
great success and wealth after moving to San Francisco in 1852.[2] 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, passed away.[3] In 1864, Toland founded a new medical school, Toland Medical
College, and the faculty of Cooper Medical College elect to suspend operations and join the new school.[3]
The University of California was founded in 1868, and by 1870 Toland Medical School began negotiating an affiliation with the new
public university.[4] 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.[5] 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.[4] In March 1873, the trustees of Toland Medical College deeded it to the Regents of the University of California, and it became "The Medical Department
of the University of California."[4] On
September 15, 1874, the school opened its doors to female
students.
Academics
University of California, San Francisco is unique in that it performs only biomedical and patient-centered research in its
Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, and Dentistry, 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 three Nobel Prize winners, 31 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 69 members of the Institute of Medicine, and 30 members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Degrees conferred
One of UCSF's former logos, referencing the
Benny Bufano bear sculptures at the Parnassus
Campus, as well as the "Bears" being the University of California's athletics teams' name.
School of Nursing
School of Pharmacy
School of Medicine
- MD
- MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program
- MD/MS with UC Berkeley
- MD/MPH with UC Berkeley
- MS in Clinical Research (Department of Epidemiology and
Biostatistics)
- MS in Global Health Sciences (beginning Fall 2008)
School of Dentistry
- DDS
- DDS/PhD (with Graduate Division)
Graduate Division
Rankings
In 1995, the National Research Council ranked UCSF in the top
ten for biochemistry and molecular biology
(1st), genetics (2nd), cell and
developmental biology (3rd), neurosciences
(4th), physiology (5th), and biomedical
engineering (7th).
Overall, the campus is fourth[6] in the nation in annual
NIH funding with $452.2 million received in 2005.
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. In addition, the UCSF
Medical Center in 2007 was ranked by US News and World Report the 7th-best hospital in the nation[7], making it the highest-ranked medical center in northern California.
School of Medicine
In 2007, ranked fifth overall among research-based medical schools by US News and World Report; the top in western
United States. In rankings of medical schools for primary care, UCSF ranked 8th. 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 second in internal medicine. The UCSF drug and alcohol abuse specialty ranks fifth nationally in the 2006 survey,
while family medicine ranks 10th, pediatrics ninth, and geriatrics ninth.[8]
In 2005, the School of Medicine was the third largest recipient of National
Institutes of Health research funds among all US medical schools, receiving awards totaling $398.2 million.
Biological Sciences, PhD Programs
US News and World Report in 2006, the last time it surveyed doctoral programs in the biological sciences, ranked UCSF ninth
best overall. In that survey, UCSF ranked second in cell biology, third in molecular biology, fifth in
biochemistry/biophysics/structural biology, genetics/genomics/bioinformatics, and immunology/infectious disease, and sixth in
neuroscience.[9]
School of Nursing
In 2003, US News and World Report ranked the UCSF graduate programs in nursing as
second in the nation. UCSF ranked in the top 10 in seven of the rated eight nursing specialties, including first for its family
nurse practitioner program and second for training adult/medical-surgical nurses. The
adult nurse practitioner and psychiatric/mental health programs ranked third nationally, pediatric
nurse practitioner fourth, gerontological/geriatric fifth, and community/public health ninth.[10]
The School of Nursing in 2005 ranked first nationally in total NIH
research funds with $12.5 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 2005, US News and World Report ranked the UCSF School of Pharmacy number one in its "America's Best Graduate
Schools" edition.
In 2005, the School of Pharmacy ranked first in NIH research funding
among all US pharmacy schools, receiving awards totaling $22.2 million.
School of Dentistry
The School of Dentistry in 2005 ranked first among all dental schools in NIH research funding. It received awards totaling $18.8 million from the NIH.
UCSF Medical Center
In 2007, US News and World Report named the UCSF Medical Center the 7th-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,
neurology/neurosurgery; gynecology; cancer; kidney disease;
ophthalmology; respiratory disorders; rheumatology;
urology; digestive disorders; ear, nose, and throat;
psychiatry; heart and heart surgery; and pediatrics.[11]
In San Francisco Magazine's 2003 survey of the "Best Doctors" in the Bay Area, 55 percent of those honored were UCSF
faculty.
Campus
UCSF operates four major campus sites within the city of San Francisco, as well as numerous other minor sites scattered
through San Francisco and the Bay Area.
- UCSF's Parnassus Campus facilities ( 37°45′47″N, 122°27′29″W) serve as the main
campus and include the 600 bed UCSF Medical Center,
Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute (one of the
state's largest outpatient clinics),the School of Dentistry, the Children's Hospital (located inside the center) and hundreds of
research labs. UCSF's Beckman Vision Center is also
located at the Parnassus campus. It is a leading center for the diagnosis, treatment and research of all areas of eye care,
including vision correction surgery.
- The Mount Zion Campus contains UCSF's Comprehensive Cancer Center, Women's Health Center, and outpatient
resources.
- The San Francisco General Hospital 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's Mission Bay Campus is the largest
ongoing biomedical construction project in the world. The 43-acre 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 already mammoth research enterprise over the next 10 years. The Mission Bay campus currently contains the
following facilities:
- UCSF Genentech Hall: Opened in January 2003, the first research building contains
space for approximately 900 faculty, staff, students, and postdoctoral fellows working in the fields of structural and chemical
biology and molecular cell and developmental biology.
- Rock Hall: Designed by César Pelli and opened in February 2004, the second
research building contains space for approximately 400 researchers in the fields of neuroscience, developmental biology, and
genetics.
- Byers Hall: Serving 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, this building opened in February 2005. It contains
space devoted to both computational and experimental research and houses a 7 tesla superconducting magnet, the first on the West
Coast of the United States, for use in magnetic resonance imaging.
- Mission Bay Community Center: Designed along with the adjacent 600-space parking structure by Ricardo Legorreta, this building opened in October 2005 and contains a fitness and recreation center,
swimming pools, student services, and conference facilities.
- In addition, a housing complex for 750 students and postdoctoral fellows and an 800-space parking garage also opened in late
2005. A fourth research building, designed by Rafael Viñoly and named the Helen Diller
Family Cancer Research Building, is currently under construction and expected to open in fall 2008. 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 2015.
UCSF is also affiliated with the San Francisco VA
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 are also located nearby in the Mission Bay neighborhood.
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 (Michael R. Harrison)
- 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 and name prions (PREE-ons), an infectious agent that is responsible for a
variety of neurodegenerative diseases (Nobel Prize in Medicine, Stanley Prusiner, 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 surfactants are the culprit in the
death of newborns with respiratory distress syndrome; 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
Noted alumni/faculty
- Andy Baldwin - bachelor for the tenth season of The
Bachelor
- J. Michael Bishop - UCSF Chancellor. Nobel
laureate in Medicine (1989), worked to discover the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes
- Elizabeth Blackburn, discoverer of the ribonucleoprotein enzyme, telomerase. 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 and the Bush Administration, particularly on the issue of
therapeutic cloning.
- Richard Carmona - former Surgeon General of the United States
- John Clements, first to isolate surfactant and to develop it artificially
- Haile T. Debas, former UCSF Chancellor; former Dean, School of Medicine; founding
Executive Director, Department of Global Health Sciences
- Richard Feachem, founding Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
(2002-2007)
- Julie Gerberding - Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Stanton Glantz, regarded as the Ralph Nader of
the anti-big-tobacco movement
- David Kessler - Dean of the UCSF School of Medicine, and former Commissioner of
the Food and Drug Administration in the Clinton Administration. Also former
Dean of the Yale University School of Medicine.
- Peter Kollman - developer of the AMBER force field in molecular dynamics simulation
- Jay Levy, who, along with Robert Gallo at the
National Cancer Institute and Luc
Montagnier at the Pasteur Institute, was among the first to identify and
isolate HIV as the causative agent in AIDS
- Rita Ng - Miss California 2000, 2nd runner up
- Thomas Novotny, former Assistant Surgeon General
- Dean Ornish, who first established that coronary artery disease could be reversed with lifestyle changes alone
- Stanley Prusiner - Nobel laureate in Medicine (1997), discovered and described
prions
- Steve Schroeder - Former CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- Harold Varmus - Nobel laureate in Medicine (1989), worked to discover the cellular
origin of retroviral oncogenes. Also served as Director of the NIH in the
Clinton Administration, and currently as president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
- Paul Volberding, whose pioneering work in the early days of the AIDS pandemic was noted in Randy Shilts' book And the Band Played On
- Michael R. Harrison - developed the initial techniques for fetal surgery 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.
References
- ^ UC Regents (2006). Annual Endowment Report,
Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2006 (PDF). UC Regents. Retrieved on 2007-09-08.
- ^ Hugh Huger Toland
(1806-1880), UCSF, Accessed June 11, 2007.
- ^ a b A History of UCSF's School of Medicine: San Francisco's First Medical Schools, UCSF,
Accessed June 11, 2007.
- ^ a b c A History of UCSF's School of
Medicine: University Affiliation, UCSF, Accessed June 11, 2007.
- ^ Chronology of the Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford School of Medicine, Accessed
June 11, 2007.
- ^ http://pub.ucsf.edu/newsservices/releases/200609255/
- ^ "America's Best
Hospitals 2007", U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved on
2007-10-16.
- ^ US News
medical school rankings
- ^ US News
rankings
- ^ US News
nursing school rankings
- ^ US News and World Report rankings of best hospitals
External links
Coordinates:
37°45′47.95″N, 122°27′30.74″W
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