Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) Director Nevan Krogran, PhD |
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Spotlight: Nevan Krogran - Breaking Down Silos,
The New Era of Doing Science
"We could see how fast science can move when we didn't really care about the reward structure. Everybody just collaborated."
Krogan's collaborative work aligns with the principles of precision medicine, integrating basic and clinical research and patient care using quantitative approaches and computational tools to define disease mechanisms and personalize the treatments of individual patients.
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Applying Science to Policymaking Minicourse Wrap Up
The second annual UCSF Science Policy Minicourse concluded in May with 12 students, mostly first-year graduate students from across the basic science graduate programs at UCSF, and 18 guest lecturers and panelists. Four graduate students served as Teaching Assistants for the course, three of whom took the course last year. Topics included Federal Policymaking, State Policymaking, Communicating with Policymakers, Community Engagement, and Policy Analysis.
Throughout the course, students were tasked with developing an original policy proposal related to their PhD research. They honed their proposals through feedback from guest policy experts and course instructors and learned to communicate their ideas through an elevator pitch, policy brief, and letter to the editor. Many students are now preparing to submit their proposals for publication.
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Interested in Science Policy at UCSF?
Check out the UCSF Science Policy Group website upcoming events or contact SPG to get involved — all UCSF students, postdocs, and staff are welcome!. Five students and teaching assistants from the minicourse were selected to attend the Capitol Hill Life Science fair (see more below).
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UCSF and UCSF Health Receive Pivotal Donation to Support the First Continuous AI-monitoring Platform in Clinical Care
The UCSF Division of Clinical Informatics and Digital Transformation (DoC-IT) and UCSF Health have received a $5 million gift from Ken and Kathy Hao to develop a cutting-edge, real-time, continuous, and automated artificial intelligence (AI) monitoring platform for clinical care. Read more
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Genetic Testing Is the Key to Our Health Secrets
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Gene Therapy Is Halting Cancer. Can It Work Against Brain Tumors?
Grant of up to $11 million will fund a clinical trial at UCSF that uses a smarter new CAR-T guided by precision technology. Read more
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The State of State Biomarker Testing Insurance Coverage Laws
In The State of State Biomarker Testing Insurance Coverage Laws, by Lin et. al., the authors tackle the complicated topic of states legislating access to medical care. In response to perceived barriers to access to care, states have enacted legislation to mandate terms and conditions of insurance coverage for a variety of circumstances, such as cancer screening and mental health treatment parity. Recently, there have been increasing numbers of states that have passed legislation mandating that insurers cover “biomarker testing.”
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Phillips explores policy, ethics, and precision medicine
Forging ahead in her focus on the value of medical interventions and how to implement them most effectively and efficiently into health care, Department of Clinical Pharmacy faculty member Kathryn Phillips, PhD, is part of a team of authors published on May 20, 2024, in the Journal of the American Medicine Association (JAMA) who are tackling the complicated topic of state legislation and biomarker testing. Read SOP story here
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The 2024 Marcus Symposium on June 3rd celebrated 8 years of achievement supported though the Marcus Program in Precision Medicine Innovation (MPPMI). Chancellor Sam Hawgood, Vice Chancellor Keith Yamamoto and RDO Director Gretchen Kiser gave opening remarks followed by Scientific Presentations from a subset of Marcus Awardees. Learn more about the Marcus Program
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The Nancy E. Adler Seed Grants Program: Funding to support research on social determinants of health Learn more
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Personalized Medicine and Its Implications Conference
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Save the date: Precision Medicine World Conference
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Office of Science Policy and Strategy |
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UCSF and the Coalition for Life Sciences (CLS) Science Fair on Capitol Hill |
The annual Congressional Life Science Fair, organized by the Coalition for the Life Sciences and held in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capital Hill, is an opportunity for investigators from universities, research institutes and companies to present hands-on demonstrations of scientific research to members of Congress and their staffs. It showcases fun and interactive science and also makes a strong case for federally funded research.
At this year’s event, on Friday, June 10, the UCSF Office of Science Policy and Strategy was proud to send five students and TAs (Amelie Delcourt, Cindy Ow, Jared Khan, Matt Ryan, and Wanjun Gu) to spend the day visiting congressional offices, and then to exhibit and explain their outstanding research at the Science Fair.
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Spring Congressional visits |
Left to right: Keith Yamamoto (Office for Science Policy and Strategy), Eric Anthony (Community and Government Relations), Jacqueline Fabius (QBI), Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Lousiana), Nevan Krogran (QBI)
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Nevan Krogran, Keith Yamamoto, and Jennifer Doudna (Nobel Laureate, UC Berkeley) visit various members of Congress to advocate for completion of Congress’s funding commitment for the nine NIH Antiviral Drug Discovery Centers, including one at UCSF, doing critical research and development in defense against future viral outbreaks. |
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Science Technology Action Committee (STAC)
Yamamoto co-chairs STAC which released a report last year, The State of Science in America, that analyzes in-depth the obstacles and opportunities facing the science and technology ecosystem. The report urges creation of a national science and technology strategy that ramps up federal investment and agency coordination to ensure US leadership in emerging technologies, like AI. See a recent STAC piece, "The AI revolution is here - why the US must lead the way." Read here
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AAAS Science Policy Delegation Travels to Cuba |
A leadership group from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) visited the Cuban Academy of Sciences and other organizations to explore scientific collaborations and research opportunities, and to learn about Cuba's current science and biomedical research and training infrastructure.
Yamamoto, president of AAAS, noted "science is a global enterprise that can also be a powerful diplomatic force in the face of political division.”
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National Academy of Medicine's Workshop: Fostering Action to Address Ethical and Societal Implications of Emerging Science, Technology, and Innovation in Health and Medicine |
The NASEM report "Toward Equitable Innovation in Health and Medicine: A Framework, " co-chaired by Keith Yamamoto, was released last year with recommendations on how to introduce considerations of social justice and equity at multiple points along the technology development pathway. This workshop, one of the report’s follow-up activities, brought together key stakeholder groups to begin formation of action collaboratives to implement specific report recommendations.
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Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC) Annual Meeting |
EBRC is a public-private partnership committed to advancing engineering biology (also called synthetic biology) strategies to address national and global needs, including those in health and medicine. The group works frequently with federal agencies to influence science policy and research imperatives and approaches. Led by Executive Director (and former UCSF Associate Director of Precision Medicine) India Hook-Barnard, EBRC held its annual meeting in May to update and advance its work, and expand collaborative approaches in novel research and technology development, education, security, and policy and international engagement. Keith Yamamoto serves on EBRC’s Council and Board of Directors.
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The Elements of Precision Medicine |
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