Sat Dec 31, 2016
Pharmaceutical Chemistry department members have received the following grants and fellowships between October and December 2016:
12/26/2016: Judy Sakanari received a 2-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The project is “Novel Therapeutics for Treatment of River Blindness and Lymphatic Filariasis.”
Mon Dec 12, 2016
Research in the lab of UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member Adam Renslo, PhD, has developed a new way of selectively targeting cancer cells with drugs. In experiments with mice, the new approach allowed for the delivery of fifty times higher doses of chemotherapy to tumors while avoiding toxic effects on healthy cells.
Wed Dec 07, 2016
The UCSF School of Pharmacy has established new endowed faculty positions to be held by the chairs of two School departments.
Fri Dec 02, 2016
In recognition of his innovations in microscopy, Bo Huang, PhD, an associate professor in the UCSF School of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, is the recipient of the 2016 Early Career Life Scientist Award, awarded by the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB).
Thu Dec 01, 2016
Brian Shoichet, PhD, faculty member in the School’s Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, has been named the 2017 recipient of the DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences.
Given annually by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), the DeLano Award honors a scientist “for the most accessible and innovative development or application of computer technology to enhance research in the life sciences at the molecular level.”
Fri Sep 30, 2016
Pharmaceutical Chemistry department members have received the following grants and fellowships between July and September 2016:
9/22/2016: Nathan Schmidt, a postdoc in the DeGrado Lab, was awarded the prestigious K award by the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences. The project will be funded for two years.
9/1/2016: Michelle Arkin received a two-year grant from the Rainwater Charitable Foundation.
Mon Sep 26, 2016
UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member Zev Gartner, PhD, will be co-director of a new multi-institution UCSF-administered Center for Cellular Construction, which has been awarded a five-year $24 million grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Wed Aug 17, 2016
Research co-led by UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member Brian Shoichet, PhD, has developed a new opioid drug candidate that blocks pain as effectively as morphine in mice, without triggering dangerous side effects, and also apparently without the addictive properties of current prescription painkillers.
Mon Jul 25, 2016
Edward (Eddie) Leong Way, BS, MS, PhD, celebrated his 100th birthday on July 1, 2016, with more than 70 colleagues, friends, and family at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center.
Wed Jun 08, 2016
Pharmaceutical Chemistry department members have received the following grants and fellowships between April and June 2016:
6/9/2016: The National Science Foundation awarded Steven Altschuler a grant for his project entitled "Collaborative Research: The Genetic, Epigenetic, and Immunological Foundation of Cancer Evolution.” This project will be funded for 3 years.
Wed Jun 01, 2016
Education: Evolving PharmD curriculum, Daniels Curriculum Awards; Collaborations and partnerships: pharmacy residency, UCSF/Haas MD/PhD startup marketplace; Patient care: SB 493 update; Faculty honors: Benet, Abate, Craik, Wells, Kroon, Corelli, Hudmon, Bourdet, Fischbach; Research publications: genetic testing, pharmacogenomics, cancer, computational tools and modeling (Phillips, Shin, Altschuler and Wu, Sali, Savic); Research funding: Top in NIH funding, protein design, specialty drugs (Kortem
Thu May 05, 2016
Predicting difficult-to-detect drug binding sites
Most drugs are comprised of small molecules that pass through cell membranes and are designed to bind to much larger protein molecules at exposed concave pockets. But in many disease-associated proteins, these binding sites are difficult to detect. Concave pockets may form only in the immediate presence of small molecules that bind to them (natural ligands or drugs) or are open only for brief periods during protein shape-shifting.
Tue May 03, 2016
John Gross, PhD, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, has been promoted to full professor.
Researchers in the Gross Lab combine a wide variety of molecular biology and quantitative biochemistry techniques with biophysics and structural biology experiments, such as NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography, in order to understand how the composition, structure, and dynamics of multi-protein complexes affect their cellular function.
Fri Apr 29, 2016
Computer models provide optimal dosing for pediatric TB meningitis
Thu Apr 28, 2016
In a major breakthrough, scientists at the Gladstone Institutes, led by UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member Sheng Ding, PhD, have transformed skin cells into heart and brain cells using combinations of chemicals.
All previous work on cellular reprogramming required adding external genes to the cells, making this accomplishment an unprecedented feat. The research lays the groundwork for potentially being able to regenerate lost or damaged cells via pharmaceuticals.
Fri Apr 15, 2016
Pharmaceutical Chemistry faculty members have published the following manuscripts between January and March 2016:
saRNA-guided Ago2 targets the RITA complex to promoters to stimulate transcription.
Portnoy V, Lin SH, Li KH, Burlingame A, Hu ZH, Li H, Li LC. Cell Res. 2016 Mar;26(3):320-35.
Mon Apr 11, 2016
Members of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry have received the following grants and fellowships between January and March 2016:
Date
Item
3/3/2016
Thu Mar 31, 2016
For the 36th consecutive year, the UCSF School of Pharmacy has received more funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) than any other pharmacy school in the United States.
School researchers were awarded $27 million during NIH’s 2015 fiscal year, from October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015. Rankings of schools are compiled by the independent Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research based on the most current NIH data.
Thu Mar 24, 2016
To discover new drugs and chemical probes, researchers have traditionally screened small molecules—small enough by weight to pass through cell membranes. Their goal is typically to find compounds that selectively bind to a much larger protein molecule (often an enzyme) at a chemically reactive pocket known as the active site, inhibiting its activity to treat a disease or to better understand a biological process.
Wed Mar 16, 2016
UC San Francisco today announced the establishment of the Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI). The mission of QBI, located in Byers Hall on the UCSF Mission Bay campus, is to drive forward the application of computation, mathematics, and statistics toward a deeper understanding of complex problems in biology, with the ultimate goal of developing new treatments for disease.
Fri Mar 11, 2016
Charles S. Craik, PhD, faculty member in the School’s Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, has been named the 2016 recipient of the Protein Society’s Emil Thomas Kaiser Award.
Wed Jan 20, 2016
UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member Leslie Benet, PhD, has been named the 2016 recipient of the Remington Honor Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the American Pharmacists Association (APhA). He will be officially recognized during the APhA Annual Meeting and Exposition in Baltimore, MD, March 4–7, 2016.
Thu Jan 07, 2016
Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes, the Diabetes Center at UCSF, and the UCSF School of Pharmacy have converted human skin cells into fully functional pancreatic cells that produce insulin in response to changes in glucose levels. Transplanted into mice, the cells protected the animals from developing a mouse model of diabetes.
The new study, co-senior-authored by UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member Sheng Ding, PhD, was published in Nature Communications on January 6, 2016.
