About the Department

Our research seeks to understand the biological principles of small molecules, proteins, and cellular design, and to apply these principles for the therapeutic benefit of patients. To this end we investigate new molecular treatment targets, new and more precise ways to therapeutically alter their activity, and new biomarkers to track disease and treatment efficacy.

We also create and continually refine both the chemical biology tools and the core enabling technologies used by our own labs and others worldwide to probe and analyze structural and systems biology at the molecular level.

Our work

We educate science students in many PhD programs at UC San Francisco. We are closely involved with the five PhD programs administered by the School of Pharmacy.

  • PhD in Bioengineering (BioE)

    The UCSF-UC Berkeley Joint PhD Program in Bioengineering combines the outstanding resources and faculty in biomedical sciences at UCSF with the excellence in engineering, physical, and life sciences at UC Berkeley.

  • PhD in Biological and Medical Informatics (BMI)

    The Biological and Medical Informatics (BMI) Graduate Program at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) prepares scientists to use tools from mathematics to physics and from chemistry to biology to gather, store, analyze, predict, and disseminate information about biology.

  • PhD in Biophysics (BP)

    The Biophysics Graduate Program (BP) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) prepares scientists to leverage new and emerging research tools—from nanotechnology to nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy—to quantify biological processes in living biological systems using physics and chemistry.

  • PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB)

    The Chemistry and Chemical Biology Graduate Program (CCB) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) prepares scientists to address problems at the intersection of chemistry and biology by providing a chemical foundation for understanding complex biological processes at an atomic level.

  • PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics (PSPG)

    The Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics (PSPG) Graduate Program at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) focuses on how to develop effective drug therapies for patients that have a minimum of adverse effects.

Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD)

We provide our Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) professional student pharmacists with the strong basic science foundation required to deliver optimal patient care.

Postdoctoral scholars

Accomplished postdoctoral scholars are welcomed into our labs where they receive the advanced research experience they need to become leaders in their fields.

Our commitment

We are committed to sharing advances in our fields of study with all the students we teach.

More about the department