The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences recently opened a new bioscience incubator close to the University of California San Francisco campus at Mission Bay. The Institute is commonly referred to as QB3 and is affiliated with UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and UC San Francisco.
Tags: 2014, University of California San Francisco, University of California San Francisco Mission Bay, Bioscience, Southwest, California, San Francisco, SFVS, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, UCSF, Mission Bay, QB3
The University of California, San Francisco was recently ranked number two in the country for receiving biomedical research grants from the NIH, and it was also the number one ranked public school in the country for receiving these grants. According to the University of California, San Francisco news page, this funding allows UCSF researchers to undertake groundbreaking studies that aim at a better understanding of cancer, diabetes, HIV, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease.
Tags: 2014, CA, University of California San Francisco, 2013, University of California San Francisco Parnassus, Southwest, California, San Francisco, SFVS, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, UCSF, UC San Francisco, Parnassus
Researchers at the Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research on the Parnassus Campus of the University of California San Francisco have just published the results of two related studies involving differentiated brain cells transplanted into mice. In one case, the cells were human brain cells integrated successfully into a mouse brain; in the other, epileptic mice were cured with specialized mouse brain cells. In both studies the differentiated cells were a type of interneuron progenitor called medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) cells. Unlike other brain stem cells that can turn into any number of specialized cells, these differentiated MGE cells have a specific function, which is to inhibit signaling in overactive nerve circuits. These experiments hold promise for future treatment of neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, and the chronic pain and spasticity caused by spinal cord injury.
Tags: 2014, CA, University of California San Francisco, 2013, University of California San Francisco Mission Bay, University of California San Francisco Parnassus, Parkinson's Disease Research, Southwest, California, University of California, brain research, San Francisco, SFVS, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, UCSF, Parnassus, Mission Bay
Since its first lemonade stand was set up in 2000 by a little girl with cancer, the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) has raised over $60M to support pediatric cancer research at institutions across the United States. That's a lot of lemonade. While lemonade stands are still a staple of the organization's activities, celebrity support and large fund raising events like the recent "Lemon Ball" (which raised a record $825K) allow ALSF to leverage the kind of funds that really make a difference. In a recent round of funding awards, the University of California San Francisco's Benioff Children's Hospital was named a Center of Excellence by the foundation and given $1.75M to speed translational research programs and training over the next five years. Chief investigator on the grant is Dr. Katherine Matthay, chief of pediatric oncology at Benioff. She says of the ALSF award in a recent news release:
Tags: 2014, CA, University of California San Francisco, 2013, University of California San Francisco Mission Bay, University of California San Francisco Parnassus, cancer research, Southwest, California, University of California, Pediatric Cancer Research, San Francisco, SFVS, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, San Francisco cancer research, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, UCSF, Parnassus, Mission Bay, Benioff Children's Hospital
It might or might not surprise you that some very strong private biomedical research institute funding at the University of California San Francisco campus comes from the father of the first enclosed southern California shopping mall, on the one hand, and the founder of Star Trek on the other. Those two innovative individuals, J. David Gladstone and Gene Roddenberry respectively, have left much of their considerable legacy to science research into understanding human disease. A year ago this time, the Gladstone Institutes welcomed the Roddenberry Foundation into its research family with the establishment of the Roddenberry Center for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine within the Gladstone walls on Owens Street in Mission Bay. Two months ago one of the Gladstone's senior research scientists won the Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking work with induced pluripotent stem cells. Those events, in conjunction with the 3 decades of research milestones made by their scientists, as well as their affiliation with UCSF and its world-class stem cell research program position the Gladstone solidly to meet their 21st Century mission goal:
Tags: CA, University of California San Francisco, Stem cell research, California, 2012, San Francisco, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, UCSF, Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco at Mission Bay
Funding makes laboratory research possible, which makes discovery possible, which leads to advancing knowledge and treatment options. But the primary job of a top scientist and lab director should not be to write grant proposals at the expense of time spent actually doing research. With that insight in mind, the University of California San Francisco put a system in place 5 years ago called the Resource Allocation Program (RAP). The function of the RAP is to streamline the intramural funding process so that faculty only have to fill out one application for many grants, and then only twice a year on set dates. A recent review of the program shows it to be a success, with a 66% increase in overall applications submitted and approximately a 20% increase in funding awarded in the past year alone.
Tags: CA, University of California San Francisco, biomedical research, 2012 Research Funding, Southwest, California, 2012, San Francisco, Funding, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, UCSF, Biomedical Research Funding, Mission Bay Campus, UCSF Mission Bay
The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the largest, most successful established biotech hubs in the US, thanks in part to the presence of 3 of the world's top universities: UCSF, UC Berkeley, and Stanford. Strong on intellectual capital, the area has been notoriously short of real estate since developers were ordered to stop filling in the Bay back in the 60's. Fortunately, as manufacturing waned, industrial land became available for redevelopment as high-tech R&D lab space, which is how UCSF's Mission Bay campus eventually came to be. Across the Bay to the East, bayfront industrial property is seeing a similar repurposing, with particularly mushroom-like life science growth in the little city of Emeryville, though also in neighboring Berkeley and Richmond.
Tags: CA, University of California San Francisco, University of California Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, New research facilities, California, Berkeley, San Francisco, UCSF, new construction, National Lab, UC Berkeley, San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco East Bay
The San Francisco Biotechnology Vendor Showase™ Event (BVS) at UCSF last Thursday saw sunshine, a wide variety of research products, and a range of exhibiting companies from Airgas Norpac to EMD Millipore Bioscience Division. And then there were the Science Ninjas....
Tags: University of California San Francisco, Southwest, California, San Francisco, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, UCSF, Mission Bay Campus, science Ninja, BVS
Dr. Cynthia Kenyon and her colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco, started on an ambitious project two decades ago (much challenged at first): to combat age-related diseases by figuring out what the genetic basis is for aging itself. That research has produced results that have quite literally changed the terms of the debate, overturning the previous assumption that aging was haphazard and unrelated to genetic behavior. Thanks to Dr. Kenyon's determination to pursue her research, we now have several enticing keys to the way that bodies get old, or not, and we know that genes do in fact regulate the process of deterioration that tends to accompany aging. "Aging youthfully" might best describe the longterm aim of Kenyon's work, or "negligible senescence," meaning that age does not lead inevitably to decreased vigor and increased susceptibility to disease.
Tags: University of California San Francisco, gene therapy, California, UCSF
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a standout leader among the world’s health science centers. For over thirty years the institution has taken a holistic approach, combining patient care, health education, and research. Here are four highlights that help distinguish UCSF’s as an outstanding leader for biomedical research.
Tags: University of California San Francisco, biomedical research, California, San Francisco, UCSF, Mission Bay Campus