News

Nola Hylton, PhD and Duan Xu, PhD Inducted into Medical and Biological Engineering Elite

Nola Hylton, PhD and Duan Xu, PhD have been inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows, Class of 2021. This is among one of the highest professional distinctions given to medical and biological engineers. Dr. Hylton is a professor in

New Test Predicts Tumors Most Likely to Respond to Radiation, Chemotherapy

Many cancer patients might respond better to treatments with the help of a new prognostic indicator based on a distinctive pattern of gene activity within tumor cells, according to a new study of human cancer data and experiments on human cancer cell lines grown in the lab. The new research, led by

Millie Hughes-Fulford, the First Woman Scientist in Space, Dies at 75

Millie Hughes-Fulford, PhD, a UC San Francisco scientist who flew in June 1991 aboard the first space shuttle mission dedicated to biomedical studies, died Feb. 2 at the age of 75. She was the first woman to fly as a NASA payload specialist and was part of the first crew to include three women. On

Response to Cancer Immunotherapy May Be Affected by Genes We Carry from Birth

For all their importance as a breakthrough treatment, the cancer immunotherapies known as checkpoint inhibitors still only benefit a small minority of patients, perhaps 15 percent across different types of cancer. Moreover, doctors cannot accurately predict which of their patients will respond. A

Camp Okizu, a Refuge for Families Affected by Childhood Cancer, Pledges to Rise from the Ashes

In September, the North Complex West Zone fire ripped through Butte County, killing 16 residents and decimating more than 2,000 structures. The structures destroyed in the blaze included almost all of the cabins, bathrooms and main buildings that make up Okizu – a 500-acre refuge for families of

Advancing Focused Ultrasound Technology for Musculoskeletal Applications and Cancer Treatment

Matthew Bucknor, MD's interest in focused ultrasound developed during his radiology residency at UCSF when Fergus Coakley, MD (former faculty and current chair of radiology at Oregon Health Sciences University) brought the technology here. At that time, Dr. Bucknor was unsure if he wanted to pursue

Cancer Drug Shows Potent Activity in the Lab Against SARS-CoV-2, Including B.1.1.7 Variant

Scientists at UC San Francisco’s Quantitative Bioscience Institute (QBI) and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai (ISMMS) in New York have shown that plitidepsin (Aplidin), a drug approved by the Australian Regulatory Agency for the treatment of multiple myeloma, has potent antiviral activity