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2024 News
Fri Nov 15, 2024
Akinyemi Oni-Orisan, PharmD, PhD, and Bani Tamraz, PharmD, PhD
Akinyemi Oni-Orisan, PharmD, PhD, and Bani Tamraz, PharmD, PhD, have been recognized with the inaugural STRIPE Double Helix Award by the American Society of Pharmacovigilance, which honors exceptional contributions to pharmacogenomics.
Oni-Orisan, whose lab conducts computational research...
Wed Nov 13, 2024
Maddie Blaauw and Jacqueline Williams
PhD students Maddie Blaauw and Jacqueline Williams have been selected as the 2025 recipients of the Genentech-UCSF School of Pharmacy Diversity Fellowship.
The one-year fellowship will enable the students to gain professional experience in industry, equipping them with new skills in research and...
Fri Nov 8, 2024
Nearly 40 percent of students at the UCSF School of Pharmacy are first in their families to graduate from college. In honor of National First-Gen Day on Nov. 8, read about our trailblazers and what their determination to succeed brings to our school’s diverse community.
Wendy Rivera
PharmD Class...
Thu Nov 7, 2024
Left to right: Stephanie Hsia, PharmD, MAEd, BCPP; Shirley Wong, PharmD, APh; mentor.
A pharmacist-run ambulatory care telehealth clinic, founded by Stephanie Hsia, PharmD, MAEd, BCPP, and Shirley Wong, PharmD, APh, has won the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists (CSHP) Innovative Pharmacy Practice Award.
The recognition highlights the clinic’s groundbreaking work to...
Tue Nov 5, 2024
The school’s innovative new Master of Science (MS) graduate degree program in the rapidly evolving field of Artificial Intelligence and Computational Drug Discovery and Development (AICD3) — the first of its kind in the United States — welcomed its inaugural cohort in fall 2024.
The new degree...
Thu Oct 24, 2024
Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences (BTS) Chair James Fraser, PhD
James Fraser, PhD, who chairs the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences (BTS) in the UCSF Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine, is leading a multidisciplinary team that will receive up to $30 million in federal funding to identify what he calls “anti-targets,” the sites on proteins that...
Mon Oct 21, 2024
Jacqueline Parizher, PharmD ’22, psychiatric clinical pharmacist at the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH)
Jacqueline Parizher, PharmD ’22, began her journey into pharmacy from a desire to make meaningful impact in her community. Today she is at the forefront of psychiatric and substance use disorder care as a psychiatric clinical pharmacist at the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH),...
Wed Oct 16, 2024
Christopher Nowak, PharmD ’22, PMP
Christopher Nowak, PharmD ’22, PMP, always imagined himself in a clinical pharmacy career. But deciding to pursue his project management strengths led him to the pharmaceutical industry, where he is making an impact on drug research and development in ways he never expected at AstraZeneca Rare...
Mon Oct 14, 2024
Raymond Ibale
Staff pharmacist at the new Mission Bay pharmacy.
Building on UCSF’s legacy of innovation in clinical pharmacy, UCSF Health is opening retail pharmacies at its Mission Bay and Parnassus campuses to complement the health system’s suite of comprehensive and accessible health services.
The new pharmacies are integrated with health records to provide...
Thu Oct 10, 2024
Isela Lopez, PharmD student, Class of 2026
Isela Lopez, PharmD, Class of '26, is pursuing her fascination with how medications improve people's health and quality of life at UCSF. Building on her undergrad studies in physiology and metabolism at UC Berkeley, Lopez aims to use her pharmacy education to improve health outcomes, especially for...
Wed Oct 9, 2024
By UCSF School of Pharmacy Staff
Robert L. Day, PharmD ’59, the former School of Pharmacy associate dean whose decades of advocacy and commitment to academic innovation led to the advancement of the Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum and pharmacy practice, died at home on Oct. 4, 2024. He was 90 years...
Tue Oct 8, 2024
Dean Kathy Giacomini, PhD, BSPharm, with her acceptance letter featured on the walls of the Academy’s headquarters.
Dean Kathy Giacomini, PhD, BSPharm, was formally inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences on Sept. 21, 2024, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
At the induction ceremony, she signed the Academy's prestigious Book of Members, joining the ranks of some of the most influential figures in...
Mon Oct 7, 2024
Alisa Koay, vice president of policy for the UCSF American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP), administers the flu vaccine to Dean Kathy Giacomini, PhD, BSPharm.
COVID-19’s typical “summer surge” is on the decline in California as well as locally in San Francisco, indicating that the virus––approaching a five-year anniversary on March 11, 2025––is becoming more like the flu. To help reinforce the importance of getting vaccinated against respiratory...
Thu Sep 26, 2024
Alexander Gilmer, PharmD
In his journey toward coming out as trans, Alexander Gilmer, PharmD, faced a number of challenges, including navigating his own health care.
He was turned away by pharmacies and providers. He had to fight for appropriate labs and monitoring, and he was put through unnecessary invasive procedures....
Wed Sep 25, 2024
For organ transplant pharmacist Rachael Gordon, PharmD 2022, MPH, the path to pharmacy was longer and different than most.
After completing her master’s degree in public health and working as a research coordinator at the University of Southern California, a clinical pharmacist specializing in HIV...
Tue Sep 10, 2024
PCRA President Jerril Jacob in an interactive workshop with elementary school students.
Through the Pharmacy Committee of Recreational Activities (PCRA), a group of PharmD students is fostering a supportive environment for their peers while inspiring the next generation of health care professionals.
Originally founded to enhance wellness opportunities within the UCSF School of...
Wed Sep 4, 2024
Second-year PharmD students Isela Lopez and Rhea Misra in the class of 2026.
Second-year PharmD students Isela Lopez and Rhea Misra in the class of 2026 won first-place honors at the Student National Pharmaceutical Association (SNPhA) National Clinical Skills Competition at the association’s annual convention held in Los Angeles on Aug. 9, 2024.
Lopez and Misra had...
Mon Aug 12, 2024
Celebrated as a curiosity-driven scientist in the 29th annual Byers Award Lecture, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry faculty member Aashish Manglik, MD, PhD, shared how he fulfilled a dream in his journey from Stanford University to UCSF.
Presenting on the critical role of cellular...
Tue Aug 6, 2024
Nadav Ahituv, PhD
Nadav Ahituv, PhD, a faculty member in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences (BTS), a joint department of the School of Pharmacy and the School of Medicine, has been selected to receive the 2024 American Society of Human Genetics Scientific (ASHG) Achievement Award, for...
Wed Jul 31, 2024
Erin Lubin
David Morris, MD
David Morris, MD, a pharma executive with experience in research and development, venture capital, and developing early-stage biotech companies, has been named UCSF’s vice chancellor for business development, innovation, and partnerships.
Along with his deep roots in academic medicine, Morris has...
Fri Jul 26, 2024
A new $25 million grant from the research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense is bringing together researchers from the School of Pharmacy to develop safe, battlefield-ready anesthetics.
The cooperative agreement with the Anesthetics for Battlefield Care program of...
Wed Jul 24, 2024
element5digital
Instructors in the UCSF School of Pharmacy have shown remarkable commitment, creativity, and adaptability to training the next generation of doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) graduates.
We are proud to announce the Dean’s Apple Teaching Awards for winter 2023, summer/fall 2023, and winter/spring 2024,...
Mon Jul 22, 2024
The UCSF doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) Class of 2027 officially entered the profession on July 19 at the 23rd annual White Coat Ceremony.
Led by Dean Kathy Giacomini, PhD, BSPharm, the event at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre welcomed first-year learners with a meaningful tradition in which they were...
Mon Jul 8, 2024
Yangfeng Wu, MD, PhD; Leslie Z. Benet, PhD; Carl Peck, MD, Dr. h.c. (Uppsala); and Peking University Clinical Research Institute Director of Department of Education and Training Sandy Zhang.
Fifteen years after the School helped launch a post-graduate level course at Peking University in Beijing, China, with the goal of modernizing development and regulation of Chinese medical products, leaders in a tripartite collaboration came together on June 14, 2024, to celebrate progress and...
Mon Jun 24, 2024
Shawna McCarroll
PSRs being celebrated at Genentech Hall.
Postdocs, specialists, and researchers (PSRs) were celebrated as an integral part of the UCSF community in an inaugural symposium at Genentech Hall on April 26, 2024.
The event, which will become an annual gathering, included a panel on career pathways moderated by Su Guo, PhD, a faculty member in...
Fri Jun 14, 2024
Nevan Krogan, PhD
School of Medicine Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology faculty member Nevan Krogan, PhD, spoke with Nooshin Navidi Latour, MA, communications director at UCSF Precision Medicine about the challenges academic research faces when it comes to breaking down silos and about how...
Mon Jun 10, 2024
Warif Kastoun, PharmD
Out of some 61,000 graduates in the University of California’s Class of 2024, close to a third started their higher education journey at a California community college, including Warif Kastoun, PharmD, who felt the allure of the white coat early on.
Growing up in Damascus, Syria, she had always...
Fri May 24, 2024
Kathryn A. Phillips, PhD
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 A. Phillips, PhD, is part of a team of authors published on May 20, 2024, in the Journal of the...
Tue May 21, 2024
On his 87th birthday, and in tribute to his pioneering career bridging laboratory research on pharmacokinetics with advances in clinical pharmacology, Leslie Z. Benet, PhD–– one of the School’s most influential faculty members––was honored in a symposium on May 17, 2024, with an endowed...
Mon May 20, 2024
An unexpected power outage in the neighborhood surrounding Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall brought a slight plot twist to the UCSF School of Pharmacy’s PharmD Class of 2024 commencement on the evening of May 16. Power was restored just in time for a smooth and energized celebration as hundreds of...
Mon May 13, 2024
John Jay Cabuay
Ruth Arnold Smarinsky, PharmD ’83
For over 50 years, the Distinguished Alum of the Year Award has been the highest honor bestowed by the UCSF Pharmacy Alumni Association (PAA), and this year it went to Ruth Arnold Smarinsky, PharmD ’83, who was also named Pharmacist of the Year in 2022 by the California Pharmacists Association (...
Tue May 7, 2024
Kethen So, PharmD, MBA
The status of fellow of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) recognizes a high standard of excellence and sustained commitment to health-system practice––a fitting description of Department of Clinical Pharmacy volunteer faculty member Kethen So, PharmD, MBA, who will continue...
Fri May 3, 2024
Dean Kathy Giacomini, PhD, BSPharm, is among four scientists and clinicians at UC San Francisco to be honored with election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (AAA&S), one of the nation’s oldest and most distinguished societies dedicated to “advancing the common good.”
The Academy...
Wed May 1, 2024
Charles Hart, PhD, and Michelle Arkin, PhD
With major research institutes, funding agencies, and the public eager to see academic research lead to advances in human health, the Small Molecule Discovery Center (SMDC) has tapped a new director to further its mission of combining industrial and academic expertise to advance research programs...
Tue Apr 30, 2024
Sharon Youmans, PharmD, MPH, and Igor Mitrovic, MD
Two new programs are being developed to expose possibilities and opportunities for applicants to pharmacy school in California’s central San Joaquin Valley, thanks to funding from the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF).
Acknowledging the degree to which greater diversity among health care...
Wed Apr 24, 2024
Rupa Tuan, PhD
Rupa Tuan, PhD, a faculty member in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology who also teaches pharmacology in UCSF’s School of Medicine and School of Dentistry, delivered the 22nd annual Sumner and Hermine Marshall Endowed Last Lecture.
The lecture features a UCSF faculty...
Tue Apr 23, 2024
Video of Town Hall (April 18, 2024)
On April 18, 2024, Kathy Giacomini and School leaders discussed updates on UCSF’s pharmacy programs, including new pipeline programs and reorganization of the educational unit. Speakers discussed reorganization of PharmD education units, ways to reach and...
Tue Apr 16, 2024
Three students with ties to the School of Pharmacy were finalists in UCSF’s Grad Slam 2024, an event held in honor of National Graduate Student Appreciation Week that challenges graduate students to explain their research to an audience of non-experts in just three minutes.
In a Grad Slam first,...
Fri Apr 12, 2024
Pharmacy advocates make the case for regulation of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).
On April 2, 2024, two first-year pharmacy students in the Class of 2026 attended Advocacy Day 2024, hosted by the California Pharmacists Association (CPhA) and the United Nurses Associations of California...
Wed Apr 10, 2024
For the second year in a row, a team of UCSF PharmD students achieved the top spot in the Value of Industry Pharmacists (VIP) Case Competition, presented by the Industry Pharmacists Organization (IPhO) and the National Fellows Council (NFC).
UCSF’s student chapter of IPhO was selected from 66...
Tue Apr 9, 2024
The School of Pharmacy at UC San Francisco has ranked second place nationally and first place in California in the 2024 U.S. News & World Report survey of best accredited pharmacy schools and programs. The rankings are based on peer assessments and are published every four years.
The latest...
Mon Apr 1, 2024
Rada Savic, PhD
Rada Savic, PhD, co-vice dean of Graduate Pharmacy Education Programs at the UCSF School of Pharmacy and a professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences (BTS), has been awarded a $30.8M grant over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (...
Thu Mar 28, 2024
Diana Cowell, PharmD ’14, MBA, and the USNS Comfort hospital ship.
As one of a just a few women in her class at the United States Military Academy at West Point, Diana Cowell, PharmD ’14, MBA—who went on to become a helicopter pilot in the Navy and was deployed to hot spots around the world—was accustomed to challenges.
However, it was when she had no choice but...
Wed Mar 20, 2024
In the annual Spring Research Seminar, current scientific posters created by School of Pharmacy faculty, staff, fellows, residents, and students are presented.
During the seminar, the creators of four posters are selected to receive the Gary Rifkind Award, each of which includes a prize of $1,000...
Mon Mar 18, 2024
In 2023, and for the 44th consecutive year, the UCSF School of Pharmacy received more research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) than any other pharmacy school in the country. School researchers netted $36,769,061 million to fuel their efforts spanning drug discovery,...
Fri Mar 15, 2024
Nathan Dang
On January 7, 2024, leaders from academia, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and industry gathered for the fifth annual Innovations in Regulatory Science Summit, hosted by the UCSF-Stanford Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (...
Wed Mar 6, 2024
Andrej Sali, PhD
Andrej Sali, PhD, was selected by the UCSF Academic Senate to give the 66th Annual Faculty Research Lectureship in Basic Science, an honor recognizing his contributions to computational biology and integrative structure modeling.
Sali is a professor at the UCSF School of Pharmacy in the Department...
Fri Mar 1, 2024
Aashish Manglik, MD, PhD
Aashish Manglik, MD, PhD, faculty member in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, is the newly awarded 2024 Bowes Biomedical Investigator, a program made possible by the William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation.
The program provides selected scientists with $1.25 million over five years to further...
Thu Feb 29, 2024
Zach Hearns, PharmD
Channeling his passion for chemistry and computers into the ever-evolving landscape of pharmacy, Class of 2013 graduate Zachary Hearns, PharmD, BCPS, carved out his own lane—from military service to innovative pharmacy leadership.
Hearns felt the pull of service from a young age. "I come from a...
Thu Feb 1, 2024
Trevor Vannoy
Beginning fall 2024, a new Master of Science (MS) graduate degree program in the rapidly evolving field of Artificial Intelligence and Computational Drug Discovery and Development (AICD3) will lead transformational changes occurring in the field of drug discovery and drug development, enabling...
Mon Jan 22, 2024
Chris Burnett
UCSF’s industry archives expose the marketing tactics that fueled the opioid epidemic.
Established in 2002 to house millions of documents that surfaced from lawsuits against the tobacco industry, UCSF’s Industry Documents Library is a rich repository of sources that reveal the inner workings of various commercial sectors, including pharmaceuticals.
During the pandemic, Hanna Yakubi...
Thu Jan 18, 2024
Linda Cheng and Siavash Panahi, both Class of 2024 PharmD students, won the 28th annual ASHP Clinical Skills Competition.
A pair of UCSF PharmD students brought home the win in the 28th annual Clinical Skills Competition of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), with team members Linda Cheng and Siavash Panahi, both Class of 2024, earning first-place honors on December 4, 2023, in Anaheim,...