Hi DEB! One of the really nice things about being the Interim Chair is getting to know you all better, learning about the incredible breadth of research you all are doing, and seeing the amazing instruction and mentoring you provide to our students. If there are things I can do to better support your efforts, I would love to talk with you! I’m generally at Mission Hall on Tuesdays – feel free to stop by and say hello, or send me an email and we’ll find a time to meet.
I hope to see you all (including families) at the department picnic on September 24!
- Mark
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In August, inaugural PhD program lead Maria Glymour assumed the role of vice chair of finance and handed the educational reins to Catie Oldenburg. Oldenburg is now in charge of setting curriculum standards for the program and arranging for course leads. Glymour leaves the program in great shape, having quickly guided it to become a major national contender. Oldenburg hopes to continue to provide top-notch stewardship and mentorship for the students. “One of the things I really like about our program is that it’s high touch,” Oldenburg said. “I’m looking forward to growing our cohort of students who go on to do amazing things in lots of different fields.”
Check out the full current slate of vice chairs here.
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Sean Arayasirikul is leaving us to begin a new faculty position at the University of California at Irvine. We wish them every success!
On the staff front, Robert Thawley, a clinical research coordinator who worked with Meghan Morris, retired at the end of June after 25 years at UCSF. Thank you, Robert!
Fan Xia started as faculty in the Division of Biostatistics on September 1. Mike Reid began on July 1.
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SF BUILD welcomes to Geno Guerra, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF who works with Stephen Francis and Annette Molinaro. Geno joined UCSF in January 2020 after completing his PhD in Statistics at UC Berkeley. He studies statistical method development and data analysis of clinical health genetics. At UCSF, he has focused on the epidemiology of gliomas – specifically, how viral infections and immune activity contribute to lifetime glioma risk and differential patient survival.
“My passion for statistics comes from the creativity with which questions can be approached, and genetics has provided a fascinating new frontier for problem solving and exploration,” Guerra said.
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The department is pleased to announce the winners of the inaugural Master’s in Advanced Study Thesis Award winners. The department is pleased to announce the winners of the inaugural Master’s in Advanced Study Thesis Award. The 2022 winners are: Jonathan Witonsky for work on whether race- and ethnicity-based spirometry reference equations work for genetically admixed children; Debbie Chen (pictured), runner up, for work on intra-individual difference in estimated glomerular filtration rate and end-stage kidney disease. Honorable mention went to Matthew Durstenfeld for his work on the role of antibodies, inflammatory markers and echocardiographic findings in patients recovering from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Thanks to all who applied, their mentors and the award committee members.
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Mike Reid started July 1 as a new faculty member in the department. In August, he and others at UCSF became part of a $200-million initiative to develop new treatments and strategies for global tuberculosis. Later this month, Reid will be inducted into the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators. Here’s to a strong start!
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The San Francisco Coordinating Center was awarded a multimillion-dollar grant from the CPMC Foundation to expand aging research, such as testing aging biomarkers for outcomes prediction for major surgery or intensive care in older adults. The grant will also support the recruitment of faculty and postdoctoral fellows in translational research on aging. Read more here.
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The Division of Cancer Epidemiology has secured several new NIH grants. Peggy Reynolds is co-PI of a study of how the body burden of environmental chemicals affects prospective breast cancer risk in the Cancer Prevention Study-3 cohort. An R21 grant led by Erin Van Blarigan, with co-investigators including June Chan, will study engaging diverse colorectal cancer survivors in the design of an adaptive text message-based intervention to improve diet quality. And Iona Cheng is co-PI of research into the role of structural racism on racial/ethnic inequities in lung cancer risk. With colleagues from USC and UC Irvine, she also received a new R01 award from the National Institute on Aging to study the impact of climate change on life expectancy in a multi-ethnic population.
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Over in the Division of Biostatistics, Aaron Scheffler won an NSF award for an independent methodological development research, equivalent to NIH’s R01 grants, overseen by the NSF Division of Mathematical Sciences.
Fei Jiang received an NIH K25 training grant for work she is doing with Srikantan Nagarajan, PhD, and Asish Raj, PhD, both of the Department of Radiology, to learn more about how Alzheimer’s disease affects brain function.
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We are proud to host Jaroslaw Harezlak, PhD, of the University of Indiana for a 3 p.m. September 14 talk entitled, "Use of Spatial- and Connectivity-based Cortical Brain Region Information in Regularized Regression."
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Highlights from the website |
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A Google Trends Approach to Identify Distinct Diurnal and Day-of-Week Web-Based Search Patterns Related to Conjunctivitis and Other Common Eye Conditions: Infodemiology Study.
Deiner MS, Kaur G, … Leitman TM, Porco TC.
J Med Internet Res. 2022 Jul.
Accuracy of Tongue Swab Testing Using Xpert MTB-RIF Ultra for Tuberculosis Diagnosis.
Andama A, Whitman GR, Crowder R, Cattamanchi A et al.
J Clin Microbiol. 2022 Jun 27.
Adaptation of the Person-Centered Maternity Care Scale in the United States: Prioritizing the Experiences of Black Women and Birthing People.
Afulani PA, Altman MR, Castillo E, et al.
Womens Health Issues. 2022.
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