Issue #10
Q & A Spotlight: Gretchen Kiser
Evolution of the Research Development Office

"We, in tight collaboration with our campus partners, are in tune with valuable insight coming from the government and funders, the strategic goals of the institutional research enterprise, and with the individual efforts going on in different departments or different labs. We can bring these things together."
UCSF is First Academic Health System to Integrate Records Across Medical and Dental

School of Dentistry Dean Mike Reddy, Precision Medicine Platform Committee member, has led UCSF to be one of the first institutes to incorporate dental data into the larger medical record system. Research in recent years has linked oral health to numerous illnesses, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Oral health may also predict and exacerbate the development and severity of medical conditions throughout the body. Dentistry data will provide vital linkages in precision medicine. (Photo: SOD Dean Mike Reddy)
Precision Medicine in Action
Can Gut Microbes Impact Chemotherapy? So Far, the Answer is ‘Yes’ Advances in DNA sequencing, coupled with approaches to manipulating the microbiome in test tubes and in animal models, have helped set the stage to better understand exactly how the microbiome impacts drug activity. Read here
Machine Learning Enables Diagnosis of Elusive Global Killer
Sepsis diagnostic tool combines genomic sequencing with analysis of patients’ immune response for remarkable accuracy. Read article
Ida Sim, co-director of the UCSF-UC Berkeley Joint Program in Computational Precision Health program, welcomes new faculty and invites Ph.D. applicants aiming to transform health care. Read News Announcement | See CPH Website
Awards and Honors
Two Precision Medicine Platform Committee (PMPC) Members, Tippi Mackenzie (left) and Ida Sim (right), have been elected to the National Academies of Medicine. Read UCSF Announcement
Tung Nguyen, professor of medicine and PMPC member, was appointed as UCSF's inaugural Associate Vice Chancellor for Research - Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Anti-Racism (IDEA) within the Office of Research. Read UCSF Announcement | Related article on UCSF IDEA

Kathryn Philips was named editor-in-chief of the new Health Affairs Scholar journal - a journal of emerging and global health policy. The new journal is under development and will be launched in early 2023 as a fully open access journal. Read Article

Philips, a member of the NAM Roundtable on Genomics and Precision Health, shared that the work from the Equity group resulted in Improving Diversity of the Genomics Workforce and a piece in Genetics in Medicine on Improving Racial Diversity in the Genomics Workforce: An Examination of Challenges and Opportunities in August 2022.
Events
January 25-27, 2023
Precision Medicine World Conference 2023: UCSF co-sponsors PMWC and will feature 28+ speakers at the upcoming conference.

Recently appointed director of ARPA-H, Renee Wegrzn and Douglas Friedman, Engineering Biology Research Consortium, will join Keith Yamamoto on Day 1 for a special talk on "How New Public-private Collaboratives can Catalyze Transformative Health Breakthroughs"
January 27, 2023
UCSF SFBayCRN / IMPACT Annual Meeting: Reimagining Community Research Partnerships in a World Transformed by COVID-19. Register and learn more
Office of Science Policy and Strategy
Science and Health Policy - UCSF in DC

Chancellor Sam Hawgood and Vice Chancellor Keith Yamamoto (Office for Science Policy and Strategy) recently met with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. The convening covered legislation for both health and research such as Medicare / Medicaid extensions, Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), and other critical health policy work. This meeting occurred immediately before Pelosi announced the end of her historical House speakership - she has represented SF for 35 years, led the House Democrats for 20 years (8 years as first woman Speaker of the House, 12 years as Minority Leader).

(Photo from left to right: Patty Maysent, CEO UC San Diego Health, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood, Vice Chancellor Keith Yamamoto)
Hawgood and Yamamoto also met with U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), and later with U.S. Senator Richard Burr (North Carolina) jointly with Duke University's Victor Dzau (Chancellor of Health Affairs) and Mark McClellan (founding Director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy) to discuss matters of health policy and support of basic research as well as the support of ARPA-H to live in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) instead of NIH.

(Photo from left to right: Vice Chancellor Keith Yamamoto, Chancellor Sam Hawgood, Senator Dianne Feinstein, CEO of UCSD Health Patty Maysent, Francesca Vega, UCSF Vice Chancellor of Government and Community Relations)
Finally, Hawgood and Yamamoto visited longtime ally of UCSF Health and research, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, as she closed out her final term in Congress - having served in office for 18 years.

(Photo from left to right: Chancellor Sam Hawgood, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Vice Chancellor Keith Yamamoto)
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Annual Meeting

Yamamoto proposed ideas to help transform the US science and technology enterprise, including the biomedical and health sciences:

• Focus federal science & technology efforts on existential societal threats: OSTP-coordinated multi-agency, multi-sector science and technology initiatives focused on existential challenges in public health and health care; environment and climate change; energy production, utilization and storage; and food and water security. 

• Award high levels of public funds for science & technology to the private sector: Provide federal support at scale into private sector development of risky but impactful applications of newly discovered knowledge. 

• Develop science & technology in an equity framework: A coordinated, multi-agency, multi-sector governance framework for emerging science and technology, founded on core ethical principles with a focus on equity, extending from conception to post-market. 
NASEM “Endless Frontier: Next 75 Years” Symposium

How do we ensure the right science and technology workforce for the future? Yamamoto suggested two dramatic shifts: (1) reject careerism in academic incentives and rewards, instead recognizing risky/open/collaborative research, mentoring, and service; and (2) expand the workforce beyond researchers and engineers to train growers, processors, and manufacturers of biotech-based environment-sparing feedstocks and products.
The Elements of Precision Medicine