Dear Faisal,

The California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine (CIAPM) has been continuing to exhibit the wonderful work our program and network are accomplishing in the field of precision medicine.   

In this issue, we provide updates about members of our CIAPM community, Council Vice Chair Dr. Keith Yamamoto and Former Lead PI Dr. Sheldon Greenfield. We also share takeaways from CIAPM’s participation at the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting and on a recent site visit for the ACEs Research Program.  

We also are providing a rescheduled date in June for the California Precision Medicine Advisory Council quarterly meeting. 

Further, we highlight an interview with the first Lead Investigator of our recently launched Depression Research Program, Dr. Tony Yang.  

Lastly, we wish to amplify the work of the California Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander American Affairs in celebrating AAPI Heritage Month.  

We hope our network continues to have a wonderful Spring! 

The CIAPM Team 

Announcements

Keith Yamamoto Retires as Professor at UCSF

CIAPM Advisory Council member, Dr. Keith Yamamoto officially retired as Professor of Cellular and Molecular Biology at UCSF and is emeritus Vice Chair for Research. 

Dr. Yamamoto was instrumental in advocating for the creation of state and federal precision medicine initiatives, eventually becoming CIAPM and the All of Us Research Program, respectively. Dr. Yamamoto also advocated for the creation of the Advanced Research Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and helped with the launch of the Cancer Moonshot Initiative. He will continue in several policy roles, including remaining on CIAPM's Advisory Council. 



Read a special UCSF recognition about Dr. Yamamoto’s career at the article below: 

In Memoriam: Obituary to Dr. Sheldon Greenfield

CIAPM mourns the loss and remembers the life of Sheldon Greenfield, MD, Lead PI of one CIAPM's first funded projects, entitled “Early Prostate Cancer: Predicting Treatment Response” from 2015-2018 at UC Irvine. 

Dr. Greenfield was the Donald Bren Professor of Medicine and a founder and co-director of the Health Policy Research Institute at UC Irvine and served as an Epidemic Intelligence Surveillance Officer for the CDC.

Dr. Greenfield research was pivotal in determining that older breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancer patients often received subpar care unless they advocate for it, and his work on the “Medical Outcomes Study” found that primary care doctors can offer equally good care compared to specialists, especially if the doctor-patient relationship is strong. He also co-founded the Patient Care Outcomes Research Institute while at Tufts.

His team’s CIAPM-supported project sought to provide predictions of what treatments may work best for patients with early-stage prostate cancer. Several accomplishments from this project included the establishment of a collaborative health care network in Southern California, the creation of a leadership team and Citizen Scientist Committee, and the design and creation of a robust, federated health database.

Dr. Greenfield passed away in February and leaves a legacy of pioneering precision medicine work.

Read more about Dr. Greenfield’s lifetime of achievements in the New York Times and the UC Irvine obituary below. For more about Dr. Greenfield’s and his team’s CIAPM project, please read the archived demonstration project page and 2019 Evaluation Report. 

Program Updates

Site Visits for the ACEs Research Program

Chief Science Officer, Dr. David Reiner, attended a site visit for the UC Irvine ACEs team in April. During this site visit, the UC Irvine, Chapman University, and Children’s Hospital Orange County combined research team discussed preliminary data, community partnerships, mentorship and training opportunities, initial takeaways, and provided lab and clinic tours.  

California Precision Medicine Advisory Council

June CA Precision Medicine Advisory Council (CPMAC) Meeting

The California Precision Medicine Advisory council (CPMAC) last met virtually on February 21, 2025. The next gathering of the CPMAC has been rescheduled from May to June 23rd from 11AM - 1PM, where the public can view the proceedings virtually. Please follow the link below to register for the webinar.  

The June agenda will be posted on our Meetings webpage ahead of the next meeting. The meeting minutes from December are available on the CIAPM meetings page. 

Investigator Spotlight

Tony Yang, MD, PhD, is Lead Investigator and a Professor in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences with extensive clinical and translational research in adolescent depression and caring for patients suffering from depression. He has received numerous grants and awards, including from the National Institute of Mental Health and other NIH institutes, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to study adolescents with depression. 

Q: How does your work address health inequities in depression within the State of California? What is impactful or novel about your work?

"Depression greatly impacts minority health and increases the disparities in mental and behavioral health in the State of California. Clinician shortages and lack of access during the COVID-19 pandemic, among other obstacles, have resulted in more than half of teens who have major depressive disorder not receiving any mental health treatment in recent years. Treatment rates for depression are especially low among teens in racial and ethnic minority groups, particularly Latinx teens as well as among Black and Asian teens. Importantly, many teens live in areas in the State of California that have very limited or no access to adequate mental health care or support for interventions that can be delivered fully remotely to depressed teens. 

Depression is also a leading cause of disability in California and while adolescence is an especially vulnerable period for the onset of depression, it is an ideal neurodevelopmental period to intervene due to the significant increase in neural plasticity and vulnerability to depression. Our research is significant and important, since it focuses on 1) depression and thus addresses a leading cause of the burden of disease in the State of California; and 2) the critical and vulnerable developmental period of adolescence that is an ideal neurodevelopmental period to intervene due to increased neural plasticity, and the vulnerability, incidence, and prevalence of depression."

For the rest of this inspiring interview, visit the CIAPM News page. 

CIAPM-funded UCI ACEs Lead Investigator, Dr. Tallie Z. Baram, published an article entitled “The evolving neurobiology of early-life stress” in the journal, Neuron. 

CIAPM-funded UCLA ACEs Lead Investigator, Dr. George Slavich, published an article entitled “Theoretical and Quantitative Disconnect When Modeling Adverse Childhood Experiences Using a Common Factor Framework: An Argument for Causal Indicator Models in Stressor Research” in the journal, Child Development. 

CIAPM-funded UCSF ACEs Lead Investigator, Dr. Neeta Thakur was recently named the Faculty Director of Clinical Research Operations for the Clinical Trials Operations Unit under UCSF’s Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI). 

ASPET Washington Fellows Program

The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) will host a number of early-career scientists interested in science policy to learn about and become more engaged in public policy issues. This program hosts virtual webinars in science policy and culminates with a trip to Washington DC for a Capitol Hill visit and the ASPET 2026 Annual Meeting.  

Applications are due June 30, 2025.  

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - New Research Support Awards

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is launching a proposal call for through their New Research Support Awards. New Research Support awards will support research that centers community priorities and expertise to advance upstream solutions to racial and indigenous health equity. Lead applicant organizations must be community-based organizations with a strong track record of racial and/or Indigenous health equity work. 

Letters of Intent for New Research Support Awards due July 16, 2025 at 3pm EDT. 

NCI DCP Early Career Scientist Opportunity

The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP) opened a call for nominations to highlight early career scientists advancing research in cancer prevention. Selected scientists will be featured on the NCI DCP website and invited to present their research. The goal of this call is to increase visibility and recognition to early career scientists.

The due date for this opportunity is July 31, 2025. 

American Public Health Association 2025 Policy Action Institute

June 16-17 | Washington, D.C.

Through panels, hands-on workshops and networking sessions with top public health policymakers, this event aims to discuss how to navigate funding changes, influence policy to drive change and secure critical resources for various public health initiatives.  

Rural Health and Cancer Conference - University of Vermont

June 19-21 | Burlington, VT

The Rural Health and Cancer Conference aims to improve rural cancer outcomes by convening a wide-array of experts from across the nation in rural cancer healthcare delivery and build cross-disciplinary collaborations amongst rural cancer health experts. 

Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS)- 2025 Annual Meeting

September 8-11 | Pittsburgh, PA

The 2025 IAPHS Annual Meeting theme will attempt to find community-led solutions to health inequities as part of the conference theme, “Community Engagement in Population Health Science.” Planned plenaries will focus on methods, funding, and translation to policy by co-creating evidence for action, to ensure all communities have input in policy solutions. 

Undiagnosed Hackathon 2025 - Mayo Clinic

September 22-23 | Rochester, MN

The Undiagnosed Hackathon is an annual meeting to try and address undiagnosed diseases. This meeting brings together multidisciplinary teams of clinicians, bioinformaticians/molecular biologists, scientists, developers, AI specialists, and other thought leaders.