UCSF News Briefs
House Speaker Tours Labs at Mission Bay
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi toured labs at Mission Bay on April 17 and praised the research being done there.
“I wish my colleagues [in Congress] could have walked through these labs with me,” she said after meeting with researchers specializing in stem cells and genomics. “What they would have seen is a vision of the future.”
The San Francisco Democrat began her tour with a visit to the stem cell lab at the UCSF-affiliated J. David Gladstone Institutes, where Deepak Srivastava, MD, a UCSF professor and director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, showed her a computer monitor displaying beating heart cells that were created using stem cells derived from a patient’s skin.
Pelosi’s next stop was the UCSF Center for Advanced Technology, a collection of highly advanced equipment available to researchers throughout the University. She was greeted by Joe DeRisi, PhD, a UCSF professor and molecular biologist, and several graduate students and postdoctoral candidates from his lab, which focuses on genomic approaches to the study of infectious disease.
Pelosi said she believes that continued investment in and commitment to science hold the key to solving problems as varied as disease, climate change and the current economic crisis.
“Science can make Americans healthier, the economy stronger and national security stronger, as well,” she said.
Medical School Ranked 5th in the Nation
The UCSF School of Medicine ranks fifth among all medical schools in the nation in a new survey on “America’s Best Graduate Schools” conducted by U.S. News & World Report.
Medical schools were assessed for both the quality of their research training and primary care training. The UCSF School of Medicine ranks fifth in both categories. It is one of only two universities in the country—along with the University of Washington—to rank in the top 10 in both categories. Both are public universities.
The UCSF medical school also ranks among the top 10 in all of its clinical specialty programs that were ranked in the new survey.
The rankings are reported online by U.S. News magazine at http://www.usnews.com/grad. They appear in the May issue of the magazine available on newsstands now.
The new rankings do not include nursing and pharmacy school programs, which U.S. News also surveys but not on an annual basis.
Dental School Names New Associate Dean
Richard Jordan, DDS, PhD, has been appointed the new associate dean for research in the UCSF School of Dentistry. The appointment will be effective May 1, 2009. Jordan will replace John Greenspan, BDS, PhD, who has stepped down after years of outstanding service in this role.
The associate dean for research is directly responsible to the dean for the oversight of research and graduate affairs in the School of Dentistry. Jordan will work with the dean, the other associate deans, the department chairs and others to maintain the school’s overall success in fulfilling its research mission. His role as associate dean for research will be carried out in conjunction with his current faculty and division chair positions in the Department of Orofacial Sciences.
Jordan is professor of oral pathology in the School of Dentistry and professor of pathology in the School of Medicine. After earning a DDS degree in 1986, Jordan engaged in specialty training in oral pathology and oral medicine and earned a master of science degree in oral pathology, all at the University of Toronto. He then went on to earn a PhD degree from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of London, examining early molecular biomarkers of lymphoma development. He was a faculty member at the University of Toronto from 1995 to 2000 before relocating to UCSF.