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UCSF Overview & Achievements

UCSF Overview

Although it is the smallest of the University of California campuses, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has earned and retained its distinction as one of the leading biomedical research and health science education centers in the world. As the sole UC campus dedicated exclusively to the health sciences, UCSF provides academic curricula for graduate and professional students in health science professions as well as training for advanced study for clinical residents, post-graduate clinical fellows, and research postdoctoral scholars. The Graduate Division serves nearly 1,200 students in 14 different degree programs. Areas of study range from basic health sciences to related social and behavioral sciences. In addition to graduate students, approximately 1,500 students are enrolled in UCSF’s professional schools, and over 1,000 medical residents, postdoctoral scholars, and other professionals receive health sciences training at UCSF. Within UCSF’s overarching commitment to biological, biomedical, and behavioral research; development of health policy; and community service is a strong devotion to fostering a diverse learning environment. UCSF believes that only through the confluence of a wide range of histories and perspectives can its students be prepared to effectively and efficiently serve the multicultural community they in which they live.

UCSF's Singular Achievements

  • First to discover that normal cellular genes can be converted to cancer genes (Nobel Prize in Medicine, J. Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus, 1989).
     
  • First to discover (together with Stanford) the techniques of recombinant DNA, the seminal step in the creation of the biotechnical industry.
     
  • First to discover the precise recombinant DNA techniques that led to the hepatitis B vaccine.
     
  • First to perform a successful surgery on a baby still in the mother's womb.
     
  • First to clone an insulin gene into bacteria, leading to the mass production of recombinant human insulin to treat diabetes.
     
  • First to synthesize human growth hormone and clone into bacteria, setting the stage for genetically engineered human growth hormone.
     
  • First to develop prenatal tests for sickle cell anemia and thalassemia.
     
  • First to train pharmacists as drug therapy specialists.
     
  • First to establish special care units for AIDS patients and among the first to identify HIV as the causative agent of the disease.
     
  • First to discover and name prions (PREE-ons), an infectious agent that is responsible for a variety of neurodegenerative diseases (Nobel Prize in Medicine, Stanley Prusiner, 1997).
     
  • First to develop catheter ablation therapy for tachycardia, which cures "racing" hearts without surgery.
     
  • First university west of the Mississippi to offer a doctoral degree in nursing.
     
  • First to discover that a missing substance called surfactant is the culprit in the death of newborn with respiratory distress syndrome; first to develop a synthetic substitute for surfactant, reducing infant death rates significantly.