Partnership will cover telehealth, scientific and technical development, and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, UC Davis

UC Davis Health System has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, to partner to improve the health and well-being of its residents through the exchange of ideas, data and research on telehealth, scientific and technical development, and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Sinaloa has partnered with UC Davis because of the health system’s internationally recognized leadership in telehealth technology and neurodevelopmental research, said Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, who directs the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities and community engagement for the UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center.

Approximately 27 percent of Sinaloa’s population lives in rural settings. The government and secretariat of health of Sinaloa have pledged to strengthen the state’s health infrastructure and to increase access to quality health care using telehealth technology, particularly for populations residing in remote rural areas.

“The government of Sinaloa is interested in creating the infrastructure to support telemedicine and telehealth services to significantly improve access to primary-care services for its nearly 3 million residents,” said Aguilar-Gaxiola, a professor of clinical internal medicine.

“They also would like UC Davis to share its expertise in autism and fragile X syndrome with Mexican health professionals and families to improve early identification, diagnosis and treatment,” Aguilar-Gaxiola said. “A third goal is to foster scientific and technical development to support health education primarily aimed at primary-care settings.”

UC Davis is a national leader in extending access to health-care services to rural and underserved areas through telehealth. The UC Davis Center for Health and Technology uses high-speed data lines linked to video units to connect large, urban medical centers with community hospitals and clinics. The technology allows specialists and subspecialists to consult with community physicians and their patients via live, interactive videoconferencing.

Similarly, the UC Davis MIND Institute is internationally known for its leading-edge research into neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders and fragile X syndrome. The institute’s world renowned scientists engage in research to find improved treatments, as well as  causes and cures, for autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), fragile X syndrome, Tourette syndrome and other neurodevelopmental conditions.

The MOU with Sinaloa is the most recent affiliation between UC Davis Health System and a Mexican entity.

Earlier this year, health system leaders traveled to Mexico City to forge a similar MOU with the Instituto Carlos Slim de la Salud (the Carlos Slim Health Institute), A.C. That agreement is focused on raising awareness of mental-health issues and sharing useful and innovative information to enable the early identification of autism and fragile X syndrome. Founded in 2007, the institute promotes research, develops initiatives and funds projects to address health challenges that affect Mexico and the broader Latin American region.

And in 2010, UC Davis Health System partnered with Shriners Hospital for Children — Northern California and the Mexican Health Ministry to establish a burn fellowship program for physicians from Mexico. The 12-month fellowship program trains two physicians each year in resuscitation and burn-care management, reconstructive surgery and clinical research.

UC Davis Health System is improving lives and transforming health care by providing excellent patient care, conducting groundbreaking research, fostering innovative, interprofessional education, and creating dynamic, productive partnerships with the community. The academic health system includes one of the country’s best medical schools, a 631-bed acute-care teaching hospital, an 800-member physician’s practice group and the new Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. It is home to a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, an international neurodevelopmental institute, a stem cell institute and a comprehensive children’s hospital. Other nationally prominent centers focus on advancing telemedicine, improving vascular care, eliminating health disparities and translating research findings into new treatments for patients. Together, they make UC Davis a hub of innovation that is transforming health for all. For more information, visit healthsystem.ucdavis.edu.

New facility lets researchers from five institutions work under one roof.

Stem cells are tiny things, microscopic in fact. It’s the power of their pluripotency, their ability to become any kind of cell in the human body (and thus potentially fix almost any kind of human ailment) that makes them huge in the future of medicine.

By contrast, the new four-story Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine building – dubbed a “collaboratory” – which celebrated its grand opening Nov. 29 – is indisputably massive: a $127 million, 150,000-square-foot modern edifice of glass and concrete perched above the Pacific Ocean and entirely dedicated to advancing and fulfilling the therapeutic promise of stem cells.

The consortium opened its doors with a ribbon-cutting ceremony involving dozens of local officials, scientists, and patient advocates. But more than just a celebration of the opening of a building, the event exalted the driving idea behind it: Stem cell researchers from five distinct local institutions – UC San Diego, the Sanford/Burnham Medical Research Institute, The Scripps Research Institute, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology – working together under one roof.

“Being side-by-side, our laboratories steps apart, means advances can happen more quickly, and we can translate discoveries faster,” said Dr. Catriona Jamieson, director of stem cell research at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, who spoke as a representative of the principal investigators who will have research labs in the new facility.

The actual structure, built with the latest “green” construction materials and technologies, is purposefully designed to encourage mingling of people and ideas. The auditorium is limited to 150 seats to promote engagement. Each floor features four laboratory “neighborhoods,” one in each corner of the building, to further a sense of community and shared mission. The labs, however, are connected by large, open spaces that encourage passing scientists to stop, talk and share. Whiteboard walls are there to jot down details and inspirations. There are special meeting rooms for formal conferences and for simply reading or writing. The administrative space is pooled: “No hierarchies, no silos,” in the words of Louis R. Coffman, the consortium’s vice president and chief operating officer.

Located on the UC San Diego campus on Torrey Pines Scenic Drive, adjacent to the Salk Institute, the consortium building is the ninth facility erected under the auspices of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), a state agency established in 2004 with the passage of Proposition 71 and charged with overseeing $3 billion in tax-supported funding for stem cell research at California universities and research institutions. UC San Diego research alone has received more than $100 million in CIRM funding since 2005.

[Related: Stem cell research heads to the clinic, UCTV programs on stem cell research]

Jonathan Thomas, chair of CIRM’s Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, said the new consortium “is exactly what the people envisioned when they made that unprecedented commitment to science.”

Consortium president Dr. Edward W. Holmes went further, describing the new collaboratory as the first of its kind in the world, though perhaps a somewhat familiar notion locally. He and others praised the vision and leadership of UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, who was instrumental in the consortium obtaining a long-term lease of UC land on which to build.  Eighteen of the 24 principal investigators who will be moving their research labs to the consortium building in coming weeks are from UC San Diego.

“The consortium carries forward the vision of early pioneers like Jonas Salk and Roger Revelle, who had a big idea about creating a collaborative research environment supported by a city,” said Richard Atkinson, president emeritus of the University of California and former chancellor of UC San Diego. “And that has happened, with numerous first-rate research institutions making their home here. I think I can safely, if boldly, say that science over the last 50 years has flourished in San Diego more than anywhere else in the world.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders when he spoke at the consortium opening celebration: “No other city has this formula for success down better.”

Ultimately, though, it’s the limitless potential of stem cell research that really excites people, offering hope to patients and their families who are suffering from degenerative diseases such as cancer, spinal cord injury and type 1 diabetes.

“We don’t just give money away,” said T. Denny Sanford, the South Dakota businessman and philanthropist who pledged $30 million to the consortium that now bears his name. “People like Malin Burnham, Irwin Jacobs, John Moores and myself invest in projects that improve lives and make the world a better place. We expect a return on that investment. And there’s no better way to do that than to invest in basic health research and the goals of this consortium.”

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“Working together is more powerful than working alone.”

Estela Garcia delivers keynote at celebration of UCSF University Community Partnerships program

Projects involving UC San Francisco and community partners that encourage children to learn about medical careers, maintain proper dental hygiene and lose weight by learning to swim were recently celebrated for improving the health and well-being of San Franciscans.

“Working together is much more powerful than working alone,” said Estela Garcia, executive director of Instituto Familiar de la Raza. “… I’m certainly one of those people who believes this is the direction to go.”

Garcia delivered the keynote address at the Third Annual Partnerships Celebration of UCSF’s University Community Partnerships (UCP) at Genentech Hall, where other participants at the event echoed her sentiments about the importance of collaborating on projects that strengthen the community.

Garcia was born in the Central Valley and is the daughter of farm workers. She said her grandfather was a community organizer in the 1920s and she was raised with the concept of community empowerment.

She talked about the collision of two very different cultures – the university and nonprofits – and how to develop and sustain healthy and successful working relationships that result in “making a difference out in the street.”

“We can’t be satisfied with where we’re at,” she said. “We have to continue to strive because we’re not at health equity yet.”

University officials agree. John Stobo, M.D., senior vice president in Health Sciences and Services in the University of California Office of the President, said academic health centers are very special institutions that have to put society’s best interests ahead of their own.

“Increasingly, the success of academic health centers will not simply be judged or based on what they do in research, education and clinical care, but by the value they add to their communities,” Stobo said. “And their leaders will also be judged (that way), and not only by where their center sits in U.S. News & World Report or the amount of [National Institutes of Health] money that’s generated.”

He was interrupted by applause from the audience.

Stobo said he recently asked UC’s five medical centers and medical schools to start cataloging their community partnership programs, partly to “raise the flag” in terms of their importance at UC.

For its part, UCSF has historically had a strong but uncoordinated presence of community outreach activities in San Francisco and beyond. UCSF established the University Community Partnerships Office in 2005 in part to coordinate more productive partnerships between philanthropy, local government, community-based nonprofits and UCSF. These activities are overseen by the UCP Council, which includes representatives from both the university and community.

Jeffrey Bluestone, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and provost at UCSF, said the work being done by the UCP is as innovative as anything being done at the university, if not more so. “We in the leadership of UCSF feel incredibly committed to this program,” he said.

This year, the program included 12 grant recipients and five partnership grants involving UCSF, along with the three major award recipients honored at the UCP celebration.

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SF HIP aims to connect UCSF’s research capital with community partners to improve health.

UCSF's Kevin Grumbach (left) and Laura Schmidt (right) at SF HIP coordinating council meeting

UC San Francisco and an array of community, academic and civic collaborators are wrapping up the first year of an ambitious effort to build partnerships to enhance the well-being of San Francisco residents and eliminate health disparities.

San Francisco Health Improvement Partnerships (SF HIP), a cross-cutting initiative of the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), aims to connect the university’s research capital with the expertise and needs of community partners. The goal is to implement strategies to measurably impact health in San Francisco — and to promote health equity along the way.

“In the past, research has often been seen as unilaterally serving the needs of the researchers rather than the community,” said Kevin Grumbach, M.D., co-director of CTSI’s Community Engagement and Health Policy (CEHP) Program. “SF HIP is an effort to do it differently; to have the outcome not be theoretical, but rather a discrete and sustainable change in community health.”

SF HIP is conducted in a spirit of participatory research with oversight by its Coordinating Council. Community partners include representatives from CTSI, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco Unified School District, San Francisco Hospital Council, Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, and health equity coalitions representing the African American, Latino and Asian/Pacific Islander communities. CTSI’s CEHP program serves as the administrative core of the initiative and provides planning funds.

“SF HIP brings UCSF and its resources closer to the community, and all the important stakeholders together to improve community health,” said Amor Santiago, DPM, MPH, executive director of APA Family Support Services, and representative of the Asian/Pacific Islander Health Parity Coalition on the SF HIP Coordinating Council. “This effort has the potential to lead and coordinate public health efforts across the spectrum of providers in medical, mental and social health emphasizing prevention.”

So far, SF HIP working groups have been launched to focus on four pressing needs: physical activity and nutrition, hepatitis B, alcohol abuse and dental caries in children.

“Part of this effort involves laying a foundation for long-term collaboration,” said Ellen Goldstein, M.A., program manager of the CEHP program. “That includes developing an ongoing framework for UCSF to productively engage with a wide range of community partners to tackle our city’s most compelling health problems.”

[Related: View more about UCSF's commitment to the community]

SF HIP is part of UCSF’s expansive community service efforts that span outreach in local, regional and global communities.

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UCSF prepares to launch Participant Recruitment Service.

Bill Balke, UC San Francisco

Although the vast majority of Americans (94 percent) understand the importance of taking part in clinical research to advance medical science, according to the online resource CenterWatch, three in four adults have little to no knowledge about how clinical research works or how to participate.

Looking to bridge that information gap, UC San Francisco’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) supported and coordinated AWARE for All Clinical Research Education Day on Nov. 5. The event, which happens in major cities across the U.S., was held in San Francisco for the first time. It attracted hundreds of attendees and brought together more than a dozen community partners who provided health-related information and free health screenings, such as glucose and blood pressure checks, chiropractic evaluations and flu shots, among other services.

“Volunteers are really the engine of clinical research, and without them there is no research,” said Bill Balke, M.D., director of CTSI’s Clinical Research Services (CRS) program, which is preparing to launch the UCSF Participant Recruitment Service (PRS). The PRS, which was responsible for the event, provides services to support UCSF and affiliate researchers in recruiting study participants.

Balke led off the event with the presentation, “What Clinical Research Means to You,” and was one of several physicians, nurses and other health professionals on hand to address topics ranging from cancer supportive care to maintaining memory. More than 12 UCSF programs and departments joined in the event providing speakers, free health screenings or recruiting for studies.

Attendees had a wide range of experience with and understanding about clinical studies, and expressed varying reasons for attending the event:

• “I don’t know anything about [clinical research], but my friends and I are here to learn.”
• “I’m interested in learning more about studies. It’s the ‘clinical’ I don’t understand.”
• “There is some valuable information and it is good to hear from the experts.”
• “I would volunteer for a study, but I’ve never been asked.”

“This was a great opportunity to connect researchers and clinicians with potential research volunteers, and to hopefully dispel some myths about clinical research,” said Nariman Nasser, director of the UCSF Participant Recruitment Service. “And considering that more than 80 percent of clinical trials are delayed due to recruitment problems, we as a scientific community have a lot to learn by hearing directly from the community in order to gain a better understanding of the barriers to study recruitment.”

Other co-sponsors included the Stanford Cancer Institute, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, BreastCancerTrials.org, Biogen Idec and EMD Serono. AWARE for All, which provides clinical research education events nationwide, is a project of the Center for Information & Study of Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP).

CTSI at UCSF, a member of the national, National Institutes of Health-funded Clinical and Translational Science Awards network focusing on accelerating research to improve health, provides services for researchers at every stage through its Accelerate, and promotes online collaboration and networking through UCSF Profiles.

$1.75M grant will allow UCSF faculty, students to provide integrated model for delivering primary health, dental care to children at five Oakland middle schools.

The Havenscourt Health Center recently opened in an Oakland middle school to serve youth and families as part of the Elev8 project.

UC San Francisco, the Oakland Unified School District and an array of community-based partners are embarking on a quest to improve the lives of disadvantaged middle-school students, thanks to a $1.75 million grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies.

The three-year award to UCSF’s Elev8 Healthy Students and Families project will allow faculty and students from UCSF’s schools of nursing and dentistry to provide a new, integrated model for delivering primary health and dental care to children at five Oakland middle schools. The project also will increase health education and expose middle school youth and their families to health careers.

“Good health is fundamental to children reaching their full potential in school and in life and so our UCSF Elev8 Healthy Students and Families project dovetails perfectly with the work of our partners,” said lead applicant, Linda Franck, R.N., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Family Health Care Nursing at UCSF.

The program also offers UCSF nursing and dental students important learning opportunities, says co-leader Bill Bird, D.D.S., M.P.H., Dr.P.H., a professor in the Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences.

“This project gives us the opportunity to establish a new model for interdisciplinary education of advanced practice nursing and dental students in community-based health care,” Bird said, “and builds a health workforce for the future that is better equipped to work for and meet the health needs of disadvantaged communities.”

Elev8 is a national initiative funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies that brings together schools, families and the community in underserved neighborhoods to help students succeed in school and in life. Work is underway in Chicago, Baltimore and New Mexico. In Oakland, the new grant will augment a previous Elev8 grant that will:

• Provide coordinated health, mental health and dental services,
• Engage families to support and advocate for their youth, and
• Offer academic and mentoring support in extended day, Saturday and summer programs.

Alameda County has supported school-based health centers for more than 15 years. Through the UCSF Elev8 project, faculty, nurse practitioner and dental students will enhance and expand primary care services at these existing Federally Qualified Health Center partners and increase preventative services, particularly in the areas of dental care and healthy lifestyles, as well as treat children with chronic health conditions.

The youth who will benefit from the new funds are sixth-to-eighth-graders at five Oakland campuses: Roosevelt, Havenscourt, Madison, West Oakland and United for Success. In fall 2010, these schools enrolled 1,639 students, of whom 763 were Latino, 480 were African American, 247 were Asian and 1,259 were economically disadvantaged. In fact, more than 85 percent of students at Elev8 Oakland schools are living in poverty.

These students face a variety of other challenges: violence, safety concerns, drugs, health problems, and parents with low levels of education and high levels of unemployment. These factors can negatively affect the health and academic achievement of students, according to Elev8 Oakland. The project targets middle-school students because research shows that children who make the transition to high school smoothly are more likely to graduate and go on to and finish college.

“We’re really excited about the chance to enliven our curriculum and to add a social justice component,” said Naomi Schapiro, R.N., Ph.D., C.P.N.P. “Middle-school students are not on people’s radar. They are at the cusp between being children and adolescents. And they’re going through a lot of physical and developmental changes.”

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IAVA honors Operation Mend spokesman and patient Cpl. Aaron Mankin; veterans group also honors Stephen Colbert.

IAVA honorees Stephen Colbert (left) and Cpl. Aaron Mankin (click image for larger view)

U.S. Marine Cpl. Aaron Mankin, the first patient of UCLA’s Operation Mend, has been honored with the 2011 Veterans Leadership Award by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the nation’s first and largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mankin received the award Nov. 9 at IAVA’s fifth annual Heroes Gala, hosted by NBC’s Brian Williams at the Cipriani 42nd Street restaurant in New York City. The event was part of the organization’s “Veterans Week 2011.”

Mankin, an Iraq veteran and wounded warrior, is a spokesperson for Operation Mend, a unique partnership among Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, and the Veterans Affairs–Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System established in 2007 to help treat U.S. military personnel wounded during service in Iraq and Afghanistan by providing reconstructive surgery, other surgical services and mental health support.

IAVA also honored Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” with the 2011 Civilian Service Award.

“Each year, the Heroes Gala reminds us why we do what we do,” said IAVA founder and executive director Paul Rieckhoff. ”It is an inspiring night that pays tribute to the men, women and families who have served our country. IAVA was thrilled to honor Stephen Colbert and Aaron Mankin, who have both made huge impacts on the lives of vets across the country, and we were very happy to have Brian Williams back as master of ceremonies for the third year. His commitment to veterans of all generations is truly inspiring.”

Rieckhoff noted that, through very different approaches, Colbert and Mankin have fought for veterans and their families.

“Aaron is one of our community’s single most powerful advocates,” Rieckhoff said. “His leadership, courage, tenacity and humility have inspired wounded veterans and countless people around the world. Aaron has made the impossible possible; his story is one of hope and perseverance that all Americans must know about.”

Mankin was severely wounded in Iraq when his vehicle rolled over an improvised explosive device, or IED. He suffered intense burns over his body, essentially losing his ears, nose and mouth. He became Operation Mend’s first patient. More than 50 surgeries later, he serves as a spokesperson for the organization and is a constant reminder of the sacrifices American service members have been making over nearly a decade of war.

“I have been blessed in my involvement with UCLA’s Operation Mend,” Mankin said. ”The doctors, staff and families participating in this trailblazing program will forever be my heroes. Operation Mend is devoted to quite literally changing the very face of war. Our warriors, the people we call heroes, deserve nothing less than the best their country has to offer in every sector of commerce.

“I am honored to be recognized by IAVA as this year’s recipient of their Veterans Leadership Award. IAVA is helping shape the futures of our sons and daughters fighting these wars. To educate, employ and empower this great generation of service members is a responsibility we all share and is an obligation we must all uphold. I am proud to be a part of this organization and all that Paul and the IAVA board accomplish on behalf of our newest veterans.”

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UCSF leads science extravaganza.

The free science extravaganza billed as Discovery Day showcased the pure fun of science with a non-stop program of more than 170 interactive exhibits, experiments, games and shows.

UC San Francisco‘s Bruce Alberts, Ph.D., professor emeritus, spearheaded the festival in San Francisco, one of four cities in the country to receive a National Science Foundation grant to produce a science festival this year.

As co-founder of the Science & Health Education Partnership (SEP), a 24-year-old collaboration between UCSF and the San Francisco Unified School District to support quality science education for K-12 students, Alberts has devoted his long scientific career to improving science learning and teaching. The former president of the National Academy of Sciences and editor of the journal Science thanked the many volunteers from UCSF and elsewhere who helped make the festival a success.

Among those deserving extra credit for orchestrating the Oct.  29-Nov. 6 Bay Area Science Festival is UCSF’s Kishore Hari, Ph.D., who directed the festival as part of his work at SEP.

“This shows that there is a huge appetite for science and technology education,” he said. “It’s the job of those of us who teach and those who legislate to feed that hunger.”

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee stood near home plate at AT&T Park to declare it “Bay Area Science Festival Day.”

Along with the 50,000 attendees from events earlier this week throughout the Bay Area, including a free series of talks at UCSF, more than 70,000 people participated in what organizers are declaring the largest science festival of its type in the U.S. The Bay Area Science Festival encompassed more than 100 mostly free events involving dozens of organizations and partners in Northern California. Partners included UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and other universities and science centers.

Science-based events scheduled Oct. 29-Nov. 6.

(From left) Sonya Haymaker, Megan Pun, Jessica Rice and Elizabeth Holcombe from UCSF Camps at the kickoff event for the upcoming Bay Area Science Festival.

Led by UC San Francisco, the Bay Area Science Festival, Oct. 29-Nov. 6, unites an unprecedented brain trust of the region’s scientific and educational partners in what is expected to be one of the largest science-based events ever held in the United States.

Partners include UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and other universities and science centers.

For more information, visit the Bay Area Science Festival website, UCSF’s festival Web package or these related stories:

• Bruce Alberts: He has science in his soul
• UCSF to host Bay Area Science Festival lectures at lunchtime
• Leaders hail science as key to nation’s strength, success during festival kickoff
• UCSF to lead first Bay Area Science Festival: Oct. 29-Nov. 6

Partnership with Johnson & Johnson will fund proof-of-concept research that brings innovative science to market.

Regis Kelly

The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) has signed an agreement with the Johnson & Johnson Corporate Office of Science and Technology (COSAT) to fund University of California proof-of-concept research that brings innovative science to market.

This agreement, along with the Rogers Family Foundation of Oakland, helps fund QB3’s “Bridging-the-Gap” program, initiated in 2008 to support scientific projects that have high commercial potential led by faculty at UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. These awards are intended to address the critical gap between federal funding for basic research and investments in product development. Each award typically provides $250,000 over two years for research.

Former award-winning projects include a prototype of an artificial kidney developed by Shuvo Roy, UCSF professor of bioengineering and therapeutic sciences, and an automated technique to improve prostate cancer screening, invented by Amy Herr, UC Berkeley associate professor of bioengineering.

The agreement establishes the JJSI-QB3 Awards as a component of the “Bridging-the-Gap” program and calls for annual awards over the next three years. QB3 will provide the awarded projects with services from the QB3 Startup-In-A-Box program, and potentially find space for them in the QB3 incubator.

“This agreement is an innovative academic-industry partnership model specifically focused on startup formation,” said Neena Kadaba, QB3’s director of industry alliances. “These awards are designed to provide a crucial amount of pre-commercial support to help would-be entrepreneurs address potential scientific risks in their technology before launching a company.”

The nine projects funded by QB3’s “Bridging-the-Gap” program to date already have resulted in five new companies and three licenses to existing firms.  The five companies formed in the past two years have raised over $9 million in private and public commercial funding.

”This agreement represents an important initiative for QB3 by providing additional opportunities for innovative researchers at our universities to create companies of value,” said Regis Kelly, director of QB3.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.

Community Outreach Internship Program’s 2011 class receives diplomas.

Paula Alexander receives her diploma after graduating from the Community Outreach Internship Program from UCSF's Damon Lew and program alumna Karche Bass

Karche Bass looks proudly at the new crop of graduates receiving their diplomas at UC San Francisco’s Parnassus campus. A year ago, she was exactly where many of them are today: relying on government assistance or living homeless.

“I was unemployed and a single mom. I was really looking for work but I just couldn’t get it right,” said Bass, 23, who graduated from the UCSF-sponsored Community Outreach Internship Program (COIP) last year. “A lot of things I started, I barely finished because of life obstacles in the way. But when I finished the COIP program, I said, ‘I got this experience. I got this education; I’m going to put it to work.’”

And she did exactly that. Bass now works as an analyst for the UCSF Human Resources department. She was part of the 2010 COIP class, a partnership between UCSF and Jewish Vocational Service (JVS). This program provides unemployed parents from underserved San Francisco communities training and work experience to prepare them for today’s competitive job market and to become self-sufficient.

“UCSF is committed to creating economic opportunities for the San Francisco community,” said Barbara J. French, vice chancellor for University Relations at UCSF. “COIP has proven to be a particularly effective model because of its success in providing long-standing employment and career benefits while also helping UCSF develop a well-trained and diverse workforce.”

COIP ran successfully from 1999 to 2006, graduating 100 participants and placing 85 percent of them into jobs at UCSF. After a hiatus, in 2010, the program was revived by UCSF and JVS in recognition of the potential match between the high demand for administrative workers and high poverty and unemployment in some San Francisco neighborhoods.

Last Friday, 18 women and one man received their diplomas, taking a step closer to their goal of getting a full-time job.

“This diploma means I can do anything,” said Paula Alexander, one of this year’s graduates. “I learned how to be independent and how to stay motivated. This was the first time I was on welfare and the money was not a lot, so things were very difficult but I stuck with it.”

The 46-year-old mother of a teenage daughter got laid off in 2007, and had been struggling since then to make ends meet. She heard about COIP through a representative at the Human Services Agency of San Francisco.

“I just joined. I went and said, ‘I wanted to do this’,” Alexander said. “So basically that’s what I did. I filled out the application that very second and gave it to them. I was fortunate to get picked. I prayed on it, actually.”

Alexander had been on her own since she was 16. After her unemployment insurance ran out, she was evicted from her apartment in 2009. Alexander and her daughter moved into her mother’s house, a place she hasn’t been in 30 years.

“It was really a challenge,” Alexander said. “I’m grateful for my mom who helped by taking my daughter to school and things like that, but it was very challenging because I was always used to working and taking care of her by myself.”

Alexander and her classmates kept each other motivated through the rigorous five-month training program.

“It was stressful,” she said. “If someone wasn’t there, we were always concerned about where they are and if they’re okay because we knew we were limited in the number of days we could miss.”

This camaraderie seems to be a serendipitous by-product of the COIP program.

“We all looked out for each other, like making sure we were there on time, making sure we were there period,” Bass said. “I was reminded of all the training we went through by looking at the new graduates here who are going through what we went through this time last year.”

Graduating from COIP does not necessarily guarantee employment. It places 85 percent of graduates into jobs at UCSF. As of 2005, 62 percent of COIP graduates advanced to administrative assistant II roles from clerk positions; and 26 percent advanced to administrative assistant III positions at UCSF.

“In the beginning I thought I could get a job immediately, but I realized it’s something you have to earn,” Bass said. “You can’t assume it will be handed to you. You have to learn to do it yourself.”

As Bass scans around the room, she sees a sea of people with enthusiasm and hope, emotions she felt a year ago upon her own graduation.

“I want to remember that I came from that, and I can be an inspiration because I started from this internship and I’m currently working in a full-time position,” she said. “It is a hard thing and I don’t want to say that it’s easy but then you have to work at it and be persistent. You can’t just go through the program, and say this is where I stop. You have to continue. That’s what I did and that’s what I would want to tell future COIP participants.”

Interactive map, videos, slideshows highlight UCSF’s work in the community.

Click image to view interactive map of UCSF's contributions to advance health in San Francisco

Since its founding nearly 150 years ago, UC San Francisco has been committed to serving the community, and its reach extends far beyond the walls of the university.

As a public health sciences university, top U.S. health care provider and leader in biomedical research, UCSF draws on its vast network to develop partnerships with community-based organizations, schools and clinics to further it’s advancing health worldwide mission.

Launching today (Oct. 20), the “UCSF: Committed to the City” Web project highlights UCSF’s work across San Francisco. The project features an interactive map, videos, slideshows and audio clips to provide a first-hand look at the many lives that UCSF touches every day. The website debuts with 20 stories ranging from free public health screenings to how UCSF uses its expertise to improve science education and develop a skilled workforce.

The interactive map emphasizes UCSF’s work throughout San Francisco and also serves as ago-to resource for the UCSF community and city neighbors to learn more about the community and university. New stories will continue to be added to the website.

UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann

The stories told in the “UCSF: Committed to the City” project underscore UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann’s pledge to advance health through public service. “UCSF is a public university. We have a public mission, which all of us collectively love,” said Desmond-Hellmann, M.D., M.P.H., in her State of the University remarks on Oct. 4.

Among the highlights of the UCSF web project are:

• A video about Chanta Helton, a staff member in the UCSF Department of Neurology and 2010 graduate of UCSF’s Community Outreach Internship Program, which helps the unemployed get back to work with opportunities for job training and employment experience in administrative support positions at UCSF.
• A video from San Francisco’s Sunday Streets in the Bayview neighborhood, where UCSF School of Dentistry residents, students and faculty checked children for cavities, provided oral hygiene instruction and counseled parents about treatment.
• An audio slideshow featuring several students from San Francisco Unified School District learning about how the human heart works with real human specimens. The opportunity is made possible through the Daly Ralston Resource Center at UCSF’s Science & Health Education Partnership which offers teachers the chance to check out science materials — ranging from curriculum kits to human specimens — for their science classes.

Produced by the Office of the Vice Chancellor, Strategic Communications and University Relations, the “Committed to the Community” Web package was created by media specialist Kevin Eisenmann and interns Nolan Feeney and Sarah Craig.