UCSF and the UCSF-affiliated J. David Gladstone Institutes have been named among the top 10 best places to work in U.S. academia, according to 2009 survey results announced today by “The Scientist” magazine. The magazine ranks UCSF as the second best academic work setting and the Gladstone Institutes as sixth.

UCSF Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellmann says she will focus on four priorities -- patients and health, people, discoveries and business -- to ensure that UCSF can achieve its advancing health worldwide™ mission.

Shots to prevent seasonal flu continue to be available this week at no cost to any member of the UCSF community with a UCSF ID badge.

Philanthropists Irwin and Joan Jacobs of La Jolla, CA are giving a $6.5 million gift to UCSF for head and neck cancer research. It is believed to be the largest private, U.S. gift for research supporting this disease.

The California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) is collaborating with a newly launched $7.5 million fund to provide startup capital for University of California bioscience entrepreneurs and a long-term endowment for QB3.

UCSF’s Keith Yamamoto played a key role in the creation of the National Institutes of Health’s High-Risk Research Awards, which foster greater innovation and scientific risk-taking. Read the Science Café story.

One UCSF police officer is deceased and a UCSF public safety dispatcher in serious condition at San Francisco General Hospital following an early morning motor vehicle accident while both men were off duty.

The UCSF Chief of Police will hold a media briefing regarding the vehicular death this morning of UCSF Police Officer Edson Veloro, offering comments on Detective Veloro’s outstanding service to UCSF. A limited status report will also be available on the condition of Police Dispatcher Art Dragon, who was also in the accident and was admitted to San Francisco General Hospital early this morning.