Walter Miller, a pediatric endocrinologist who is recognized internationally for his studies of the genetics and cell biology of steroid hormone synthesis, will deliver the Ninth Annual Distinguished Clinical Research Lectureship on September 29.

Sam Hawgood, who Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellmann said “has proven himself to be a true leader," has been approved by the UC Regents for the position of dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and vice chancellor for medical affairs.

People in pain have the same degree of functional limitation as people who are pain-free but two to three decades older, according to a study of more than 18,000 older Americans led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.

A new way to select and switch on one cell type in an organism using light has helped answer a long-standing question about the function of one class of enigmatic nerve cells in the spinal cord.

The University of California, San Francisco has named Sam Hawgood, MBBS, as dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and vice chancellor for medical affairs. The appointment was reported today to the UC Board of Regents. It is effective immediately.

UCSF professor of anatomy Shinya Yamanaka, a scientist at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and Kyoto University, has won the 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for his discovery of a method of reprogramming adult skin cells to become embryonic-like stem cells.

Donald Kishi, a health sciences clinical professor of pharmacy, has been named associate dean of student and curricular affairs in the UCSF School of Pharmacy by Dean Mary Anne Koda-Kimble. Read story on pharmacy school website.

UCSF researchers have identified collections of tiny molecules known as microRNAs that affect distinct processes critical for the progression of cancer. The findings, they say, expand researchers’ understanding of the important regulatory function of microRNAs in tumor biology and point to new directions for future study and potential treatments.