A Word From the Chair

Future generations will look back on this time as the beginning of a golden age of neurology, a time when the exact molecular causes responsible for age-old neurologic disorders were first described. Revolutionary advances have changed our understanding of both common and unusual nervous system disorders - including dementia, stroke, multiple sclerosis, motor system disease, muscular dystrophy and cancer, to name but a few - and already have produced wonderful new opportunities to effectively diagnose and treat patients. The Department of Neurology at UCSF is proud of its tradition as a leading academic center dedicated to excellence in patient care, education and research. The Department's excellence is shaped by the clinical and research faculty who provide great breadth in understanding of most neurological conditions, and by the excellence and diversity of our medical residency and postgraduate training programs. For the past several years, the Department has been at or near the top of all departments of neurology nationwide as a recipient of biomedical funding from the National Institutes of Health, and one of our faculty - Dr. Stanley Prusiner - in 1997 became the first American neurologist to receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology.

To expand further its range of scientific focus, the Department is affiliated with several not-for-profit organizations. Among them are the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, and the Sandler Neurogenetics Center. In 1998, the Department and Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center embarked on a major state-funded medical research project to find the cause or causes of alcohol addiction and substance abuse. The Gladstone Institute, directed by Dr. Lennart Mucke, conducts a world-renowned research program into Alzheimer's disease in coordination with the Department's own Alzheimer's disease center. And the Sandler Neurogenetics Center, established in 1998, was organized to create a multi-disciplinary genetics effort among clinicians, physician-scientists, and basic neurologists to stimulate interactions and support state-of-the-art approaches into the causes, prevention and treatment of human nervous system disorders.

We hope that this website will provide a useful introduction to the programs and training opportunities within our Department.

Stephen L. Hauser, M.D.
Robert A. Fishman Distinguished Professor and Chair