Chancellor, Faculty Pen Commentary About Academic-Industry Ties

UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann joined S. Claiborne Johnson and Stephen L. Hauser in writing a commentary titled “Enhancing Ties Between Academy and Industry to Improve Health,” in Nature Medicine.

The commentary is published online. It states in part that “partnerships between industry and academia are essential to achieve the full promise of health improvement from the public investment in biomedical research. New models for such partnerships are developing and should be encouraged.”

Hauser, MD, is chair of the Department of Neurology at UCSF.

Johnston, MD, PhD, isis associate Vice Chancellor of Research, director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, professor of Neurology and epidemiology, and director of the Stroke Service at UCSF.

Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH became chancellor at UCSF on Aug. 3, 2009. At UCSF, Desmond-Hellmann also holds appointment as Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professor.

The University has a long history of working with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, dating to the birth of the biotech industry when UCSF research spawned Genentech in the 1970s.

The ongoing development of UCSF’s Mission Bay campus gave the University an opportunity to build space for the sort of partnerships that help drive top-notch research, innovation, education and patient care.

Many innovative partnerships are already formed as the result of early successes of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute and QB3, the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, as well as the arrival of pharmaceutical industry heavyweights such as Bayer, Celgene and Merck to the Mission Bay neighborhood, where UCSF's campus is thriving.

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