FYI…UCSF in the News is a daily summary of news stories published worldwide that highlight UCSF, its affiliated programs, and issues that affect the University.  To read the full news story, click the individual headlines listed below.

On the second Wednesday of each month, FYI…UCSF in the News includes an additional "Research Roundup" section that lists research papers authored by UCSF faculty and published in the journals Cell, Health Services Research, JAMA, Lancet, Nature, NEJM, Nursing Research, and Science.

UCSF PRINT AND ONLINE COVERAGE

  • Need to circumcise newborns debated (Deseret Morning News)
    The Deseret News reports: "Two local philosophers and an anti-circumcision advocate say circumcision of newborn males is an unnecessary surgery that fails to provide any significant physical or emotional health benefits. But some physicians disagree, writing in peer-reviewed medical journals that the procedure has been proven to help prevent disease. ... Dr. Edgar J. Schoen, clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of California in San Francisco, wrote in the December 2007 issue of Canadian Family Physician that 'compelling published medical evidence, particularly over the past 20 years, has shown that circumcision offers protection against multiple medical conditions.'"
  • Focus on creating a healthier community -- Op-Ed (Battle Creek Enquirer -- Michigan)
    The Battle Creek Enquirer writes: "In a recent edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, who led a research team at the University of California-San Francisco in a study of childhood obesity, suggested that this public health crisis could only be solved with 'sweeping policy changes at all levels to make sure our children have access to healthy foods, to physical activity and safe spaces to exercise.' Battle Creek Parks and Recreation is refining its focus in order to respond to this challenge."
  • Doctor heals with pain and poetry (MSNBC)
    The Orange County Register reports: "The year Frank Meyskens saw his first dying patients, he wrote his first poem. His medical school classmates at UC San Francisco coped with the psychological rigors of death by running on the campus track or disappearing into a hospital closet to cry. Meyskens reached into his pocket."
  • For the Love of Henry (Modesto Bee)
    Five-year-old Henry Johnson from Turlock has Apert syndrome, where his fingers and toes were fused together and his skull had already hardened before birth. "Henry had his first head reconstruction operation -- called a cranial vault reconstruction -- done at UCSF," reports the Modesto Bee, and his parents researched additional surgeries to separate his fingers and toes.
  • Fundraiser puts smiles on faces (Nevada Appeal)
    Seven-year-old Ashlee Harris was born with Mobius syndrome, a rare birth defect caused by the absence or underdevelopment of cranial nerves that control eye movement and facial expression. ... Last summer she underwent an eight-hour surgery at University of California, San Francisco Medical Center to help correct the condition, and, in effect -- put a smile on her face for the first time. ... Saturday, she used her newfound expression [at a fundraiser in Carson City]."
  • Alzheimers Research Target May Be a Dead End (Longview News-Journal)
    Brian Shoichet, professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at UCSF, and colleagues report in the journal Nature Chemical Biology that "amyloid inhibitor research -- a once-promising pathway for research into preventing and treating Alzheimer's disease -- may have been derailed by a surprise chemical finding."
  • Follow-Through: Fountain of Youth (Forbes)
    Forbes reports: "Two years ago we described how neuroscientist Michael Merzenich was pursuing an audacious idea -- that aging minds could be made young again if prodded and exercised in the right ways. Merzenich, a UCSF prof, had founded Posit Science, which was developing software that would realize his theory." Follow-up: "A recent study on 524 subjects found that in adults over age 65 the use of Posit Science's software translated into gains of more than ten years; Posit says that revenues from its brain fitness software, sold online and licensed to 150 retirement centers, tripled in 2007."
  • Dr. Steven Schroeder: Charity should begin at home -- Opinion (Marin Independent Journal)
    Dr. Steven A. Schroeder, professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, asks the Marin community to help finance the expansion of the Marin Community Clinics, located in Greenbrae and Novato, that serve the uninsured.

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