A new department at UCSF has been created to focus on extraordinary new ways to solve health problems: The Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences is the first of its kind to join the academic expertise of bioengineers and pharmaceutical scientists.

The department was officially approved on February 25, 2009 by Chancellor J. Michael Bishop, MD. It is co-chaired by Kathy Giacomini, PhD, an international expert in pharmacogenomics, and by Sarah Nelson, Dr.rer.Nat., a pioneer in developing new imaging techniques.

The new department is a union of UCSF's former Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences in the School of Pharmacy, led by Giacomini, and the Program in Bioengineering in the School of Medicine, led by Nelson. It is UCSF's first department across two schools.

Today's approach to developing and evaluating medical devices and potential medicines through the point that they are approved for use in patients is painfully slow, inefficient and expensive, explains Nelson. "We aim to change this through the new department by combining new biological discoveries with cutting-edge technology."

"We saw a tremendous possibility to leverage our bioengineering and pharmaceutical sciences programs for the benefit of patients, and we went for it," Giacomini says. "It's a marriage of scientists who are experts in building biological tools with those who look for ways to understand and interrupt the mechanisms of disease. Our purpose is to speed the innovation of medicines and medical devices to sophisticated, effective, targeted 'intelligent' therapeutics."

According to Nelson, "we are the first department of this kind in the country. We're acting on our belief that in order to excel science has to be approached in wholly new ways through new and unexpected relationships, including those with government and industry. The department's structure is critical for recruiting faculty members who think outside the confines of traditional disciplines, and promote our PhD graduate programs."

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