Research Activities

The AIDS Research Institute (ARI) coordinates and integrates all AIDS research activities at the University of California, San Francisco. ARI stimulates innovation and supports interdisciplinary collaboration aimed at all aspects of the epidemic domestically and around the world.

The CAN DO Center aims to understand, prevent and reduce oral health disparities in young children, with a primary focus on preventing early childhood caries. The multi-disciplinary Center uses a range of research methods, from qualitative research to randomized controlled trials, to determine biological, cultural, environmental and behavioral factors associated with oral health disparities; to identify children at high risk from underserved communities; and to develop effective interventions.

We are a multi-disciplinary research team conducting clinically-relevant behavioral research to improve the practice of prevention in health care settings. Visit our website to learn about our current projects and our publications.

Our research focuses on the role of two structurally related growth and differentiation factors, transforming growth factors-alpha and -beta, in epithelial and mesenchymal cell proliferation and differentiation. We use various cell biological, molecular and biochemical approaches to address cell physiological and developmental questions.

Our research program focuses on the role of H+ fluxes at the plasma membrane in regulating dynamics of the actin-based cytoskeleton, directed cell migration, and cell proliferation. We are investigating the GTPase and kinase signaling pathways regulating membrane transport proteins that control H+ fluxes, with an emphasis on the Rho family of GTPases and the Ste20 family of serine/threonine kinases.

The Graduate Group in Oral and Craniofacial Sciences offers several programs that provide training and experience in research for qualified dentists and dental hygienists interested in academic careers. Two main tracks are available for PhD research training, while others combine graduate research training (PhD or MS level) with dental clinical specialty or dental hygiene training.

The Oral AIDS Center (OAC) is one of the world's leading centers for the study of the oral manifestations of HIV infection. The OAC comprises many of the leading clinicians and investigators in the field of oral and dental aspects of AIDS.

SICCA is a UCSF-based group of international clinical and laboratory investigators who are developing the International Sjögren’s Syndrome Registry. This five-year project has the goal of developing standardized diagnostic criteria, collecting, processing and storing clinical data and specimens from uniformly evaluated patients, and providing these resources to researchers interested in basic or clinical studies of the epidemiology, causes, prevention and treatment of Sjögren’s Syndrome. SICCA is funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), the National Eye Institute (NEI), and the National Institutes of Health Office for Research on Women’s Health.

Our research is centered on understanding and treating the processes underlying craniofacial and dental malformations, which are among the most common congenital abnormalities and have profound impacts on the lives of patients and their families. Our main focus is the use of mice as a genetic model system to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for normal and perturbed development of teeth, facial skeleton, taste papillae, and other organs.

The UCSF AIDS Specimen Bank (ASB) was created in 1982 in response to the growing AIDS epidemic. ASB currently is responsible for the processing and storage of specimens collected by investigators working with the UCSF Center for AIDS Research, California AIDS Research Center, San Francisco General Hospital, and collaborators of the National Cancer Institute-funded AIDS Specimen and Cancer Resource. The ASB provides its services on a recharge basis to all investigators requiring repository services for their studies.

The Division conducts a broad range of laboratory and clinical research in areas related to biomaterials development, calcified tissues, adhesive dentistry, implants, imaging, laser interactions with tissue, restorative dental materials, restoration degradation and failure, and modeling.

This page linked to COHORT describes our Dental Scientist Training Program (DDS/PhD program). It includes an overview, information on PhD options, list of faculty research, application information, and related links.

The UCSF Mouse Microarray Consortium (MMC) has been created in UCSF to answer a need for well-suited platforms to perform large-scale gene expression profiling in the mouse. Since 2001, the MMC has been producing and providing microarrays carrying large sets of mouse cDNAs to more than 30 laboratories on campus and will soon complement its library of arrays with a comprehensive set of mouse long-oligonucleotides. We also plan on acquiring a set of human long-oligonucleotides in 2004 or 2005. In addition to the microarrays, the MMC provides the equipment, information, and training necessary to keep participants abreast of the latest advances in genomics.

The University of California San Francisco-Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology (UCSF-GIVI) Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) is designed and administered to foster multi-disciplinary research in three scientific disciplines: Basic, Clinical and Behavioral and Epidemiological Science. The Center's nine cores seek to enhance and expand collaborative, multi-disciplinary HIV research occurring at the intersections of those three scientific areas.