Explore global health initiatives, centers, and departments by theme. There are also numerous individual-faculty or small-group international projects that have significant impact but could not be included here. UCSF celebrates all these important efforts.
Biology and Biomedicine
Chan Zuckerberg Biohub
Chan Zuckerberg Biohub is a regional research endeavor between Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; and University California, San Francisco to understand the fundamental mechanisms underlying disease and developing new diagnostics and effective therapies for populations around the world. There are four major areas of work: Quantitative Cell Science (map and understand cellular physiology); Infectious Disease (understand virus-host interactions to guide therapeutics); Technology Platforms (develop technologies that advance biomedical research); and the Investigator Program (funding for visionary ideas).
Quantitative Biosciences Institute
The Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) fosters collaborations across the biomedical and the physical sciences, seeking quantitative methods to address pressing problems in biology and biomedicine. Motivated by problems of human disease, QBI is committed to investigating fundamental biological mechanisms, because ultimately solutions to many diseases have been revealed by unexpected discoveries in the basic sciences. QBI builds international relationships around the world, with a particular focus on capacity-strengthening in developing nations and emerging economies.
Economics and Public Policy
Center for Global Health Diplomacy, Delivery and Economics at IGHS
The Center for Global Health Diplomacy and Delivery (CGHDD) is a collaboration between the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. The Center partners with local government leaders and research institutions to catalyze health system transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa. By studying how effective interventions are defined and implemented, the Center aims to improve implementation of existing programs and help leaders design and manage contextually appropriate health programs and policies.
Healthcare Delivery and Training
Center for Global Nursing at IGHS
The Center for Global Nursing represents a partnership between IGHS, UCSF Health and the School of Nursing through the UCSF Leadership Institute. The Center's mission is to provide a place for nurses across UCSF to collaborate, learn, explore, and contribute to global health solutions. The Center will focus on specific initiatives such as building a network of UCSF nurses with expertise and interest in the field of global health sciences, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, supporting new developments for nursing in health education and research, and cultivating service opportunities for impact on a global scale. Website to be developed.
Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia at IGHS
The Center for Health Equity in surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA) is dedicated to increasing access to safe surgery and perioperative care worldwide through research, training and education, and advocacy. The Center’s vision is to ensure the global capacity of surgery and anesthesia care to serve all people and communities everywhere to achieve their full potential. Grounded in social justice, CHESA works through equitable partnerships based on shared learning, innovation, and knowledge creation and translation. Their team includes leading clinicians, educators, researchers, public health practitioners, fellows and trainees, and operational leaders.
Faculty Affiliate Program at IGHS
The IGHS Faculty Affiliate Program (FAP) started in 2016 to build community and identify resources to support the growing number of UCSF faculty working on issues of global health equity. In 2020, IGHS launched a Global Affiliate Program to include and support non-UCSF faculty collaborators. To date more than 300 Affiliates have joined these programs. They come from all UCSF Schools and numerous global sites engaged in many aspects of global health equity work, including research, education, policy, and clinical work. FAP helps build collaborations and increases the collective impact of the university’s global health equity work.
Global Action in Nursing
Global Action in Nursing (GAIN) aims to prevent complications and maternal and infant death during childbirth by increasing the number of nurses and midwives and providing clinical and leadership training to those working in high-risk communities. GAIN currently partners with GAIA Global Health and Partners In Health (PIH) in sub-Saharan Africa and CHOICES Center for Reproductive Health in Memphis, Tennessee. GAIN collaborates with partners to equip nurses and midwives with the expertise and skills they need to save lives. GAIN works with nurses and midwives in Malawi, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Memphis, Tennessee.
Global Programs for Research and Training
Global Programs for Research and Training (GPRT) works in Africa and Asia as a network of local affiliate offices, overseen by UCSF to provide legally registered in-country research services and specialized administrative processes. These local teams support collaborative work between UC investigators and in-country health systems, researchers/universities, and funders to improve compliance, overcome barriers, and decrease risk. The offices provide operational support to UC-sponsored projects, including general award support, hiring and contracting, procurement, asset management and disposal, travel support, and accounting.
Health, Equity, Action, and Leadership Fellowship
Health, Equity, Action, and Leadership (HEAL) aims to train and transform healthcare professionals from around the world to provide care for the resource-denied while becoming part of the global movement for health equity. HEAL brings fellows together (paired US-trained health professionals with front-line clinicians working in low resource communities in the United States and internationally) to deliver three immersive training programs during the fellowship. The HEAL Initiative program is designed to educate and train its fellows in health equity, action, and leadership within the context of global health delivery.
Institute for Global Orthopaedics and Traumatology
The Institute for Global Orthopaedics and Traumatology (IGOT) is recognized as one of the leading academic and global outreach initiatives in the field of orthopaedic trauma. IGOT’s goal is to improve orthopaedic patient care in under-resourced environments through sustainable programs with regional academic partners. The Institute empowers through education, engaging a sustainable academic-to-academic partnership model with low and middle-income countries. IGOT’s SMART courses provides orthopaedic surgeons in resource-limited settings with the skills and knowledge to successfully perform surgeries to reduce the incidence of amputations.
Osher Center for Integrative Health
At the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health, the vision is to nurture health and inspire well-being in all people. The Osher Center is committed to providing the highest quality healthcare by blending proven conventional and complementary medicine approaches from around the world, creating outstanding integrative health leaders through transformative education and training, and advancing the science of integrative health by conducting and disseminating rigorous research. The Osher Center provides programs and services in patient care, public classes, education, and research.
Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health Initiative
The Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health Initiative (RAHI) is a grassroots organization established in response to the massive humanitarian crisis of Syrian refugees in the Middle East and Europe, the large number of refugees and asylum seekers in the Bay Area, and the need for inclusion of minority researchers, physicians and community members for those vulnerable populations. RAHI utilizes a holistic approach that incorporates evidence-based medical research, cultural competency, social determinants of health, and international collaboration to improve health outcomes for refugees and asylum seekers around the world.
HIV/AIDS
AIDS Research Institute
The AIDS Research Institute was established at UCSF in 1996 to coordinate and integrate all the University’s HIV/AIDS clinical, education, and research activities. An “umbrella” to more than 50 programs and laboratories at UCSF, and with affiliated institutions, the Institute stimulates innovation and supports collaboration across scientific disciplines. The Institute brings together hundreds of scientists to attack the epidemic from every angle, in the United States and in scores of countries worldwide, focusing on training and support, research, and clinical care to enhance the effectiveness of UCSF’s pioneering HIV enterprise.
Center for AIDS Prevention Studies
The mission of the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) is to end the HIV epidemic and associated health and social disparities by conducting high-impact HIV prevention science and building capacity among researchers and communities to effectively address HIV. CAPS is designed to support multidisciplinary HIV research, enhance the excellence of research projects, train a new generation of HIV scientists, and assist implementing partners. There are five Cores: Administrative, Developmental, Methods, Community Engagement, and Implementation Science/Health Systems.
Center for AIDS Research
The UCSF-Bay Area Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) seeks to expand HIV research occurring at the intersections of basic, clinical, and behavioral/ epidemiological scientific disciplines. The Center's central goal is to facilitate scientific progress in HIV by providing member investigators with emerging technologies and a dynamic scientific core. These are provided by a network under the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in collaboration with other National Institutes of Health. Hundreds of investigators use CFAR’s administrative and scientific cores and services to support collaborative research.
Infectious Diseases
Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital
The Division of HIV, ID and Global Medicine is a global leader in clinical care, research, and education. Its mission is to tend to all patients affected by infectious diseases, especially the most vulnerable. The Division’s aims are to combat infectious diseases by working locally to care for patients with HIV and other infectious diseases, and collaborating internationally to improve infectious disease prevention, care and community health. As best practices and treatments of HIV, malaria and TB expand, Division members passionately apply these key lessons to other infectious diseases and share them with the next generation of leaders.
Experimental and Population-based Pathogen Investigation Center
The Experimental and Population-based Pathogen Investigation Center (EPPI) brings a systems epidemiology approach to understanding complex infectious disease dynamics by integrating state-of-the-art data collection, molecular technologies, and computational analysis. Their interdisciplinary approach provides novel insight into the targeting of interventions to reduce and ultimately eliminate infectious disease burden. EPPI center believes that the greatest success against infectious diseases will come through a highly interdisciplinary, systems epidemiology approach, connecting theoretical work, technology development, empiric data, and modeling analysis.
Global Strategic Information and Public Health Practice at IGHS
Global Strategic Information (GSI) believes that the road to achieving the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets—by the year 2030, 95% of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 95% of all people with diagnosed HIV will receive antiretroviral therapy, and 95% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression—begins by translating the right knowledge into the right decisions. This is done by strengthening the capacity of GSI-partner countries to collect, synthesize, and use strategic information to respond to the HIV epidemic. The core competencies of GSI can incorporate other disease areas and public health programs.
Malaria Elimination Initiative at IGHS
Since 2007, the Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI) has been working alongside malaria endemic countries and partners to advance malaria policy and practice by tailoring intervention packages. Their multidisciplinary team of experts pioneers innovative, evidence-based solutions to accelerate progress towards ending transmission of this deadly disease. MEI faculty and staff have broad expertise in malariology, epidemiology, entomology, advocacy, program implementation, evaluation, and management. MEI has ongoing activities in more than 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.
Proctor Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology
The Proctor Foundation was founded in 1947 for the specific aim of eradicating trachoma worldwide. Since that time, it has evolved into a major research and teaching unit at UCSF, with the Foundation’s goal remaining the prevention and treatment of blindness worldwide. It is recognized as the preeminent center in the world for this discipline. The International Programs Division at Proctor has focused on the prevention of blindness programs in Asia and Africa. Proctor has active programs in Ethiopia, Niger, India, Nepal, Thailand, Mexico, and Australia, Burkina Faso, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.
UCSF Pandemic Initiative for Equity and Action
The UCSF Pandemic Initiative for Equity and Action (UPIEA) leverages a multidisciplinary team of global health professionals to train and equip a sustainable pandemic workforce in California and around the world. Together with partners, UPIEA is committed to social solidarity as an important foundation of equitable healthcare systems. UPIEA initiatives strengthen knowledge and skills of healthcare cadres and systems to improve quality and access to healthcare through 1) Providing technical assistance and training, 2) Promoting community engagement in pandemic response, and 3) Training on cultural humility and addressing biases.
International Healthcare and Emergency Training and Response
Global Disaster Assistance Committee
The UCSF Global Disaster Assistance Committee (GDAC) provides responsive, appropriate and respectful support when disasters strike that addresses both the acute crisis as well as longer-term needs of countries, including our own. The University aims to fulfill its mission of advancing health worldwide by providing assistance in the event of national or international disasters when our help is needed. The Global Disaster Assistance Committee looks for ways to support our faculty, staff and trainees in providing disaster assistance that is responsive, respectful, and tailored to our unique expertise for the given situation.
WHO Collaborating Center for Emergency, Critical and Operative Care
The UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine has been designated as a Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO)/World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Emergency Critical and Operative Care. Drawing on diverse experts from the fields of emergency medicine, nursing, critical care, surgery and global health, this team is optimally positioned to support WHO’s efforts and works to develop, implement, and evaluate tools to help strengthen emergency care systems worldwide and increase access to quality emergency, critical and operative care for those who need it most.
Maternal and Child Health
Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital
The UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health integrates research, training, clinical care, and advocacy to advance reproductive autonomy, equitable and compassionate care, and reproductive and sexual health worldwide. The Center is made of a multidisciplinary group of over 200 people, including physicians, nurses, advanced practice clinicians, social scientists, clinical researchers, and staff that span UCSF schools and departments. They envision a world where all people have the resources, support, and power to determine their own sexual and reproductive lives.
Center for Global Maternal, Newborn and Child Health at IGHS
The Center for Global Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (CGMNCH) collaborates with partners across UCSF and around the globe to address the reproductive life course – from preconception to pregnancy to postnatal periods – with women, communities, and the health systems that serve them. From creating and implementing new techniques in provider training and facility quality improvement to making investments in discovery of new tools and technologies, the CGMNCH team works to advance care to save the lives of mothers and babies in low and middle-income countries.
Non-Communicable Diseases
Center for Climate, Health, and Equity
The Center for Climate, Health and Equity seeks to harness the health sector’s expertise and leadership to advance equitable climate action through four pillars: research, education, health system sustainability, and policy. The pillars focus on generating crucial evidence on climate-health impacts and solutions, preparing tomorrow’s climate-health leaders, building climate-resilient and sustainable health systems, and maximizing health and equity in climate policies. The Center’s vision is to advance equitable and just climate solutions that promote human health and a healthy planet.
Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the Cardiovascular Research Institute
The Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education is a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Tobacco Control, supporting the WHO Tobacco Free Initiative with cutting-edge research, supporting tobacco research leaders of diverse communities, and providing the lead scientific voice for policy makers and the public. The Center serves as a focal point for a broad range of research, education, and public service activities for over 70 faculty in 15 departments and all four schools at UCSF. The Center’s vision is a tobacco-free world, saving one billion lives this century.
Global Cancer Program at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Global Cancer Program aims to reduce the global cancer burden through research, education, and collaboration: 1) Perform innovative research that addresses the disparate burden of cancer in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), 2) Provide education, research training, and mentorship for trainees and early career faculty in LMICs and at UCSF, focused on global cancer research, and 3) Foster collaborations between UCSF and healthcare systems in LMICs to sustainably impact the global cancer burden. Highly successful regional hubs are located in East Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
Global Brain Health Institute
The Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) strives to improve brain health for populations across the world, reaching into local communities and across a global network. GBHI brings together a powerful mix of disciplines, professions, backgrounds, skills, perspectives, and approaches to develop new science-based solutions. GBHI works to reduce the scale and impact of dementia in three ways: 1) By training and connecting the next generation of leaders in brain health, 2) By collaborating in expanding prevention and interventions, 3) By sharing knowledge and engaging in advocacy.
Tuberculosis
Center for Tuberculosis
The Center for Tuberculosis (CTB) brings expertise across a range of disciplines to solve the problems that have historically undermined global TB elimination efforts. UCSF CTB has world class experts spanning bench to clinical sciences, global health delivery, economics, and diplomacy. The UCSF Center for TB faculty, fellows and staff are dedicated to improving the care of TB patients worldwide through biomedical research, education in the life sciences and health professions, technical assistance and training, clinical consultation, advocacy, diplomacy, and excellence in patient care.
Curry International Center for Tuberculosis
The Curry International Tuberculosis Center (CITC) creates, enhances and disseminates state-of-the-art resources and models of excellence and performs research to control and eliminate tuberculosis in the United States and internationally. Committed to the belief that everyone deserves the highest quality of care in a manner consistent with his or her culture, values and language, the Curry Center develops and delivers highly versatile, culturally appropriate trainings and educational products, and provides technical assistance. CITC is designated as a Tuberculosis Center of Excellence for Training, Education and Medical Consultation by the CDC.
UC Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center
The UC Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center (TRAC) provides research resources and infrastructure to foster, elevate and support TB research and provide exceptional mentorship and training to new investigators, and established investigators new-to-TB. Administrative, developmental, clinical and basic science cores offer operations, facilities, services, resources, pilot awards and mentoring opportunities to achieve the goals of the program.