Message from the Scientific Director

During last December and January, scientists and staff at the Research Institute packed our microscopes, computers, peptides, and coffee cups to move to new labs and offices on Brannan Street, just around the corner from the stadium formerly known as PacBell Park. Taking advantage of space that had been developed during the last South of Market boom, we now have modem laboratory facilities to accommodate our current growth efforts. In this issue of California Pacific Currents, you can read about the transition and its implications for our science in "A Move toward Reunion."
This issue also features the work of John Mendelson and Gantt Galloway, who study substance abuse and the treatment of addiction. They are the founders of the Addiction Pharmacology Research Laboratory, a new program at California Pacific Medical Center that has research funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The story of their work can be found in "Breaking the Chains, One Link at a Time."

The Research Institute recently welcomed Charles S. Cobbs, a neurosurgeon whose laboratory searches for fundamental knowledge about malignant gliomas, the most lethal of central nervous system tumors. You can learn about Dr. Cobbs and his work in "A Clinician and Researcher's Approach to Understanding Brain Tumors."

Reading Currents this year will provide you with an update on our Centers for Research in Clinical Excellence (CRCLE) projects. Described as "research you can use" by Steve Cummings, who oversees the program, CRCLE studies track cohorts of patients, such as those who have bariatric surgery, kidney transplants, or women with "complex pregnancies" (e.g., preterm labor, preeclampsia, and gestatioual diabetes). Clinical data from patients participating in a CRCLE project are captured in a database. Blood or tissue samples from the same patients are also stored, with the goal of relating specific data to patient outcomes, thus leading to improved diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

No one can practice medicine or teach physicians without the assistance of information technology. Currents highlights the work of Anne Shew, the Director of our Health Sciences Library; she also serves as California Pacific's Webmaster. Being a librarian today means providing electronic access to searchable databases that contain more than 15 million biomedical articles. California Pacific's medical residents are among the major consumers of this online medical knowledge. In a course taught by Dauiella Zipkin and Gayatri Khanna, residents learn how to search those millions of articles to find the best information about the diagnosis and treatment of patients. The work of Zipkin, Khanna, and Shew can be found in stories entitled "Evidence-Based Medicine Leads the Way to Better Care" and "The Modern Medical Library."


Warren S. Browner, MD, MPH
Scientific Director Research Institute
Vice President Academic Affairs

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