Faculty focus on the development and application of computational and statistical methods to high-dimensional molecular-level data with special emphasis on genomic and proteomic problems represented by data structures deriving from contemporary high-throughput technologies. Faculty research includes:

• Cancer genomics
• Statistical genetics
• Comparative and functional genomics
• Chromatin conformation capture
• Copy-number analysis
• Statistical phylogenetics and metagenomics
• Computational biology
• High-dimensional data analysis

Bioinformatics faculty

Our faculty run labs and collaborate with research teams; for example:

The Pollard Lab develops bioinformatics methods for comparative analysis of massive biological datasets, with a focus on genomics and other transformative technologies. The lab’s mission is to enable statistically rigorous, quantitative comparisons across species, developmental stages, and conditions. A major emphasis is creating open source bioinformatics software, including tools for gene expression analysis, detecting evolutionary conservation and acceleration, and quantifying abundances of microbial genes from metagenomes.

Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology, whose mission is to decode biomedical knowledge that is missed without sensitive instruments and rigorous quantitative approaches.

Research focuses on the development and assessment of methods for analyzing data and designing experiments. Areas of specialty include the following:

• Longitudinal data analysis
• Survival analysis
• Statistical genetics
• Permutation tests
• Clinical trial design and analysis
• Medical image reconstruction and analysis
• Correlated data models
• Bayesian statistics
• Spatial statistics
• Statistical computing
• Epidemiologic methods

Faculty provide assistance with grant proposals and collaborate with investigators in other UCSF departments. Areas of collaboration include the following:

• Genetics
• Cancer
• HIV
• Liver disease
• Women's health
• Infectious diseases
• Osteoarthritis
• Medical imaging
• Complex genetic traits
• Heart disease
• Neurology

Biostatistics faculty also collaborate with students and faculty on statistical aspects of research projects and grants, provide training on the use of biostatistical methods in research and provide statistical consulting services through the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Biostatistics faculty

Faculty conduct research on the causes of a wide variety of diseases, including cancers of the breast, prostate, brain, colon, pancreas and blood. The faculty study methods to enhance early detection of disease, conduct prevention and treatment clinical trials, and evaluate quality of life and survival. The faculty also undertake methodological research into the design and analysis of modern epidemiologic studies.

Current faculty research includes:

Many faculty hold appointments with the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, conducting or supporting a wide range of research.

The San Francisco Cancer Initiative (SF CAN), focused on five of the city's most common cancers likely to be affected by interventions and better screening: breast, colorectal, liver, prostate and tobacco-caused cancers.

DREAM Lab, which uses population-based and other large and representative data sources to document cancer health disparities and identify their underlying drivers.

Read more about some of our cancer research here.

Cancer Epidemiology faculty

Clinical Epidemiology is the application of principles of epidemiology to clinical medicine. While classical epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of diseases in populations, clinical epidemiology is the application of the principles and methods of epidemiology to conduct, appraise or apply clinical research studies focusing on prevention, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease. Clinical epidemiology is the basic science of evidence-based medicine.

Faculty research interests include:

• Application of clinical epidemiology to emergency medicine 
• Cost effectiveness , health care financing, HIV and reproductive health 
• Evidence-based pediatrics, particularly newborn care
• Infectious diseases and international health 
• Prediction and prevention of cardiovascular disease  

In addition, more than 40 affiliated faculty from diverse departments at UCSF, the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research and other neighboring institutions carry out a wide variety of clinical research projects using clinical epidemiology methods.

Clinical Epidemiology faculty
 

Research in the field of environmental and occupational epidemiology, with special emphasis on the use of modern methods of exposure assessment, monitoring, biomarkers and risk modeling.

Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology faculty

The department's research in environmental and occupational epidemiology includes:

Data visualization tool for chemical exposure risks for California's female workforce, a collaboration between Peggy Reynolds, PhD and Dr. Robert Harrison in the UCSF Division of Occupational and Environmental Health.

The Zablotska Research Group studies occupationally exposed uranium workers in the U.S. and Canada. The group's research adds to an emerging consensus that radiation risks for workers employed in uranium processing are substantially different from the risks of uranium miners, uranium enrichment workers or nuclear workers. Zablotska also has long-standing involvement in studies related to the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, including work on the risks of leukemia in Chernobyl cleanup workers.

The California Teachers Study, a large prospective study of women, including examination of factors for risk of cancer and other diseases.

Research focuses on aging across the lifespan and the adaptation and application of research methods to unique health problems in older populations. Faculty expertise and research include population and clinical epidemiology of cognitive decline, dementia, depression, cardiovascular disease, stroke, age-related macular degeneration, musculoskeletal disorders, frailty, osteoporosis, successful aging and longitudinal statistics and methods.

Faculty and mentors are available in the department as well as at collaborating institutions, including the Veterans Administration and UC Berkeley School of Public Health and through California Pacific Medical Center. 

• Areas of particular research expertise include musculoskeletal disease and clinical research in osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and muscle.
• The department develops and maintains several large observational studies and clinical trial databases that can be used by students and others.
• Faculty expertise and research include design and management of multicenter studies, design of observational studies and clinical trials in osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, the relationship of osteoporosis and diabetes, and optimal treatment for osteoporosis.

Epidemiology of Aging faculty

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and globally, but falling mortality rates have shown the potential for progress. Cardiovascular epidemiology includes research on the social, behavioral, environmental, and genetic factors that shape population patterns of disease and research to evaluate policy and clinical strategies for prevention and care. Because of the role of the vascular system in brain and heart health, there is substantial overlap between cardiovascular disease and many major neurological disorders, such as dementia. 

The epidemiology of neurological disorders is a pressing public health problem and entails complex methodological analyses due to ambiguity about diagnostic criteria, the heterogeneity in manifestations of many neurological diseases, and uncertain etiology for many conditions.  Areas of emphasis for faculty in the department include Alzheimer's disease and related disorders, HIV-related neurocognitive disorders, and stroke.  The department has a particular emphasis on integrating lifecourse perspectives into cardiovascular and neurological disorders epidemiology and enhancing research methods to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of these conditions. 

Epidemiology of Cardiovascular and Neurological Disorders faculty

Our faculty's research includes:

The PCORnet Blood Pressure Control Laboratory uses PCORnet as a national surveillance system for blood pressure control, and a platform for pragmatic trials of interventions designed to improve blood pressure control.  The surveillance system and two randomized trials supported by the platform launched in 2019.

Research using the Cardiovascular Disease Policy Model, a population-level state-transition computer simulation of cardiovascular disease, focuses on understanding trends in CVD risk factors and treatments and evaluating the population-level impact of interventions aimed at reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease.

Genetic epidemiology is a rapidly evolving field with growing use in epidemiologic research at UCSF and worldwide. Research focuses on deciphering the genetic basis of disease using measures such as DNA sequence, RNA/gene expression, copy number variants, epigenetics and gene-environment interaction using genetic information to evaluate long-term health effects of modifiable phenotypes (e.g., with instrumental variables/Mandelia Randomization moels).

Genetic Epidemiology faculty

Global health researchers study the application of epidemiology and population-based interventions to improve health and decrease the burden of disease and disability internationally with a specific focus on low- and middle-income countries. The faculty has strong ties to the Institute for Global Health Sciences at UCSF, the Center for Global Public Health at UC Berkeley and major public health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pan American Health Organization, the World Health Organization, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations. 

Global Health faculty

The science of implementation and dissemination is an emerging, multidisciplinary field that aims to improve the relevance and uptake of research-based knowledge in real-world settings. Implementation scientists draw on a range of theories and methods to determine which factors promote or impede the adoption, adaptation and maintenance of specific health-related interventions by individuals, health providers, insurers, policy makers and communities. Direct engagement with the institutions and communities where health interventions are introduced is a key element of implementation science research.

Implementation Science faculty

Faculty conduct research in and participate in the practice of public health and preventive medicine, both domestically and internationally. Faculty members have expertise in infectious disease epidemiology, tropical medicine, maternal-child health, public health and preventive medicine. Faculty members' principal research interests include the following:

• HIV/AIDS
• Malaria 
• Sexually transmitted diseases 
• Emerging infectious diseases 
• Ebola and other hemorrhagic fever viruses
• Trachoma 
• Tuberculosis 
• Hepatitis C virus
• Hepatitis B virus
• Vaccine-preventable diseases
• Coccidioidomycosis 
• Chagas disease 
• Visceral leishmaniasis 
• Dengue virus

These interests also include:

• Healthcare systems 
• Injection drug use
• Mathematical modeling and spatial epidemiology
• Implementation sciences 
• Evidence-based medicine and public policy
• Maternal-child health including preterm birth and its consequences 

Infectious Disease faculty

Lifecourse epidemiology addresses how the health effects of social, behavioral, clinical, or biological exposures are shaped by and depend on human developmental processes. Lifecourse epidemiology evaluates exposures occurring throughout life, with particular emphasis on periods of rapid growth or change, such as gestation, childhood, pregnancy, and old age. Our faculty thus include experts on perinatal and reproductive epidemiology as well as adult health and healthy aging. Faculty research encompasses work on immigration, social and community influences on health, lifecourse origins of racial inequalities in health, health behaviors, as well as biological and clinical factors with disproportionate public health consequences for certain periods in life, such as Alzheimer's disease and related disorders or musculoskeletal disease.

Lifecourse faculty

Faculty focus on the development and application of machine learning algorithms to address problems across the biomedical spectrum, including biomarker development, clinical decision support systems, and prediction of gene function and protein interactions. Faculty research includes:

• Classification
• Unsupervised and semi-supervised learning
• Reliable and interpretable machine learning
• Statistical learning theory
• High-dimensional statistics
• Deep learning
• Online learning

Machine learning faculty

This emphasis focuses on leveraging new data sources and quantitative, often computationally intensive, methods to evaluate the best strategies to improve population health and reduce health disparities. The concentration encompasses research on both prevention and treatment strategies. This research requires evaluating heterogeneity in treatment response across individuals or groups within the population. The intrinsically interdisciplinary concentration will require students to develop expertise in three distinct areas: computational tools; study design for causal inference and effect heterogeneity studies; and biological/social drivers of their chosen disease domain. The UCSF Data Science Training to Advance Behavioral and Social Science Expertise for Health Disparities Research (DaTABASE) T32 is encompassed in this concentration. This concentration emphasizes:

• Computationally intensive methods, including machine learning, to evaluate preventive and therapeutic strategies
• Innovative approaches to understanding causal structure and heterogeneity in causal effects, especially targeting opportunities to promote health equity
• Taking advantage of novel, high-dimensional, or underused data sources, such as clinical informatics, ’omic data, social media, geospatial data and multilevel policy data.

This area of concentration addresses the health of women related to contraception, reproductive control, pregnancy, childbirth and the health of infants, including neonates. The concentration builds on the expertise of the UCSF Preterm Birth Initiative and other transdisciplinary efforts at UCSF and incorporates both domestic US and global perspectives.  

Reproductive, Perinatal and Neonatal Epidemiology faculty

This area of concentration focuses on the development of and instruction regarding contemporary methods in epidemiologic and clinical research. Topics include methods in the “Big 6” objectives/purposes of epidemiologic and clinical research: description, causation, attribution, interaction, mediation and prediction. Instruction is available for both undergraduate and graduate programs. 

Research Methods faculty

Research focuses on the social determinants of disease, including socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, the built environment and related factors. For example, some faculty work with the Preterm Birth Initiative and the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health on research that focuses on understanding how interpersonal and structural racism affect Black women's sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Other research focuses on how incentives—both financial and non-financial—promote healthy behavior, such as smoking cessation and food choice, among low-income groups.

Social Epidemiology faculty