University of California at San Francisco Rheumatology Division Recognized for Excellence

“We owe a debt of gratitude to the people before us,” says Dr. Wofsy of the philanthropic efforts of the Russell/Engleman foundation board. “In these economic hard times for academia, this support is even more important. It has enabled us to have a larger program than we would otherwise have had; and it has allowed us to be less dependent on the Department of Medicine for resources. As a result, we have an extremely good relationship with our department, which has partnered with us when there has been an opportunity for growth.”

Stellar Training

The first fellows were enrolled in the division’s Research Training Program in 1958. Since that time, 145 fellows have been trained in the program, which has been directed since 2005 by David I. Daikh, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, and Kenneth H. Fye Chair in Rheumatology. (Dr. Wofsy served as director of the training program from 1992 until 2005.) Dr. Daikh, who is also chief of rheumatology at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, believes that in addition to outstanding clinical training, the “No. 1 strength” of the three-year fellowship program—and of the division in general—is the strength of its faculty. This includes their broad range of research interests, from basic immunology to translational research and health services research, and their enthusiasm for teaching.

These were some of the elements that drew Andrew C. Chan, MD, PhD, to the program. During his fellowship at UCSF, he found that the mentorship “provided a nurturing but rigorous environment. It was a straight-talk, tough-science kind of environment that prepares one to be independent, to tackle science with a high degree of vigor and rigor, and to think about the big questions,” says Dr. Chan, who is currently senior vice president of research biology at Genentech. Through visiting professorships and oversight of an active post-doc mentoring program at Genentech, Dr. Chan sustains the mission of nurturing the next generation of researchers from which he benefitted as a doctoral fellow from 1989 to 1992.

Andrew Chan

Other program graduates have advanced that mission at their current institutions. For example, Dr. Humphrey and nine other graduates are chiefs of their divisions at other institutions. Others, like Dr. Chan, are active in industry as senior officers in other companies; and many have been awarded prestigious honors. Dr. Humphrey says she was always impressed with the selflessness of her mentors at UCSF. Conflicted about picking a research mentor, she consulted with Professor William Seaman, MD, who volunteered to supply career path mentorship to supplement her research work in Mary Nakamura’s osteoimmunology lab.