UCSF-led Team Wins Grant for Epilepsy Study
A team led by UCSF scientists received a five-year, $15 million grant to study genetic factors that underlie some common forms of epilepsy. The study brings together more than 50 researchers and clinicians from 15 medical centers nationwide.

Brain Tumor Vaccine Shows Promise
A vaccine for treating a recurrent cancer of the central nervous system that occurs primarily in the brain has shown promise in preliminary data from a clinical trial at UCSF.

 Perspective — The Major Impact of MR Imagery

Neuroradiology Chief William Dillon, M.D., discusses how advances in neuroscience at UCSF, especially in MR techniques, continue to result in better therapies for patients and improve our understanding of disease processes.

After 30 years, the UCSF pituitary treatment program is being redesigned and rebuilt, says UCSF head and neck surgeon Sandeep Kunwar, M.D. The program is reopening as the California Center for Pituitary Disorders.

Skull surgery is experiencing major clinical advancements, surgeons say, as minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques are applied to resolving a variety of brain tumors and craniofacial disorders.

Using MR neurography (a new T2-weighted MR technique) and CT to accurately see inflamed nerves beyond the spinal canal, plan pain blocking injections and guide needles to the injection site.

UCSF scientists are using innovative signal processing algorithms to map white matter tracts, providing neuroscientists and neurosurgeons with valuable information about the brain.

UCSF is bringing aboard an accomplished pediatric epileptologist, Joseph Sullivan, M.D., from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The addition of Sullivan, plus the recent addition of epileptologists Tina Shih, M.D., and John Hixson, M.D., doubles the number of faculty involved in the clinical care of epilepsy and makes UCSF's epilepsy program the largest in Northern California, says UCSF neurologist Daniel Lowenstein, M.D.

The Department of Neurological Surgery has established a new Brain Tumor Education Center for patients and their caregivers.

See information on upcoming continuing medical education courses.

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