BOILERPLATE TEXT FOR GRANT APPLICATIONS

Greater Los Angeles Consortium

The Greater Los Angeles CTSA Consortium was established to leverage our local talents in collaborations that benefit both our local communities and our approaches to clinical research. The two main activities that are currently underway are (a) a Community Engagement working group that is developing and evaluating an intervention with promotoras to increase Latino representation in clinical trials research, and (b) a series of training opportunities offered by each consortium member for faculty and staff of the other members' institutions. Our collective goal is to collaborate to develop curricula and online courses that can ultimately be shared with the national consortia online while supporting collaborative efforts across the Greater Los Angeles area through onsite, in-person programs and seminars.

Curricula underway or in development include: UCLA's Biomedical Informatics for Clinicians course and the Therapeutic Discovery and Development program, UC Irvine's Science of Team Science Boot Camp and Introduction to Systems Biology for Clinical Translational Scientists course, and USC's Regulatory Science for Clinical Research Boot Camp, Engaging Diverse Communities in Clinical Research Boot Camp and Regulatory Science Boot Camp.

Last updated April 24, 2023

The CTSI Grant Library has over 90 successful award applications that are accessible to all CTSI investigators and designees. Sample application types include: F32, K01, K08, K23, K24, K25, K76, K99/R00, R01, R03, R21, diversity supplements, and U54 applications. The library is available through CTSI’s Team Science System and is an online resource for faculty and trainees at the four UCLA CTSI Institutions. Principal investigators of successfully funded grants have contributed their grant proposals to the CTSI for online sharing. Users request access to the library and use a UCLA Logon ID which can be obtained without a UCLA affiliate. This secure web-based platform allows trainees to view the grant proposals online, but also prevents users from copying, downloading, or sharing the proposals outside of the platform. Thus, principal investigators can provide their successful grant knowing that their proposal will not be disseminated further without their permission. The online grant library is a fully searchable tool and allows users to quickly access different aspects or sections of a grant proposal. The library was initiated in 2015, currently has 91 proposals, and is actively growing. It has 697 active users so far. The successful grants library is an important resource for junior faculty and other trainees in writing their first K or R grant. KL2 Scholars who are successful in obtaining extramural support will be asked to submit their proposals to the successful grants library.

Last updated April 24, 2023

The UCLA Department of Neurology has a library of grant applications accessible to UCLA personnel through UCLA Box (login required). For assistance, contact Laura Saade.

Last updated April 24, 2023

The Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, housed under the UCLA Anderson School of Management, is a recognized leader in entrepreneurial education and research at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Working closely with its board of advisors, the Price Center fosters the study and practice of entrepreneurship and business innovation by providing the foundation on which creativity can flourish and individuals can succeed.

The Price Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation takes a keen interest in developing entrepreneurial competence in its students while maintaining active relationships with UCLA Anderson alumni as strategic partners in many of its initiatives. The Price Center provides a set of integrated academic and extracurricular experiences designed to develop an entrepreneurial competence in MBA students. Its academic program departs from traditional business studies by emphasizing social innovation and producing managers who know how to marshal resources for new wealth creations. Furthermore, alumni and other established professionals have the opportunity to become involved with the Price Center’s academic and experiential programs as workshop leaders, mentors to our students, or sponsors of an MBA internship. This interaction creates ways to grow and maintain valuable relationships and also exposes current students to a considerable range of career options, business advice and willing sponsors.

The UCLA Anderson School of Management and the Price Center work together to provide a challenging, interdisciplinary curriculum for students who intend to embrace global and integrationist thinking, work across boundaries, and muster an uncommon amount of courage to pursue their entrepreneurial vision. First-hand experience in an entrepreneurial environment is vital to the success of our curriculum. The Price Center funds numerous fellowships designed to afford students real-world business experiences. To encourage entrepreneurial research, the Price Center has established programs such as the Galef Symposium in Business Innovation, which supports the research of Ph.D. students, academic researchers and faculty whose projects demand an openness to flexibility and new ideas, a predisposition to study innovative methods, and a capacity to see beyond existing paradigms. The Price Center also maintains a strong commitment to serving the nonprofit and small business communities through management development programs and topical seminars. All of these efforts aim to foster the study and practice of entrepreneurship and business innovation.

Last updated April 24, 2023

Since 1982, the student-run Knapp Venture Competition, hosted at UCLA Anderson School of Management by the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Entrepreneur Association, is designed to provide UCLA Anderson students with an intensive learning experience in the venture initiation process and has evolved into one of the premier academic business plan competitions in Southern California. The Knapp Competition has given more than 2,500 UCLA Anderson students a unique venture creation experience that has been instrumental in launching numerous businesses.

Virtually all UCLA Anderson students will start, work in, advise, or finance growing businesses at some point in their careers. Participating in the Knapp Venture Competition prepares UCLA Anderson students - whether they will be founders, financiers, consultants, marketers, or general managers - for these experiences by simulating the process of starting and evaluating an entrepreneurial enterprise. Students are encouraged to showcase their talents and learn from insights of successful entrepreneurs and business executives.

Over the course of the academic year, UCLA Anderson students refine business concepts, build management teams, and develop business plans to submit to the Knapp Venture Competition. While a business plan is the tangible outcome of each team's efforts, generating the document in and of itself is not the Knapp Venture Competition's primary objective. Rather, the Knapp Venture Competition encourages a rigorous and cross-disciplinary application of the tools that students have learned in the MBA program. It requires them to integrate concepts from the core curriculum - economics, finance, operations, marketing, accounting, strategy, and organizational development - into a total plan for starting and operating a business.

By refining a concept, researching its feasibility, building a management team, and preparing and presenting a plan, students test the full range of analytical and communications skills that they have developed while at Anderson. Moreover, they learn about their ability to work as a team and manage group dynamics. Finally, the screening and evaluative portions of the Knapp Venture Competition provide a solid feedback mechanism to the student teams. Dozens of entrepreneurs, alumni, and professional investors serve on the judging panels that evaluate each team's efforts. Year in and year out, students report that this feedback is one of the most valuable aspects of the competition.

Two other groups of students benefit from the Knapp Venture Competition. The student organizers are presented with an opportunity to develop their leadership skills, as well as with valuable access to the extensive entrepreneurial networks and resources of the Anderson community. The entire UCLA community is encouraged to view the competition's final presentations in order to support their classmates, prepare for their own participation in future competitions, and to learn the standards that professional investors and entrepreneurs apply in evaluating businesses.

Last updated April 24, 2023

The UCLA Technology Development Group (TDG) supports UCLA’s research, education, and service mission by commercializing intellectual property rights; facilitating collaborations with industry for next-generation scientific breakthroughs; advancing UCLA entrepreneurship and research; protecting the university’s interest by managing risk; and promoting economic growth in California. The scope of activities includes commercially evaluating new technologies; determining patentability and commercial value; prosecuting patents; marketing and licensing inventions; facilitating UCLA faculty startups; engaging industry to facilitate research collaboration; negotiating license agreements and Material Transfer Agreements; and receiving and distributing royalties and other income to the inventors, the UCLA campus, and its departments. In FY21, 348 new inventions were disclosed via TDG. TDG collaborates with CTSI researchers who seek to commercialize their intellectual property.

Last updated April 24, 2023

UCLA Ventures was founded in the late 1990s by by a group of Bruin entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, who partnered with the University to establish the UCLA Venture Capital Fund. Since then, UCLA Ventures has become a testament to the strength of UCLA's alumni network, and has evolved into a dynamic community of UCLA alumni, faculty, students, and friends who support each other, the university, and its entrepreneurial ecosystem. UCLA Ventures pioneered the unique "cashless" pledge for the startup community, wherein members pledge now, even though the shares are not transferred to UCLA Ventures until liquidity occurs. Upon pledging, members join a vibrant community of Bruin entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. When liquidity occurs, the cash or shares are transferred to UCLA Ventures. Through this system, UCLA Ventures has built a vibrant portfolio of venture-backed equity. With the returns from its pledged portfolio, it fosters UCLA’s entrepreneurial ecosystem through programming, volunteerism, and financial distributions to key initiatives on campus, such as Startup UCLA.

Last updated April 24, 2023

MD2K was established as one of 11 national Big Data Centers of Excellence awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of its Big Data-to-Knowledge initiative. The MD2K Center brought together the top brains in Computer Science, Engineering, Medicine, Behavioral Science, and Statistics, drawn from 13 universities (Cornell Tech, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Northwestern, Ohio State,  UCLA, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Memphis, the University of Michigan, the University of Utah, and West Virginia University). The MD2K Team developed innovative tools to make it easier to gather, analyze and interpret health data generated by mobile and wearable sensors. The goal of the big data solutions being developed by MD2K was to reliably quantify physical, biological, behavioral, social, and environmental factors that contribute to health and disease risk. The research conducted by MD2K aimed to improve the health of individuals through early detection of adverse health events and by facilitating prevention. The MD2K team directly targeted two complex health conditions with high mortality risk – reducing hospital readmission in congestive heart failure (CHF) patients and preventing relapse in abstinent smokers. The approach and product of MD2K is applicable to other complex diseases, such as asthma, substance abuse and obesity. The Center has made the MD2K tools, software, and training materials widely available and organized workshops and seminars to encourage their use by researchers and clinicians.

Last updated April 24, 2023

The Los Angeles Pediatric Research Integrating Sensor Monitoring Systems (LA PRISMS) Center is fostering the development and application of mobile health (mHealth) technologies that deepen our scientific understanding and clinical management of pediatric conditions. Bringing together leading experts from UCLA and USC in biomedical informatics, computer science, wireless health, environmental science and health, and pediatrics, this Center focuses on the creation of innovative end-to-end software infrastructure for pediatric sensor-based health monitoring. A part of the NIH's Pediatric Research Integrating Sensor Monitoring Systems (PRISMS) community, this collaborative effort focuses on pediatric asthma. Our Center's vision and proposed research is motivated by the following question: what if you could predict ahead of time, for a specific asthma patient, the potential for exacerbation and thus mitigate–if not prevent–the event? Any system with this ability must integrate the growing array of available physiologic and environmental data from sensors, and place such data into context to elucidate the patient's state and specific situation. The system must be able to act sufficiently quickly on sensed data to make timely recommendations, and end user compliance with system usage must be high to effect change. Our solution, the Biomedical REAl-Time Health Evaluation for Pediatric Asthma (BREATHE) platform, provides an extensible framework for the deployment of data collection protocols; secure data collection from sensors to a mobile device; integration of additional contextual information; and real-time analysis.

Last updated April 24, 2023

NCATS’ Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program supports efforts to solve system-wide translational research problems in part by developing and implementing ways to improve the success of U.S. clinical trials. One initiative, CTSA Accrual to Clinical Trials (CTSA ACT), was launched to do just that by developing a nationwide network of sites that share EHR data. It contains over 150 million patient records, and ~90% of the CTSA consortium. Building on existing platforms and operating models to create a “federated” network with common standards, data terminology, and shared resources, CTSA ACT investigators are focused on data harmonization (using the same term for the same type of data) across EHR platforms; technical needs assessment and implementation; regulatory approaches to ensure compliance with protocols for data access and participant contact; and governance development to establish proper agreements among institutions. ACT helps clinical investigators conduct cohort discovery before a trial starts, to establish feasibility of a clinical protocol for grant applications, IRB submission, etc. ACT also helps investigators identify additional sites for a clinical trial. By allowing investigators to thoroughly explore patient cohorts and potential sites before finalizing their clinical protocols, ACT increases the odds of successfully completing clinical trial recruitment. NCATS ACT provides infrastructure for streamlined informatics solutions across the CTSA Consortium.

Last updated April 25, 2023

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a broad set of commercial computing, storage, database, analytics, application, and deployment services. AWS is used by the UC locations to host websites and web applications, provide backup and disaster recovery, support high bandwidth computing services, and more. Over the past four years, the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) has developed policies, procedures, and the requisite infrastructure for secured, HIPAA-compliant computing within AWS. DGSOM investigators are now able to spin up, through a self-service portal, on-demand virtual machines (VMs) (per their specifications) with common software packages (e.g., R, python libraries, etc.). Authentication and connections to the VMs are linked directly to UCLA’s credentialing system and behind firewalls, ensuring compliance with all UCLA security policies and with routine auditing in place. Methods for per user charges have been established to support researchers, with active engagement by the DGSOM information technology group (DGIT) to expand and enrich offerings.

As of February 2017, UCLA is an Amazon Web Service (AWS) Educate Institution. AWS Educate is Amazon’s global initiative to provide students and educators with the resources needed to greatly accelerate cloud-related learning to help prepare students for a cloud-enabled workplace. AWS Educate provides four pillars of grant-based support for educators and students: 1) content on the Cloud contributed by top educators and AWS to help build courses; 2) training materials to better understand AWS; 3) collaboration tools such as discussion forums, events, and places to upload and rate content; and 4) credits to access AWS services for free.

Last updated April 25, 2023

The California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) is the nation’s largest state health survey in the nation and is conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research in collaboration with the California Department of Public Health and the Department of Health Care Services. CHIS is a web and telephone survey conducted on a continuous basis and covers a wide range of health topics. The survey provides: statewide information on the overall population including many racial and ethnic groups; county-level information for most counties to aid with health planning, priority setting, and to compare health outcomes in numerous ways; and ZIP code, city, and legislative district information via the online Web tool, AskCHIS Neighborhood Edition (NE).

CHIS is conducted on a continuous basis, allowing the survey to generate timely one-year estimates. CHIS data are released annually in the following formats: Health Profiles in easy-to-read, one-page fact sheets containing key health statistics for the state; Publications through the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research; the Center’s Data Access Center with CHIS data that are not publicly available; AskCHIS, a free, online tool that enables the production of customized health statistics at multiple levels; AskCHIS Neighborhood Edition (NE), a free, online tool that enables the generation, mapping, and exporting of customized estimates at a local level; and Public Use Files (PUFs) which contain a full (one-year) cycle of CHIS data in a variety of data formats, including SAS, SPSS, and STATA.

CHIS provides representative data on all 58 counties in California and provides a detailed picture of the health and health care needs of California’s large and diverse population. Participants in the CHIS survey are chosen at random and the sample is extensive enough to be statistically representative of California's diverse population. In addition, the sampling strategy and very large sample size enables us to pinpoint health information by the three ISP groups identified—Children, Older adults, and Disparity groups (e.g., African-Americans, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders). In 2020, 22,661 households in Los Angeles County were surveyed, including 21,949 adults, 1,365 adolescents, and 3,548 children. Although the sample sizes are not enormous for each disparity population, analysis of CHIS data can provide a window for health metrics for prevalent conditions and for the larger special populations.

Last updated April 25, 2023

eMERGE is a national network organized and funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) that combines DNA biorepositories with electronic medical record (EMR) systems for large scale, high-throughput genetic research in support of implementing genomic medicine. In its projects, eMERGE studies and pilots genomic medicine translation through discovery, implementation, tools, and policy. During Phase I and II, the Network deployed more than 40 electronic phenotype algorithms across more than 55,000 participants with dense genomic data. Returning clinical results has been implemented or planned for pilot at sites across the Network. A large-scale survey of patient attitudes regarding data sharing is being sent to 90,000 clinic patients across the country. A multicenter pilot of returning genome sequence information to electronic medical records (EMRs) for use in healthcare is almost complete. Themes of genomics, bioinformatics, genomic medicine, ethnics, data sharing, privacy, and community engagement are of particular relevance to eMERGE.

The eMERGE program started in September 2007 and is currently in its fourth phase, which started in July 2020 and will end in April 2025. The network demonstrated that EMR phenotyping to develop cohorts for genome-wide studies was a robust approach to genetic discovery, defined approaches for enhancing privacy of shared EMR data, and engaged patients and communities in consent and data sharing. eMERGE expanded to include 7 clinical sites in 2011 and 2 pediatric sites in 2012.

eMERGE is openly interested in collaborations. Current external collaborations include the US Air Force, ENCODE, IGNITE, and the larger ELSI (Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues) community. eMERGE is dedicated to developing tools, identifying best practices, and communicating results for participant consent, data sharing, and returning genomic research results, to benefit the broader medical and scientific communities and the general public.

Last updated April 25, 2023

The GATK Best Practices provide step-by-step recommendations for performing variant discovery analysis in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) data. There are several different GATK Best Practices workflows tailored to particular applications depending on the type of variation of interest and the technology employed. The Best Practices documentation attempts to describe in detail the key principles of the processing and analysis steps required to go from raw reads coming off the sequencing machine, all the way to an appropriately filtered variant callset that can be used in downstream analyses. Wherever possible, the organization tries to provide guidance regarding experimental design, quality control (QC) and pipeline implementation options, but those are dependent on many factors including sequencing technology and the hardware infrastructure that are at your disposal, so you may need to adapt recommendations to your specific situation.

Last updated April 25, 2023

UCLA has a longstanding commitment to enabling HPC for the campus. For general (non-PHI) usage, the UCLA Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE) supports scientific computing, providing expertise in multicore/GPU programming; code optimization for using HPC resources and code clinics; scaling and analysis of parallel code; optimization of serial codes; efficient serial and/or parallel algorithms use; parallelization or porting on different platforms; debugging; profiling; scientific visualization with large datasets; and grid computing. IDRE’s staff provides domain-specific support to facilitate computational and data-specific requirements to ensure smooth integration with existing campus resources. IDRE is responsible for maintaining the campus research cyber-infrastructure, including the shared Hoffman2 Cluster, consisting of 1,347 nodes (22,804 64-bit cores, 50TB RAM) with an Ethernet network and Infiniband interconnect, capable of 150 TFLOPS (>200 with GPUs). Hoffman2 is the largest and most powerful cluster in the UC system. The cluster is also an endpoint on the Globus Online service using a 10Gb network interconnected backbone, thus providing researchers a facility for fast and reliable data movement between Hoffman2 and most leadership-class facilities across the United States. Notably, Drs. Douglas Bell and Alex Bui serve on IDRE’s Executive Committee, ensuring close linkage between the campus and CTSI. For sensitive (PHI) data requiring restricted access, UCLA Health has set up an HPC equivalent framework in the Microsoft Azure cloud through the Hoffman2 and Dawson 2 computing clusters.

Last updated April 25, 2023

Harvard’s i2b2 (Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside) Center produces an open source data warehouse software system that enables clinical researchers to use existing clinical data for discovery research. The i2b2 platform currently enjoys wide international adoption by the CTSA network, academic health centers, and industry. Within the UCLA CTSI, the i2b2 data warehouse system forms the cornerstone for research access to clinical data across the CTSI. All four CTSI partner institutions are using i2b2 or are currently in the process of implementing it. UCLA has implemented it atop xDR; Cedars populates it directly from its Epic EHR; Harbor, through its parent organization, the LA County Department of Health Services (LAC DHS), which implemented it along with their Cerner EHR system; and CDU implemented i2b2 to serve a number of community clinics (Venice Family Clinic, San Fernando Valley Health Center, and the LA Net coalition).

The i2b2 Cohort Discovery System contains data from 2.5 million unique patients at UCLA. i2b2 is secure and designed for UCLA investigators to conduct searches on clinical data from Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center and other UCLA-affiliated clinics and departments. The search results provide a numeric count of patients that are based on de-identified data extracted from UCLA’s clinical data warehouse. Search criteria include demographics, diagnosis and procedure codes (ICD-9, ICD-10 and CPT), labs, medications, visit details (including site locations), vital signs and vital status.

Last updated April 25, 2023

Formally launched in May 2014, Los Angeles Data Resource (LADR) is a joint project of major Los Angeles healthcare provider organizations, including UCLA, Cedars, CDU, USC, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and the City of Hope, aimed at enabling research that improves the health of all people in the region using data representing the continuum of care across the region’s major health systems. LADR enables investigators to assess how many patients at each participating institution match criteria for studies they are planning. The resulting counts of potentially eligible patients can then be used to foster research partnerships with co-investigators at the most appropriate sites. The key feature of LADR is its use of "private record linkage" technology to identify data from the same patients across the participating organizations. By creating this linkage, LADR enables institutions to assemble more data on patient treatments and other exposures along with more data on their outcomes, to enable research that could not be conducted by any individual organization. Data on individual patients can only be obtained after further approvals from each institution that chooses to participate in the proposed study. LADR is a cohort discovery tool, meaning only patient counts can be retrieved. These are based on de-identified data extracted from each institution’s clinical data warehouse, transformed into a common data representation, and stored in a separate, dedicated data repository at each institution. LADR allows investigators to conduct interactive searches across the participating organizations based on patients’: (1) demographic characteristics (e.g. age, sex, race-ethnicity), (2) encounter diagnoses (ICD-9 & ICD-10), (3) laboratory test results, (4) medications prescribed, (5) procedures (CPT, ICD-9 & ICD-10), and (6) vital signs and vital status. Patient information and full datasets cannot be accessed through this tool, but it is possible to gather this information outside of LADR. As of 2018, investigators can now search a total of 7.2 million patient records. In addition, the LADR Consortium is launching a Care Coordination Collaborative, focused on working with care coordination stakeholders across its member organizations to identify and implement best practices for capturing and using data on the social determinants of health in the EHR.

Last updated April 25, 2023

Qualtrics is a HIPAA and FERPA-compliant online survey platform that allows users to easily create a survey, collect and store data securely, analyze responses, and present results using professional-quality graphs. It is available to the UCLA CTSI and to UCLA Health faculty, staff, and students at no cost. The service can be used to support academic research, teaching, institutional business, and to reinforce key decisions with insights from colleagues, customers, employees, and more. Qualtrics provides support, user guides, and training to research staff.

Last updated April 25, 2023

The University of California Health System, with 18 health professional schools, six medical centers, and 10 hospitals, has built a secure central data warehouse for operational improvement, promotion of quality patient care, and to enable the next generation of clinical research. The repository currently securely holds data on over five million patients seen since 2012, treated by nearly 100,000 healthcare providers in nearly 200 million encounters, with over 300 million procedures, more than 600 million medication orders, and with nearly 2 billion vital signs measurements and test results. Over 600,000 of these patients are primary care patients. This data warehouse is used to construct several secure web-based dashboards, enabling strategic and operational leaders and clinical directors to see and compare current healthcare quality and costs across the University of California. De-identification of the data has already been completed to enable clinical research projects, under guidance from UC campus institutional review boards, privacy and compliance officers, and information security officers. This data is stored in the OMOP open vendor-neutral data model, enabling a wide range of software tools and computational methods to be used consistently with other state and national efforts. This comprehensive view of UC-wide health data is utilized for comparative analysis to drive population health studies and improve the delivery of patient care across the state of California.

Last updated April 25, 2023

xDR is a large-scale clinical data warehouse that supports data analyses and extractions for research as well as analytics to support clinical quality management functions of UCLA Health. The xDR system is maintained by UCLA Health’s Office of Health Informatics and Analytics (OHIA) and is co-managed by BIP. The xDR contains data derived from multiple clinical systems including the CareConnect Clarity data warehouse; other systems in Radiology, Pathology and other clinical departments; and “legacy” data from older outpatient and hospital billing and managed care systems. xDR is housed within UCLA’s HIPAA-covered entity and is governed by all the privacy and security policies that apply to PHI at UCLA. In 2019, both CareConnect and xDR were migrated to a physically secure data center in Irvine, CA. xDR can now be directly accessed only via a Citrix client and, for research purposes, only by BIP staff who are designated to act as honest brokers for research.

From calendar years 1/1/2019-12/31/2020, the UCLA honest broker team has completed and provisioned 164 research data sets for investigators. These EHR data sets included a total of 3,606,053 patient identities and 2,376,908,250 individual data elements. In addition, to improve our data provisioning efficiency, we are nearing completion of an “e-honest broker” system that automates the extraction of normalized, analysis-ready patient data from the xDR, along with descriptive documentation. xDR and e-honest broker functionality will be enhanced to facilitate automatic streaming into data enclaves.

Last updated April 25, 2023

Biomathematics 170A. Introductory Biomathematics for Medical Investigators. (4) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Intensive elementary statistics course emphasizing design and applications to observational studies and experiments/clinical trials. Statistical topics include study design, descriptive statistics, elementary probability and distributions, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing, sample size and power, linear regression and correlation, analysis of variance, nonparametric statistics. Applications to biomedical literature and design of clinical trials. Letter grading.

Last updated June 1, 2020

Biomathematics 259. Controversies in Clinical Trials. (2) Lecture, one hour; discussion, one hour. Preparation: completion of professional health sciences or M.D. degree. Required of all MS in Clinical Research students. Discussion and analysis of eight published and well-known trials with students, one invited clinical faculty member, and course director. Development of critical ability to evaluate trial design and pitfalls. S/U or letter grading.

Last updated June 1, 2020

Biomathematics M260A-M260B. Methodology in Clinical Research I, II. (4-4) Lecture, four hours. Recommended preparation: M.D., PhD, or dental degree. Requisites: courses 170A, 265A. Course M260A is requisite to M260B. Presentation of principles and practices of major disciplines underlying clinical research methodology, such as biostatistics, epidemiology, pharmacokinetics. S/U or letter grading.

Last updated June 1, 2020

Biomathematics M260C. Methodology in Clinical Research III. (4) (Same as Medicine M260C.) Discussion, four hours. Recommended preparation: M.D., PhD, or dental degree. Presentation of principles and practices of major disciplines underlying clinical research methodology, such as biostatistics, epidemiology, pharmacokinetics. S/U or letter grading.

Last updated June 1, 2020

Biomathematics M261. Responsible Conduct of Research Involving Humans. (2) (Same as Medicine M261.) Lecture, two hours; discussion, two hours. Preparation: completion of one basic course in protection of human research subjects through Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative. Discussion of current issues in responsible conduct of clinical research, including reporting of research, basis for authorship, issues in genetic research, principles and practice of research on humans, conflicts of interest, Institutional Review Board (IRB), and related topics. S/U or letter grading.

Last updated June 1, 2020

Biomathematics M262. Communication of Science. (2) (Same as Psychiatry M230.) Lecture, two hours; discussion, one hour. Presentation of various types of scientific writings and their good practice. Details of writing specific articles: methods, results, discussion. Writing of review article. Grant submissions: aims, background, results, design. Role of appendices. Communication with lay public. S/U or letter grading.

Last updated June 1, 2020

Biomathematics 264. Applied Data Collection and Analysis. (4) Lecture, four hours. Presentation of research project development, including protocol development, data collection, quality control, clinical/electronic health record (EHR) data, structuring data for analysis, and data archival. Lectures, in-class practicums using actual studies and datasets, and student presentations. Letter grading.

Last updated June 1, 2020

Biomathematics 265A. Data Analysis Strategies I. (4) Lecture, two hours; laboratory, two hours. Preparation: MD or PhD degree. Requisite: course 170A. Designed to provide students with hands-on experience developing and testing hypotheses using various types of databases. Topics include developing testable hypothesis, data management, and analysis strategies and written presentation of findings. Experience with full process of hypothesis generation, operationalization of variables, selection of analysis techniques, and presentation of findings so students are better prepared to complete data analysis, interpretation of results, and written presentation of their findings (e.g., for master’s thesis and subsequent articles). Students encouraged to provide their own data. Databases provided for use in completing exercises for those without available data. Letter grading.

Last updated June 1, 2020

Biomathematics 266A. Applied Regression Analysis in Medical Sciences. (4) Lecture, three hours; laboratory, one hour. Requisite: course 170A. Proficiency in applied regression analysis, with focus on interpretation of results and performing computation. Primary topics include simple linear regression, multiple regression, regression model selection, analysis of variance, logistic regression, and survival analysis. Letter grading.

Last updated June 1, 2020

Biomathematics 266B. Advanced Biostatistics. (4) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisite: course 266A. Continuation of course 266A. Some traditional multivariate methods, such as principle components, factor analysis, cluster analysis, and more contemporary methods, including recursive partitioning and missing data. Multilevel and longitudinal analysis. Letter grading.

Last updated June 1, 2020

Biomathematics 285. Introduction to High-Throughput Data Analysis. (4) Seminar, three hours. Requisites: courses M260A, M260B. Introduction to high-throughput data analysis, including DNA microarray technologies and next- generation sequencing technology. Presentation of statistical methods and software for handling complex data produced by experiments using these technologies. Some hands-on training on data analysis provided. S/U or letter grading.

Last updated June 1, 2020

Biomathematics 596. Directed Individual Study or Research in Biomathematics. (2 to 12) Tutorial, to be arranged. Individual study on topics not yet covered by offerings of department. May be repeated for credit with topic change. S/U or letter grading.

Last updated June 1, 2020

Established by the Chancellor in the mid-1980s, the Conflict of Interest Review Committee (CIRC) is a peer review panel under the Office of Research Policy and Compliance composed of faculty from a broad cross section of academic disciplines throughout campus. The CIRC is responsible for reviewing personal financial interests disclosed by UCLA researchers, making determinations about whether those outside financial interests constitute conflicts of interest, and making recommendations about how those conflicts of interest can be eliminated, reduced, or managed so that research awards can be accepted and work can commence. In this role, the CIRC serves as the substantive independent review committee required under the State of California Political Reform Act and as the “designated official(s)” required under federal policy/regulation on financial conflicts of interest related to research.

To fulfill its mandate, the CIRC conducts individualized reviews. These reviews take into account factors such as the nature and magnitude of the disclosed financial interest(s), the type of research, and the investigators’ role/responsibilities to identify situations in which financial or other personal considerations may impact the proposed research.

The CIRC is advisory to the Vice Chancellor for Research (VCR). Members are appointed by the Chancellor, generally for three-year terms, and the VCR selects a current member to serve as Chair. If the VCR has a conflict of interest that requires recusal from a particular case, the Vice Chancellor – Academic Personnel will serve instead as the campus official who receives the CIRC’s advice.

Last updated April 26, 2023

The UCLA Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) was established as the local review body responsible for oversight of all research activities – including teaching laboratories – involving the use of hazardous biological material and recombinant or synthetic nucleic acids, as required and outlined in the NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant or Synthetic Nucleic Acid Molecules (NIH Guidelines) and the CDC/NIH Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL). The IBC is a faculty-led committee appointed by the UCLA Vice Chancellor for Research (VCR) and consists of experts in various fields, including biosafety, human gene therapy, infectious disease, recombinant DNA, animal containment, plant containment, and occupational health. The IBC is responsible for establishing, monitoring, and enforcing policies and procedures involving hazardous biological materials and recombinant/synthetic nucleic acids to meet applicable federal, state, local, and institutional regulations and guidelines.

The IBC reviews and approves protocols for academic research and teaching laboratories involving the following materials: recombinant/synthetic nucleic acid molecules, as covered by the NIH Guidelines; infectious agents that can cause disease in healthy humans and/or significant environmental or agricultural impacts, as covered by the BMB; select agents and select toxins, as covered by the CDC DSAT regulations; human and nonhuman primate materials, as covered by the Cal/OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Standard; and genetically-modified animals and whole plants, as covered by the NIH Guidelines. At its discretion, the IBC may also review protocols involving animals or animal specimens known to be reservoirs/vectors of zoonotic diseases.

Last updated April 26, 2023

The UCLA Office of Clinical Research provides services aimed at accelerating the entire clinical research process. The OCR serves the UCLA Health; its services provide help navigating the process from industry-sponsored contracting to IRB submission and reliance to study activation support. In order to deliver these comprehensive services, the OCR is comprised of six groups: Coordination Services & Education (CSE); Financial Coverage & Activation (FCA); Clinical Research Informatics Systems (CRIS); Clinical Trial Contracts & Sponsor Relations (CTC-SR); Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA); and Embedded Clinical Research Innovation (ECRI).

Coordination Services & Education (CSE). CSE is a resource within the OCR that assists UCLA faculty, staff, and clinical research teams with the regulatory, financial, and compliance-related components of clinical research during study activation, conduct, and closeout of a clinical trial. CSE includes three dedicated teams focused on advancing contributions in study activation, study conduct, and study team training and education.

Financial Coverage & Activation (FCA). The Financial Coverage & Activation (FCA) team within the Dean’s Office School of Medicine and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) provides a centralized performance of Coverage Analysis at UCLA (Health System). Nationally recognized as a thought-leader and best practice model for coverage analysis, FCA provides services that include the development of compliant clinical research budgets pursuant to Federal, State, and local laws and regulations as well as to UCOP and UCLA policies. Additionally, the FCA mitigates clinical research billing compliance risk, particularly those associated with multi-million dollar settlements with the federal government. 

Clinical Research Information Systems (CRIS). UCLA Clinical Research Informatics Systems (CRIS) leverages technology in concert with workflow re-engineering to ensure efficient, compliant, and nimble clinical research business processes. CRIS produces transparent and actionable business metrics, provides business support and analytics, as well as system configuration, data management/migration, and workflow re-engineering. Other functions include training and end-user support. Additionally, the CRIS team manages and maintains OnCore, which is a clinical trials management system (CTMS) used at UCLA for the management of clinical trials in clinical research. The system maintains and manages planning, performing, and reporting functions at the study and subject level along with participant contact information and tracking of deadlines and milestones. The use of OnCore enables the study team to set up and manage all protocols and subjects in one place, supports clinical research billing, simplifies data management and monitoring, improves patient recruitment and tracking, and automates the flow of information between UCLA-based systems including WebIRB, Proposal and Award Tracking System (PATS), and CareConnect. The CRIS team works collaboratively with Financial Coverage and Activation, Clinical Research Business Partners (CRBP), and Research Connect team members to provide a variety of data solutions and operation management tools for clinical research teams.

Clinical Trial Contracts & Sponsor Relations (CTC-SR). The Clinical Trials Contracts & Strategic Relations (CTCSR) office at UCLA administers and has authority to negotiate and execute various agreements for industry-supported clinical trials including clinical trial agreements (CTA’s), confidentiality agreements (CDA’s), inbound and outbound subcontracts, and remote monitoring agreements. CTCSR coordinates with UCLA’s Conflict of Interest Review Committee (CIRC) as needed when a personal financial interest is disclosed by a UCLA researcher in relation to a clinical trial. Additionally, CTCSR serves as a primary consultative resource for faculty, staff, and business partners on matters concerning agreements under CTCSR’s purview. 

Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA). The Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA) provides a broad spectrum of support for clinical investigators and their study teams in the conduct and navigation of clinical research regulatory requirements. Services provided by this office include: Scientific and Feasibility Review, Data and Safety Monitoring, internal monitoring and auditing support, FDA and Sponsor inspection/audit preparation and guidance, ClinicalTrials.gov registration and results reporting assistance, FDA IND/IDE guidance and support, regulatory binder preparation, and more. The mission of the ORA is to guide and support the UCLA clinical research community through the different compliance requirements associated with the conduct of clinical research. 

To see OCR services and programs, see the boilerplates "CTSI-supported collaborations and initiatives" section.  

Last updated April 26, 2023

The UCLA Office of Contract and Grant Administration (OCGA) assists the campus research community in reviewing, approving and submitting proposal applications and negotiating and executing contracts and grants from government and non-profit sponsors. OCGA has primary responsibility for the interpretation of University-wide and campus policy, sponsor guidelines, and applicable federal and state laws and regulations related to governmental and non-profit sponsored activities. OCGA also executes all outgoing Subawards issued under grants or collaborative agreements.

Last updated April 26, 2023

OHRPP is the administrative arm of the UCLA Human Research Protection Program (HRPP). The OHRPP, in partnership with the research community, is responsible for ensuring the safety and welfare of participants in Human Research Projects conducted under the aegis of UCLA. The OHRPP provides the campus and the five UCLA Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) with professional guidance and administrative support. The IRBs are the committees designated by UCLA to review the conduct of research involving human subjects that is conducted by UCLA faculty and staff (conducting studies involving human subjects within the course and scope of their duties) as well as UCLA students (conducting studies involving human subjects within the course of their studies). The function of the IRBs is to ensure adherence to all federal, state, local, and institutional regulations concerning the protection of human subjects in research.

Last updated April 26, 2023

The primary role of the Office of Research Administration (ORA) is to provide the campus with professional guidance and administrative support for all sponsored research activities. ORA maintains accurate records and administrative oversight of research projects and ensures proper administration of contracts and grants awarded to CTSI researchers at UCLA through the following mechanisms: Office of Contract and Grant Administration (OCGA), Office of Research Policy and Compliance (ORPC), Extramural Fund Management (EFM), Office for the Protection for Research Subjects (OHRPP) and Research Safety and Animal Welfare (RSAWA).

Last updated April 26, 2023

Reporting to the Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer, the Office of APB supports UCLA executive management and campus-level strategic planning by providing objective, accurate, and timely data and analysis to inform central and unit decision making processes. It acts in an advisory role to the Chancellor and Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost in the allocation and administration of all campus funds. In addition, the office interacts with the Office of the President (OP) to ensure that the campus resource base and its flexibility are maximized and that the campus academic performance and programs are accurately characterized in systemwide reports. Working with academic units, APB also plays a key role in providing guidance and support at the programmatic level. APB develops and maintains official campus data and statistics to generate institutional information and analyses used by the college, schools, and departments in program planning and resource management. Official institutional data are also provided to accrediting organizations, federal departments, the state legislatures, and ranking agencies as part of the accountability reporting schedule.

Last updated April 26, 2023

The UCLA Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are the committees designated by UCLA to review the conduct of research involving human subjects that is conducted by UCLA faculty and staff (conducting studies involving human subjects within the course and scope of their duties) as well as UCLA students (conducting studies involving human subjects within the course of their studies). The function of the IRBs is to ensure adherence to all federal, state, local, and institutional regulations concerning the protection of human subjects in research. UCLA IRB review is required for both funded and non-funded human subjects research. University policy requires all non-UCLA investigators wishing to access any UCLA facilities, patients, or personnel (faculty, staff or students) for human subjects research to submit an Application for Administrative Review to the UCLA OHRPP for confirmation that the research does not require UCLA IRB review or Certification of Exemption from UCLA IRB review.

The five UCLA IRBs are supplemented by multiple arrangements for accepting the reviews of external IRBs. The UCLA Office of the Human Research Protection Program (OHRPP) provides support to the UCLA IRBs and for arrangements with external IRBs.

Last updated April 26, 2023

The UCLA Technology Development Group (TDG) supports UCLA’s research, education, and service mission by commercializing intellectual property rights; facilitating collaborations with industry for next-generation scientific breakthroughs; advancing UCLA entrepreneurship and research; protecting the university’s interest by managing risk; and promoting economic growth in California. The scope of activities includes commercially evaluating new technologies; determining patentability and commercial value; prosecuting patents; marketing and licensing inventions; facilitating UCLA faculty startups; engaging industry to facilitate research collaboration; negotiating license agreements and Material Transfer Agreements; and receiving and distributing royalties and other income to the inventors, the UCLA campus, and its departments. In FY21, 348 new inventions were disclosed via TDG. TDG collaborates with CTSI researchers who seek to commercialize their intellectual property.

Last updated April 26, 2023

CareConnect is UCLA's electronic health record (EHR) program. The system integrates functions of approximately 65 software applications into a single system accessible across the health system and is available around-the-clock to clinical faculty and staff members. Services include scheduling, registration, referrals, and authorizations for UCLA managed care members at all clinics, clinical applications - pharmacy, Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE), documentation, radiology, rounding lists - at all hospitals, Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) and documentation at a group of clinics and procedure areas in our hospitals (Wave 0), and CareConnect Lite as a replacement for cView at all clinics (except those in Wave 0).

An estimated 18,000 faculty and staff members use CareConnect, including physicians, pharmacists, nurses, advanced-practice nurses, other clinicians, trainees, students, and staff members working with scheduling, registration, billing, patient placement (ADT), and hospital information management (HIM). The CareConnect program is led by a team with expertise in EHR implementation and deep institutional knowledge of our health system. The CareConnect program is overseen by an Executive Oversight Board composed of leaders from UCLA Health System and David Geffen School of Medicine, which developed 11 principles to guide development and implementation of CareConnect.

Last updated April 27, 2023

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center is a Level 1 Trauma Center with an NIH-funded General Clinical Research Center. The 72-acre facility is composed of the 8-story, 553-bed hospital, and a 52,000 square foot Primary Care and Diagnostic Center in addition to a complex of buildings, wooden barracks, and trailers. The on-campus the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, with an annual budget of over 50 million dollars, provides extensive laboratory and administrative facilities for faculty investigators. Other buildings on the campus include the St. John's Cardiovasular Research Center, the Walter P. Martin Research Building, the Professional Office Building, the Imaging Center, and the A.F. Parlow Library of the Health Sciences. The total building space is approximately 1,000,000 square feet.

All of the approximately 300 full-time faculty as well as some of the more than 450 part-time and voluntary professional staff hold faculty appointments at the UCLA School of Medicine. They devote their time to the clinical care of patients, research, and teaching at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The nearly 450 residents and fellows training at Harbor also contribute to these endeavors. The hospital sponsors 34 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education accredited residency and fellowship programs as well as other graduate medical training programs. The hospital also serves as a major training site for medical students from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.

The emergency room has been enlarged and a number of special care units have been constructed from what were formerly ward rooms. In 1994, the 50,000 square foot Edward J. Foley Primary Care and Diagnostic Center was opened. Over the years the hospital and medical programs of the facility have grown and improved steadily.

Last updated April 27, 2023

Information Services & Solutions (ISS), one of the three central components of UCLA Health IT, develops and maintains the central technology infrastructure and provides services and applications to over 20,000 people comprising UCLA Health, Practice Group, and School of Medicine. ISS is committed to delivering progressive technology solutions that effectively support the patient care, research, and teaching missions of the Health Sciences and offer an increasingly integrated set of computing and communication services. ISS aims to serve more than a fixed collection of hospitals, clinics, classrooms, labs, and offices; rather, it strives to bring UCLA expertise to the community by participating in health exchanges and investing in technologies that shorten the distance between people such as real-time access to information, telemedicine services, and web-based access to resources.

Last updated April 27, 2023

Established in 2009, the Pediatric Neuromuscular Disease Clinic meets twice a month and the majority of patients seen have Becker or Duchenne muscular dystrophy (B/DMD). Additional patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), myotonic dystrophy, or congenital muscular dystrophy are seen on select clinic days. The clinic can accommodate patients for multidisciplinary visits. Most B/DMD patients are seen two times per year for routine care and more frequently when needed. Physicians available in the multidisciplinary clinic include medical specialists (e.g., neurology, genetics, cardiology), pediatricians, neurologists, neurology fellows, and pediatric and adult neurology residents. The clinic can serve both adult and pediatric patients; most clinic staff members, including Dr. Perry Shieh, are fully credentialed to provide specialist services to both children and adults. Older patients who do not require child-related services are seen in a multidisciplinary clinic or on dedicated days, depending on insurance coverage and needs. Other clinic staff members, including Drs. Stanley Nelson and Nancy Halnon, are available to evaluate for disease- or treatment-related complications and manage steroid-dependent patients in conjunction with primary care physicians.

Last updated April 27, 2023

Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital (NPH) is a 74-bed acute psychiatric hospital and is among the leading centers in the world for comprehensive patient care, research and education in the fields of mental health, developmental disabilities and neurology. A key part of UCLA Health System, NPH is the major psychiatry teaching facility of the UCLA Center for the Health Sciences. The staff of NPH is composed of faculty from the departments of psychiatry, neurology, medicine, pediatrics, as well as members from the professional disciplines of nursing, psychology, occupational therapy, recreational therapy, speech pathology, social work, and special education. Patients of NPH and their families participate actively in their plan for treatment, during hospitalization, and after discharge, and special procedures and personnel are employed to ensure the most effective involvement of families in the care of patients. 

NPH is licensed by the State of California and accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO). The mission of Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, in association with the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is to serve the healthcare needs of the community, its patients and their families through excellence in research, education and the delivery of neuropsychiatric and behavioral health services.  

Research programs at the Neuropsychiatric Institute enable the staff to develop and apply the newest and most appropriate therapeutic methods. The institute also conducts educational programs at the undergraduate and postdoctoral level. Additionally, the Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital at UCLA has been ranked “Number 5” in the nation in Psychiatry by U.S. News & World Report for 2021–2022.  

Last updated April 27, 2023

Founded in 1955, UCLA Medical Center became Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in 2008, reopening in a 10-story structure that takes hospital design to a new level. The latest medical advances are provided in a welcoming environment that is filled with light and open space to enhance a sense of wellness and promote healing. Situated on four acres on the UCLA campus in West Los Angeles, the hospital encompasses Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, and UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital. This was one of the first total replacement hospital projects to be built in accordance with the latest California seismic safety requirements. Every floor of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is dedicated to a particular specialty and equipped with state-of-the-art support equipment and supplies. Every floor has its own satellite pharmacy, dialysis storage, respiratory therapy workrooms, and resident doctor sleep rooms. In addition, each patient room has the capacity to convert into an intensive care unit (ICU) to allow for the continuous care of a critically ill patient in a single room.

As the primary teaching hospital for the David Geffen School of Medicine, the 520-bed, 1,050,000-square-foot medical center provides patient care in nearly all medical specialties. In 2021, UCLA Health hospitals ranked #1 in both Los Angeles and California and rose to #3 nationally in an annual evaluation published by U.S. News & World Report—the highest set of rankings UCLA received in its history. Furthermore, the medical center has Magnet Status for Nursing Excellence, is a national leader in organ transplantation, and receives more than 50,000 emergency patients annually.

Key hospital features include: surgical suites with full audiovisual integration systems and leading-edge medical equipment; a GONDA Observation Unit run by a hospitalist team—a special short-stay unit for patients requiring observation for a specific symptom; “The BirthPlace, Westwood” allows mothers to give birth and recover in a comfortable, home-like setting that easily and quickly transforms into an efficient operating room for delivery; a Level 1 trauma center with multiple trauma rooms and a dedicated CT scanner that enables doctors to diagnose patients upon arrival; intensive care units that employ a "line of sight" approach that ensures 360-degree access to critically ill patients; and room service food delivery that allows patients to personalize their menu orders and arrange for delivery at a convenient time.

Last updated April 27, 2023

The Compliance Program was developed to ensure UCLA’s legal, regulatory, Regental, UC policy, and other compliance requirements are followed and maintained. The goal of the program is to provide guidance and address compliance concerns across campus. The Compliance Program has an Oversight Committee on Audit, IT Governance, Compliance, and Controls which is a standing committee composed of campus leadership responsible for providing policy direction and oversight regarding campus-wide accountability and compliance matters. The committee is supported by the UCLA Ethics and Compliance Officer with collaboration from various campus partners.

The Compliance Program was developed in the context of UCLA’s core teaching, research, patient care, and public service missions. The specific purposes of the program are to maintain and enhance quality of care; demonstrate sincere, ongoing efforts to comply with all applicable laws; revise and clarify current policies and procedures in order to enhance compliance; enhance communication with governmental entities with respect to compliance activities; empower responsible parties to prevent, detect, and resolve conduct that does not conform with applicable laws and regulations; and establish mechanisms for employees to raise concerns about compliance issues and ensure that those concerns are appropriately addressed.

The Compliance Office supports the program through educational programs, updates on changes to the laws and regulations that impact operations, reviews to evaluate compliance, and investigations of allegations of non-compliance.

Last updated April 27, 2023

The UCLA Dental Clinics in Westwood and the UCLA Venice Dental Center are the patient care branches of the UCLA School of Dentistry. As an education institution, UCLA’s procedures and policies differ from those of a private dental practice. While patient care is always the foremost concern, the clinics are equally responsible for the education and training of students and residents. Before becoming a patient at a clinic, patients are first screened by a faculty member to determine if the treatment needs are a good fit for the teaching environment. A full series of X-rays or basic X-rays will be taken as needed, determined by the screening faculty. Once the screening process is complete and a patient is accepted as a potential teaching case in a student clinic, he or she will be scheduled for a comprehensive oral examination to assess the general state of their oral health and create a full-mouth treatment plan.

Last updated April 27, 2023

UCLA Health is a self-supporting non-profit organization, owned and operated by the Regents of the University of California, to support the clinical activities of the professional schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and public health. UCLA Health is comprised of: the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (520 beds); the Mattel Children’s Hospital (131 beds); the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA (74 beds); the UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica (281 beds); UCLA Health Clinics; UCLA Faculty Group; and the David Geffen School of Medicine. Additionally, the Westwood campus includes the Jules Stein Eye Institute and Doris Stein Eye Research Center, the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior Neuropsychiatric Institute, and the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of over 70 NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers. Outpatient facilities include a six-story, 380,000-square-foot ambulatory care center housing the Family Health Center for primary care of routine illnesses; the Children's Health Center; Internal Medicine clinics; a Surgery Center; and a 104,000 square foot building housing the outpatient, training and research programs of the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital and the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. This building also houses the UCLA Medical Center rehabilitation program.   

UCLA Health boasts 3,200 total faculty, of which 3,050 are clinical faculty and 150 are basic science faculty. UCLA Health also boasts 1,300 residents and fellows as well as 3,800 registered nurses, part of a net total of 32,000 employees. More than 300 UCLA physicians are listed among the best doctors in America, with many ranked as Super Doctors. Altogether, UCLA Health hospitals and clinics have over 2.8 million annual outpatient visits, with nearly 670,000 unique patients per year, and UCLA Health sustains 36,000 hospital stays and 73,000 Emergency Department visits per year.   

A unique feature of UCLA is the presence of the Center for the Health Sciences (CHS) complex (one of the largest health-science centers in the country) that includes a hospital, School of Medicine, School of Dentistry, School of Nursing, School of Public Health, and California NanoSystems Institute on the same campus as the Division of Life Sciences and 7 other professional schools. This centralized complex ensures that all UCLA investigators have offices and/or a lab well within a close walking distance. 

For more than 60 years, UCLA Health has provided the best in health care and the latest in medical technology to the people of Los Angeles and throughout the world. A self-supporting non-profit organization, owned and operated by the Regents of the University of California, UCLA Health’s mission is to deliver leading-edge patient care, research, and education, and its vision is to heal humankind, one patient at a time, by improving health, alleviating suffering and delivering acts of kindness. As an academic medical center, UCLA Health is able to offer patients the latest technologies as well as access to potentially life-saving new therapies and leading-edge clinical trials. With a comprehensive array of research and clinical centers, addressing topics from stem cell biology, AIDS, gene therapy, neurosciences, women's health and geriatrics, UCLA continues to define what an academic medical center can be.  

Last updated April 27, 2023

UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital cares for the physical and emotional well-being of children, from newborns to young adults. With a dedicated entrance from Gayley Avenue, UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital is located on the third and fifth floors of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. UCLA's facilities are designed to serve the most critically ill children with sophisticated, compassionate care in an environment that is both welcoming and healing to children and their families. In 1998, Mattel Children's Foundation, a philanthropic arm of Mattel, Inc., pledged $25 million toward construction of the hospital. With Mattel's continued support, UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital is expanding pediatric services locally; broadening its global presence to enhance and improve the health of children worldwide; and promoting the global sharing of UCLA Health’s best practices and research. In total, Mattel has 131 inpatient beds, which includes 44 beds in the pediatric unit, 22 beds in the neonatal ICU, 18 beds in the pediatric ICU, and 6 beds in the pediatric cardiac ICU. Annually, Mattel Children’s Hospital serves more than 6,000 inpatients and 40,000 outpatients. The Mattel Children’s Unit at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, includes a 25-bed pediatric unit and a 16-bassinet Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Each nursing unit has its own minor procedure room so young patients can undergo certain treatments away from their sleeping area to avoid associating pain or distress with their own room. The outpatient Children's Health Center, located adjacent to the hospital at 200 UCLA Medical Plaza, serves more than 42,000 patients each year, and includes an 8-bed procedure area and 25 patient rooms as well as laboratory, radiology, and pharmacy services. 

Last updated April 27, 2023

UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, serves as the cornerstone of UCLA Health's Santa Monica medical campus. The 281-bed, full-service medical center provides the complete continuum of healthcare services, from prenatal and neonatal care to geriatric medicine, in a technologically advanced and welcoming facility. It combines the expertise of an academic medical center with the accessibility of a community hospital to offer patients the best of both medical worlds. The medical center features several outstanding programs and services on or near its 4.5-acre medical campus. These include: the Nethercutt Emergency Center, which treats nearly 50,000 patients annually and serves as Santa Monica's only Emergency Department (ED) approved for pediatric care; The BirthPlace, one of Southern California’s most comprehensive maternity centers, where approximately 1,500 babies are delivered each year; a 25-bed Pediatrics Unit, which operates as a unit of UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital and serves as Santa Monica's only inpatient unit for pediatric care; the UCLA Rape Treatment Center and its Stuart House facility for sexually abused children serve as national models for the treatment of rape victims and their families; the UCLA Breast Center, Santa Monica, located within the UCLA medical building, provides personalized, multi-disciplinary breast care in a compassionate and supportive environment; UCLA Radiology, which performs state-of-the-art imaging services in several locations throughout the Santa Monica campus; and the UCLA Spine Center which provides comprehensive medical and surgical treatment for all spinal disorders and strives to be at the forefront of spinal research. The hospital also has an alliance with the Orthopaedic Institute for Children, formerly known as Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital.

Founded in 1926 as Santa Monica’s first hospital by local physicians Drs. William S. Mortensen and August B. Hromadka, the medical center has evolved over the years to better serve Santa Monica and surrounding communities. In 1942, the hospital became part of the Lutheran Hospital Society, where it remained until 1988, when it joined UniHealth America. In 1995, the hospital was acquired by the University of California and became an integral part of UCLA Health’s expanding network of medical services. It was rebuilt in phases following the 1994 Northridge earthquake and is now designed and constructed to the latest seismic standards. More than 25% of the medical campus is dedicated to green and open spaces, including a 40,000-square-foot garden facing 15th Street and the 18,000-square-foot Harman Garden Plaza. Both areas offer a tranquil setting where patients, visitors, and staff members can enjoy fresh air, sunshine, and sea breezes.

Last updated April 27, 2023

Located next to the Ronald Reagan UCLA medical center, the UCLA Medical Plaza offers an accessible, friendly environment for a broad range of outpatient services, including more than 80 specialty clinics. The plaza is composed of the following facilities:

• 100 Medical Plaza, a 140,000 square foot facility, provides space for approximately 100 physicians who are currently members or are eligible to become members of the clinical faculty of the School of Medicine. The building is owned and operated by a private firm under a long-term ground lease from the Regents of the University of California. It is the first facility of its kind to be privately developed, financed and operated on a UC campus.
• 200 Medical Plaza, a six-story, 380,000-square-foot outpatient care center, house virtually all of UCLA Medical Center’s outpatient services. It offers a complete range of services, from a Family Health Center offering primary care for routine illnesses, to clinics providing state-of-the-art outpatient treatments for complex cancers. The facilities in the Surgery Center enable patients to go home the same day following many types of surgical procedures.
• 300 Medical Plaza, a 104,000-square-foot building on the southern end of the plaza, houses outpatient and training programs of the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA and the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, as well as the medical center’s rehabilitation program.

Last updated April 27, 2023

The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System (VAGLAHS) is one of the largest health care facilities within the Department of Veterans Affairs. It is one component of the VA Desert Pacific Healthcare Network (VISN22) offering services to Veterans residing in Southern California and Southern Nevada. VAGLAHS consists of two ambulatory care centers, a tertiary care facility and 8 community based outpatient clinics. VAGLAHS serves Veterans residing throughout five counties: Los Angeles, Ventura, Kern, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo. There are 1.4 million Veterans in the VAGLAHS service area. VAGLAHS is affiliated with both UCLA School of Medicine and USC School of Medicine, as well as more than 45 colleges, universities and vocational schools in 17 different medical, nursing, paramedical and administrative programs. The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System is accredited by The Joint Commission. The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System directs the Department of Veterans Affairs’ largest educational enterprise. VAGLAHS serves as a major training site for medical residencies sponsored by the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and USC School of Medicine, as well as more than 45 colleges, universities and vocational schools in 17 different medical, nursing, paramedical and administrative programs. Over 500 University residents, interns, and students are trained at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System each year. The institution sponsors 16 medical residencies and numerous associated health residencies and internships in dentistry, podiatry, optometry, pharmacy, clinical psychology, social work and dietetics.

Last updated April 27, 2023

The UCLA Advanced Heart Failure Program, under the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center and UCLA Heart Transplant Center, is an integrated service dedicated to providing attending-level phone consultation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They have over the last 2 years been re-organized in the integrated Advanced Heart Failure Program with the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center, Mechanical Circulatory Support Center and Heart Transplant Center. The referring physician will speak to the attending cardiologist on-call within five minutes to facilitate the prompt and appropriate evaluation and care of the patient. The Advanced Heart Failure Program provides direct access to the team responsible for the management of all aspects of advanced heart failure, including inpatient and outpatient NYHA Class III and IV patients with heart failure. The team also accepts referrals of patients for heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support (VAD) implantation.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The Bioinformatics IDP offers rigorous and integrated training for students interested in undertaking research at the interface of computer science, mathematics, statistics, biology, and biomedicine to address the fundamental challenges of data-rich research in biosciences. This interdisciplinary PhD program consists of an integrated one-year core curriculum, research rotations, over 50 elective courses, and faculty mentors spanning biology, mathematics, engineering, and medicine. UCLA has a strong record of bioinformatics research and graduate training. In 1999 the faculty established a graduate core curriculum in bioinformatics, which has been offered continuously since that time, and recently has been greatly expanded, demonstrating the faculty’s commitment to collaborative teaching and to long-term development of an integrated bioinformatics program. These initiatives have been recognized by a large number of awards of multi-investigator Project and Training grants in bioinformatics from NIH, NSF, DOE and other funding sources. 

The central mission of the Bioinformatics Interdepartmental Graduate Program is to train talented and highly motivated students to become next-generation leaders in the field of Bioinformatics. The program was established in 2008. In the past 10 years or so, the program has enjoyed a tremendous growth in size and impact. It has graduated 20 students and now has more than 45 Ph.D. students in the program. It has a diverse group of over 50 faculty members spanning over 10 academic departments in the Schools of Medicine, Engineering, Life Sciences, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and Public Health. These exceptional faculty mentors include HHMI investigators and members of the National Academy of Sciences. 

The faculty are deeply committed to this mission and provide in-depth, attentive mentorship for students throughout their graduate careers and beyond. Students in the program enjoy a vibrant intellectual environment including the Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences, the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, and the NIH Big Data to Knowledge Center of Excellence at UCLA. The program offers exceptional institutional resources and facilities for genomic and biomedical big data production and advanced high-performance computing. It is also home to a NIH Training Grant in Biomedical Big Data, and the students receive extensive fellowship support from a large list of training grants at UCLA. The program is devoted to community outreach and diversity, and deeply committed to recruiting and training students from underrepresented groups in Bioinformatics.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The Graduate Programs in Biosciences is a re-envisioning of training in the biological and life sciences. Building on the strengths of the ACCESS program (one of the nation’s first unified admissions and first year training programs for graduate students in the biosciences), GPB provides an organized network of programs that offers students breadth and flexibility to best pursue their interests across the wide range of bioscience graduate programs. At the same time, GPB introduces the benefits of individually tailored education in smaller training communities, defined by research themes, not traditional departments. The UCLA GPB is a consortium of 10 home areas and their affiliated graduate programs, organized to provide the best possible research training and professional development for graduate students pursuing advanced studies in the life and biomedical sciences. The Bioinformatics IDP is one home area within GPB. Each home area has designed a specific course of study to prepare students for careers in bioscience research in their chosen area of specialization. While the specifics are customized at the home area level, there is a general training progression, with the first year involving research rotations in different laboratories to gain research experience and identify a faculty member to serve as the advisor for research; and coursework to ensure that students have a strong concept foundation and develop advanced skills needed to critically evaluate the literature, recognize important questions in the field, design effective approaches, critically analyze data, and communicate clearly through oral and written forms of expression. Subsequent years focus on formal research and development of professional skills. The GPB is the umbrella administrative organization under which the Bioinformatics IDP exists, providing a unified framework for graduate training in the biological and life sciences at UCLA.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The California Center for Population Research (CCPR) was established in 1998 and has since been a leading research center for research and training in demography. CCPR is comprised of over 140 active faculty researchers from an array of academic disciplines, such as epidemiology, public policy, economics, sociology, and public welfare. CCPR researchers span several schools, including the College of Letters and Sciences, the Division of Social Sciences, the School of Public Health, the School of Medicine, and the School of Public Affairs, as well as academic departments within UCLA.

The CCPR is an interdisciplinary research organization. CCPR supports and fosters innovative and ambitious research and training in population science. The center provides research resources, services, and environments to enhance research quality. CCPR trains the next generation of population scientists to carry out informed research in social, economic, and public health. CCPR seeks deeper understanding of the demographic and social determinants of health and the effects of health on population dynamics and socioeconomic well-being.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA represents a new paradigm in the world of scientific research, serving as a dynamic environment for innovative research partnerships and team science initiatives that leverage the unique properties of matter at nanoscale dimensions. The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) is a hub of interdisciplinary research, translation, and education where scientists from diverse fields find common purpose in addressing grand challenges of the 21st century. At CNSI, engineers and oncologists create drug delivery systems to treat cancer. Chemists, physicists, and neurologists develop nanoelectronic sensors for mapping the brain. Environmental engineers and biologists use nanobiotechnology to clean pollutants from water. The CNSI is where collaboration drives discovery, creativity triggers innovation, and ideas that will define our future become a reality. With locations at the University of California’s Los Angeles and Santa Barbara campuses, the CNSI leverages public and private investment to drive collaborative nanoscience research across disciplines, translates discoveries into knowledge-driven commercial enterprises, and educates the next generation of scientists and engineers.

As one of four Governor Gray Davis Institutes for Science and Innovation (GGDISI), the CNSI builds on a visionary investment in future education, research, and technological resources given by the state of California. CNSI provides unique educational opportunities for the modern scientific leader by engaging learners from primary school students to established scientists and industry professionals. The Institutes leverage an unprecedented public-private partnership to affect research areas critical to sustaining California’s economic growth and its competitiveness in the global marketplace. These Institutes open the doors to new understanding, new applications, and new products through essential research in biomedicine, bioengineering, nanosystems, telecommunications, and information technology.

CNSI is a 188,000 square foot, world-class research facility centrally located in UCLA’s Court of Sciences. The CNSI facility provides collaborative research space for new initiatives, sophisticated tools and technologies to support its mission to encourage university collaborations with industry, and to enable discovery. In addition, the building offers modern community areas designed to stimulate exchange and collaboration among researchers. The interactive areas include a 260-seat theater, lobby space, conference and break rooms, and a presentation and discussion space along with outdoor terraces. The CNSI building creates an array of opportunities for scholarly achievement, business exchange, and visionary research.

The CNSI Technology Centers provide unrestricted access to fully integrated R&D infrastructure, professional support and collaborative research opportunities in the fabrication, characterization and screening of nanomaterials, systems, and devices. Directed by a group of leading scientists, the Centers develop technologies that promote discovery through direct grant support, user proposals and industrial partnerships. Access to these facilities is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for students, postdocs, staff, faculty and industrial scientists, and is managed through the CNSI Laboratory Management System (CLMS).

CNSI houses multiple state of the art Technology Centers, including the Electron Imaging Center for Nanomachines (EICN), the Advanced Light Microscopy and Spectroscopy (ALMS) Laboratory, the Nano & Pico Characterization (NPC) Laboratory, the Molecular Screening Shared Resource (MSSR), the Integrated Nanomaterials Laboratory (INML), and the UCLA Nanofabrication Laboratory (NanoLab).

Last updated April 28, 2023

The USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health (CBPH) is one of 14 centers in the Demography and Economics of Aging Centers Program and has been sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) as a joint center combining epidemiological and demographic expertise for over 15 years. The overarching goal of the Center is to enhance understanding of biological and other processes that contribute to population health at older ages and thereby contribute to more effective program and policy efforts to improve health and reduce health disparities. The Center represents a unique and highly successful collaboration between the Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California (USC) and the Multicampus Program in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology in the Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), each of which focuses on research and teaching on aging. Since its inception in 1999, the CBPH has leveraged the unique combination of demographic and epidemiological expertise of the Center directors, along with the interdisciplinary expertise of Center faculty affiliates, to become a leader in the development of the field of biodemography.  The Center is at the forefront of efforts to promote theory-based integration of biological measurement into population-based studies and on-going development and validation of biological measurement protocols. Dr. Seeman is co-Director of the center.

CBPH is dedicated to providing a synergistic research environment for the integration and translation of research findings from a variety of disciplines to understand population health. The Center takes a multidisciplinary approach by linking demographers, biologists, economists, psychologists, epidemiologists, health policy specialists, medical researchers and clinical geriatricians. This integration of biological, epidemiologic and medical risk information which characterizes Center research is fundamental to understanding and projecting demographic trends and differences in population health.

The CBPH aims:

• To support pilot projects and on-going bio-demographic research that integrate epidemiological, medical, and biological information with the demographic perspective on population health.
• To train students in research methods and host workshops related to the biodemography of aging.
• To develop models of population health outcomes that will clarify the effects of changes in risk factors and interventions on population health.
• To disseminate results of Center work and integrate work from a network of related researchers and policy makers.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The Center for Cancer Prevention and Control Research is a joint program of the School of Public Health and the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA. Since its inception in 1976, the Center has been nationally and internationally recognized for its pioneering work in cancer prevention and control research. NCI-designated Cancer Centers are a major source of discovery of the nature of cancer and of the development of more effective approaches to cancer prevention, diagnosis, and therapy. They also deliver medical advances to patients and their families, educate health-care professionals and the public, and reach out to underserved populations. They are characterized by: strong organizational capabilities; institutional commitment; trans-disciplinary, cancer-focused science; experienced scientific and administrative leadership and state-of-the-art cancer research and patient care facilities.

The Center conducts rigorous peer-reviewed research in three major areas:

The Healthy and At-Risk Populations Program focuses on the prevention and early detection aspects of the cancer control continuum. The program’s research portfolio encompasses a broad range of studies including: investigations in tobacco control; nutrition; physical activity; breast, cervix, prostate and colorectal cancer screening; control of vaccine preventable cancers (liver, cervix); and expanding interests in economic and community level factors as predictors of cancer related outcomes. A central theme characterizing this program is a major emphasis on cancer disparities research, bringing cancer prevention and control to low-income, minority, and other socially and medically underserved populations locally, nationally, and internationally.

The Patients and Survivors Program has as its major goal the reduction in avoidable morbidity and mortality among patients with cancer and long-term survivors of cancer. The two main scientific thrusts of the program are: Quality-of-life outcomes along the developmental phases of the life span continuum (e.g., children, young adult survivors, adult cancer patients and survivors, elderly cancer patients and survivors), including late medical and psychosocial effects; and Quality of cancer care, its measurement and evaluation. The program also houses the UCLA-LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence and the UCLA Family Cancer Registry.

The Molecular Epidemiology Program focuses on: (1) Primary prevention: examining environmental exposure (smoking, diet, infection, air pollution, etc.) and genetic susceptibility and cancer risk, as well as exploring gene-environmental interactions in cancer risk; (2) Secondary prevention: evaluating biological markers (somatic mutations and hyper-methylations of tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes, gene copy numbers, etc.) for early detection, as well as intermediate markers as surrogate end-points for chemoprevention; and (3) Tertiary prevention: assessing blood and tissue-based biological markers (tumor markers, SNPs, etc.) for cancer prognosis and survival prediction.

Last updated April 28, 2023

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is one of the most common and devastating genetic diseases of childhood, affecting approximately 1 in 5000 boys. Progressive muscle degeneration leads to loss of ambulation by age 12, loss of upper arm use in the teen years, and heart and respiratory failure leading to death in the 20's. The Center for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy at UCLA leads the nation in translational science focused on Duchenne and is the first comprehensive Duchenne clinic in the western United states. Established in 2006, the CDMD at UCLA was built as a result of collaborations among UCLA scientists, clinicians, and researchers who are now poised to achieve significant advances in research, clinical care, and treatments for Duchenne that are improving, and will potentially extend, the lives of those afflicted. The center’s efforts span from education and outreach to cutting- edge research, drug discovery, clinical trials, and care. Funding for the CDMD's remarkable achievements to date has come from a combination of research grants and private philanthropy. The goals of the CDMD are to identify additional disease modifying drug targets; perform intelligent drug design; improve access and care in the clinical setting; and increase clinical trial participation.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities is a multidisciplinary, community-focused research, policy, and training center at UCLA. Established in 1996, the Center is a joint effort of the David Geffen School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. The Center also includes faculty from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Policy & Social Research, School of Law, and the College of Letters and Sciences. Integrating expertise across disciplines ensures that the solutions we develop are theoretically sound and highly practical. The Center also partners with leading organizations across the country to create and spread forward-thinking ideas and strategies. Its mission is to promote children’s lifelong health, development, and well-being in the context of their families and communities. The Center creates and translates innovative ideas into optimal outcomes. The solutions developed enable parents, practitioners, and policymakers to bring about meaningful change in children’s health. The Center’s work focuses on four areas: systems innovation and improvement, research and evaluation, training and model programs, and policy. In combination, these areas offer strategic, integrated techniques for transforming care and improving the long-term health of children and families.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute (CDI) was founded to enhance the culture for innovation and groundbreaking collaborative research spanning from molecule to community. The goal of CDI is to connect all research and training activities related to improving children’s health, spanning from discoveries at the bench through translation to the bedside to rolling out to community practice through collaborations and networks established locally, nationally, and globally. The CDI pioneers advancements in pediatric medicine in four core areas of research: brain, behavior and development; nutrition, metabolism, and growth; cancer and regeneration; and infection, inflammation, and immunity. Each of these areas focuses on prevention, screening, treatment and training opportunities for the next generation of pediatricians. A mentorship program in the four primary research areas enables younger physicians and scientists to learn from UCLA’s world-class experts in pediatric medicine and collaboratively related disciplines.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The Collaboratory is a central component of QCBio that provides the experimental and empirical research environment where bioscientists and computational scientists work together to design systems and conduct experiments to improve the understanding of biological systems. As large-scale data analysis is often limited in most bioscience laboratories, the Collaboratory’s main mission is to facilitate genomic data analysis by bringing together UCLA bioscience faculty with QCBio faculty and a select group of QCBio post-doctoral fellows dedicated to the Collaboratory. Individual post-doctoral fellows are assigned to work on specific bioscience research projects to develop tailored methodologies for genomic analysis. The post-doctoral fellows are responsible for organizing intensive tutorials to train UCLA students and postdocs in the latest next-generation sequence analysis techniques. In addition to providing computational expertise to bioscience researchers at UCLA, the Collaboratory has also set up and maintains a next-generation sequence data analysis server, and develops methodologies to process new types of data.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging brings together faculty, students, and staff with a variety of backgrounds - physics, mathematics, engineering, biology, chemistry, and medicine - to pursue innovative technologies and science to accelerate our understanding of biology and medicine. Innovative technology programs, linked by systems biology, microfluidics, nanotechnology, and molecular imaging, provide the tools to conduct integrated science in a unique, interdisciplinary setting.

With an initial focus on cancer and immunity, our goal is to develop new technologies to observe, measure, and understand biology in cells, tissues, and living organisms. Through molecular imaging - taking pictures of the living chemistry of cells and tissues of the body, we can watch biology in action in living organisms. The Crump Institute's ultimate objective is to provide medicine with new science and technologies to judge the state of health, and identify the early transitions to disease for the development and use of new therapies as part of the new era in molecular medicine.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The Center for Cancer Prevention and Control Research is a joint program of the School of Public Health and the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA. Since its inception in 1976, the Center has been nationally and internationally recognized for its pioneering work in cancer prevention and control research. NCI-designated Cancer Centers are a major source of discovery of the nature of cancer and of the development of more effective approaches to cancer prevention, diagnosis, and therapy. They also deliver medical advances to patients and their families, educate health-care professionals and the public, and reach out to underserved populations. They are characterized by: strong organizational capabilities; institutional commitment; trans-disciplinary, cancer-focused science; experienced scientific and administrative leadership and state-of-the-art cancer research and patient care facilities.

The Center conducts rigorous peer-reviewed research in three major areas:

The Healthy and At-Risk Populations Program focuses on the prevention and early detection aspects of the cancer control continuum. The program’s research portfolio encompasses a broad range of studies including: investigations in tobacco control; nutrition; physical activity; breast, cervix, prostate and colorectal cancer screening; control of vaccine preventable cancers (liver, cervix); and expanding interests in economic and community level factors as predictors of cancer related outcomes. A central theme characterizing this program is a major emphasis on cancer disparities research, bringing cancer prevention and control to low-income, minority, and other socially and medically underserved populations locally, nationally, and internationally.

The Patients and Survivors Program has as its major goal the reduction in avoidable morbidity and mortality among patients with cancer and long-term survivors of cancer. The two main scientific thrusts of the program are: Quality-of-life outcomes along the developmental phases of the life span continuum (e.g., children, young adult survivors, adult cancer patients and survivors, elderly cancer patients and survivors), including late medical and psychosocial effects; and Quality of cancer care, its measurement and evaluation. The program also houses the UCLA-LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence and the UCLA Family Cancer Registry.

The Molecular Epidemiology Program focuses on: (1) Primary prevention: examining environmental exposure (smoking, diet, infection, air pollution, etc.) and genetic susceptibility and cancer risk, as well as exploring gene-environmental interactions in cancer risk; (2) Secondary prevention: evaluating biological markers (somatic mutations and hyper-methylations of tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes, gene copy numbers, etc.) for early detection, as well as intermediate markers as surrogate end-points for chemoprevention; and (3) Tertiary prevention: assessing blood and tissue-based biological markers (tumor markers, SNPs, etc.) for cancer prognosis and survival prediction.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine (DLAM) is an integral part of the vibrant UCLA research enterprise and includes faculty members with a broad array of basic, translational, and clinical research interests in areas that include Bioinformatics, Cancer Biology, Immunology/Inflammation, Metabolism, Neuroscience, and Regenerative Medicine. Departmental researchers seek to better understand disease pathogenesis and translate these findings to the clinic. . Departmental research has continued to thrive and grow over the past decade. Faculty publish their findings in many of the top biomedical journals such as Cell, Immunity, Molecular Cell, Nature Immunology, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  

DLAM comprises 166,741 sq. ft. of animal facilities. The department is staffed by four full-time veterinarians, eleven veterinary technicians and research associates, 92 animal technicians (including their supervisors) and 19 support staff (clinical and diagnostic labs; administrative personnel and training personnel). All veterinary and technical staff are located on site and available at all times. Animal technicians and veterinary technicians monitor animal health daily including weekends and holidays. Veterinarians examine animals that are reported as sick or injured and conduct routine facility rounds at least weekly. If animals exhibit any indications of illness, injury or distress, veterinary staff confers with research personnel to recommend and agree on appropriate treatment or euthanasia.

Animals are housed in UCLA IACUC-approved animal facilities under temperature and ventilation controlled conditions. Facility staff ensure animals receive fresh food, water and clean bedding on a regular basis (weekly, bi-weekly or more often). Animal care staff carry out routine husbandry procedures including changing cages, feeding and watering. Animals are checked daily by animal care staff to assess their health condition. Animal care and veterinary attention is available 24/7, 365 days a year on an on-duty or on-call basis.

Three dedicated facilities are available for the breeding and maintenance of mice. Dedicated technical personnel with expertise in breeding colony management are available to provide breeding services and consultation.

Last updated April 28, 2023

Life Sciences has nine academic departments: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Integrative Biology and Physiology; Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics; Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology; Psychology; Society and Genetics; Department of Life Sciences; Computational & Systems Biology IDP; and Neuroscience IDP. The faculty are nationally and internationally recognized for their contributions to science and education. Their research is broadening the understanding of how living systems work– to improve mental health, physical health, the health of our planet; and to find biological solutions to meet our growing demands for food and fuel. The students are among the best in the country, and the division is committed to the best education and training possible, to prepare students for their future careers.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSEIS) is committed to continuing research in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). The School consists of two academic departments: the Department of Education and the Department of Information Studies. The Department of Education was ranked first overall in the nation according to U.S. News & World Report's 2018 report. The Department of Education's research is geared toward improving learning and teaching in the classroom, the workplace, and the home. The department is internationally known as a leader in the study of student testing and assessment, teacher and continuing education and development - particularly in urban, multi-ethnic environments, early childhood development, and issues of access, equity and quality facing higher education.. The Department of Information Studies is internationally recognized for research in areas such as digital archives and libraries, multimedia databases, social implications of the Internet, organization of knowledge and information policy. Researchers focus on all kinds of environments where information is stored and retrieved, including the World Wide Web, museums, corporations, schools, universities, and public libraries. The Department of Information Studies was ranked 14th in U.S. News & World Report's last survey of Library and Information Studies graduate schools.

Last updated April 28, 2023

Founded in 1945, the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science is recognized around the world as a leader in engineering education, research and service. UCLA Engineering has developed generations of rigorously trained engineers and has been the home for solutions to challenges in fields including energy, sustainability, healthcare, communications, transportation, infrastructure and information technology. The school is known as the birthplace of the Internet because in 1969 the very first transmission on what would become the Internet was sent from UCLA Engineering’s Boelter Hall. The school is also the birthplace of major innovations in reverse-osmosis technology for clean water, semiconductor design and development, pollution research and more. The school’s curriculum offers a hands-on, multidisciplinary education to prepare students to take on the challenges of the times and to make impacts in ways that one cannot yet imagine. Its proximity to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Anderson School of Management facilitates excellence in the growing field of biomedical and bioengineering research, as well as entrepreneurship. The talented and diverse faculty members at UCLA Engineering are among the top engineering educators and researchers in the world. Many affiliated faculty have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the highest distinction for engineers in the U.S., and have received numerous other awards. The CTSI has partnered with the Institute of Risk Sciences in the School of Engineering to create a Center for SMART Healthcare which will facilitate collaborations between academicians and industry partners.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The ICNN provides advanced analysis and informatics support to a highly interactive user group consisting of neuroscientists at UCLA, who are conducting basic, clinical, and translational research. These investigators have access to excellent facilities for genetics and genomics experimentation; the lack of corresponding resources in analysis and informatics constitutes a bottleneck in their research. ICNN faculty experts in statistical genetics, gene expression analysis, and bioinformatics will oversee the activities of highly-trained staff members who will accomplish three goals: providing expert consultation and analyses for neurogenetics and neurogenomics projects; developing and maintaining a shared computing resource that will include a computational cluster for computation-intensive analyses, web-servers and state of the art software tools for a wide range of applications (including user-friendly versions of public databases, as well as workstations on which ICNN users will be trained to employ these tools; providing hands-on training in analysis and informatics to the users. ICNN is developing a whole-genome data analysis pipeline, aimed at filtering and prioritizing genetic variation identified in whole-genome sequencing studies for further study.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE) is a cooperative of faculty and technologists working to advance the existing body of computing knowledge and expertise at UCLA. An interdisciplinary research institute with an emphasis on the integration of high performance computing, applied algorithmic research and development, computer science, and informatics, IDRE is central to UCLA’s data science initiatives.

The IDRE mission is to support, advance and guide a campus-wide program to position UCLA as a world leader in research and education in computational thinking, using high performance computation, data visualization and data analysis of large data sets and databases. IDRE’s vision is to sustain UCLA as a world leader in the innovative use, application, and development of computational, data, and information sciences, and digital technologies that drive cultural and societal change. IDRE supports research and innovative scholarship that takes advantage of new technologies and encourages collaboration between faculty from different departments and disciplines at UCLA, the opening of new research questions, and the enrichment of the learning environment. The goal of this campus-wide collective is to make UCLA a world leader in high-performance computing and visualization research and education.

IDRE programs are focused on the challenges and opportunities associated with five areas critical to advancing innovative research and scholarship: Computation and Storage, GPU/Many Core, Pipeline to Leadership Class Facilities; Statistical Computing/Data Informatics; and GIS, Visualization and Modeling. Through the IDRE Research Technology Group (RTG), IDRE provides services and support aligned with the five program areas. IDRE’s unique computational capability includes High Performance Computing resources and expertise, Grid and Cloud Access Services, Cluster Services, the Grid Portal, and UCLA’s data center system.

Last updated April 28, 2023

For nearly 60 years, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health has played an instrumental role in advancing the field of public health in the areas of research, training and service. Our world class faculty in collaboration with students have made research discoveries that have improved the health of communities large and small around the world; our talented students come from all over the globe to receive training and mentoring from our faculty, then take their knowledge to become leaders in communities as far as the Congo and as near as East LA; through our field study programs, faculty and students bring information and education to underserved communities, that have changed behaviors and saved lives. Departments include biostatistics, community health services, environmental health sciences, epidemiology, and health policy and management as well as over a dozen research centers, more than 200 faculty (over 60 full-time), and more than 600 students representing 27 nations. 

Last updated April 28, 2023

Founded in 1974, UCLA’s cancer center has been officially designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a comprehensive cancer center with exemplary programs across the broad spectrum of basic research, clinical investigations, patient care, and cancer control and prevention. Specialized outpatient care includes both surgical and medical oncology since 1976. Of the 70 NCI cancer center programs nationwide, only 50 have received the gold-star comprehensive status. UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) receives this honor for maintaining the highest standards of excellence in patient care, education, basic science, clinical research and cancer prevention. Specialized outpatient care includes both surgical and medical oncology. According to the mission of UCLA JCCC, as defined by the NCI) NCI-designated cancer centers are a major source of discovery of the nature of cancer and of the development of more effective approaches to cancer prevention, diagnosis and therapy. They also deliver medical advances to patients and their families, educate healthcare professionals and the public and reach out to underserved populations. They are characterized by strong organizational capabilities; institutional commitment; trans-disciplinary, cancer-focused science; experienced scientific and administrative leadership and state-of-the-art cancer research and patient care facilities. JCCC has established an international reputation in a number of areas, such as developing new cancer therapies, providing the best in experimental and traditional treatment, and expertly guiding and training the next generation of medical researchers. Numerous successful targeted therapies were developed based on basic science done in UCLA laboratories and later clinical research with UCLA patients. A few of the more well-known therapies include: Herceptin, a targeted breast cancer drug and the first approved treatment that attacks cancer at its genetic roots; Gleevec, a once-a-day pill that targets a common form of adult leukemia called chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML; Sprycel, also a pill that targets CML; Tarceva, a targeted lung cancer drug; Avastin, a targeted drug for colorectal cancer and lung cancer. These treatments are just the most well-known of JCCC’s firsts. With a membership of more than 450 physicians and scientists, JCCC is one of the largest comprehensive cancer centers in the nation. They handle more than 156,000 patient visits per year and conduct hundreds of clinical trials, providing the latest in experimental cancer treatments. The Center’s depth allows them to offer a wide array of benefits to patients. The Cancer division, housed in this center, is ranked 21st in the nation as of the 2018-2019 edition of the U.S. News & World Report.

Last updated April 28, 2023

Established in 1966, the UCLA Stein Eye Institute vision-science campus is the fulfillment of an ambitious plan by ophthalmologist, businessman, and philanthropist Jules Stein, MD, and Bradley R. Straatsma, MD, JD, founding director of the Stein Eye Institute and founding chairman of the UCLA Department of Ophthalmology, who created a bold plan for preventing blindness through comprehensive programs for patient care, vision-science research, education and training of the next generation of physicians, and eye health outreach both local and global. Under the leadership of Bartly J. Mondino, MD, director and chairman since 1994, a broad agenda of program building and expansion has been implemented: the first Stein Eye Center opened in Santa Monica in 2012; the UCLA Department of Ophthalmology created the nation’s preeminent organization for ophthalmic care and vision research by forging a historic affiliation with the Doheny Eye Institute in 2013; and the Edie & Lew Wasserman Building, a landmark research and patient-care facility with a state-of-the-art outpatient surgical center, opened in 2014. Combined, UCLA Stein Eye Institute, Stein Eye Center, Doheny Eye Center UCLA, and UCLA-affilliated hospitals provide patients across the Southland with access to the finest vision care.

The Stein Eye Institute at UCLA, a worldwide leader and innovator in eye care, has long been recognized for outstanding advancements in vision sciences and the highest quality patient care. Consistently ranked as the best eye care center in the Western United States by U.S. News & World Report and Ophthalmology Times, the Stein Eye Institute offers a full range of services for patients of all ages—services that are provided in private consultation with some of the most skilled and highly qualified eye and vision care specialists in the world.

The primary areas of basic vision science represented within the Institute are biophysics, chemistry and biochemistry, genetics, immunology, microbiology, molecular and cell biology, neurobiology, pharmacology and physiology. Research areas within the field of ophthalmology include cataract, external ocular and corneal disease, glaucoma, neuro-ophthalmology, ophthalmic pathology, orbital and ophthalmic plastic surgery, pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus, and retinal disease.

Last updated April 28, 2023

The STAR Program is a unique post-doctoral research-training program for the development of physician-scientists. Many clinical fellows are interested in pursuing a science career, but without prior formal training, they often lack the tools to be successful. Started in 1993, the STAR program was designed to fill this void in research training. STAR Fellows complete clinical training toward board certification while also pursuing a formal research degree. The program offers one of four research career tracks: 1) basic science PhD, 2) health services PhD, 3) Master of Science in Clinical Research in the UCLA CTSI Training Program in Translational Science (TPTS), and 4) postdoctoral research training for those who already have an MD PhD.  By providing research training at the end of clinical training, trainees have better alignment of clinical and research interests and greater “momentum” as they transitioned to research faculty positions. Since 1993, the program has had 202 graduates, of whom 81% initially pursued a research career and 72% remain in research. Just over half (53%) received career development awards, and 25% have so far received investigator-initiated NIH (R01) or equivalent grants. Graduates of the program include Division Chiefs, Center and Institute Directors, and multiple individuals in leadership roles at UCLA Health and other leading institutions across the country. Based on publicly available data, graduates of the STAR program have secured over $250 million in grant funding since the year 2000. The outcomes of the STAR Program appear superior to that reported from clinician-scientists training programs.

Last updated April 28, 2023

Established in 1935, UCLA Anderson School of Management provides management education to some 1,600 students enrolled in full-time, part-time and executive MBA programs and doctoral programs. UCLA Anderson and many of its academic programs and departments are perennially ranked among the best in the world. The mission of UCLA Anderson is to be a global leader in management education, research and service. All of UCLA Anderson's academic programs, student and alumni activities and organizations, career management services, centers of influence and administrative programs share in this mission. One of the most technologically advanced business school facilities in the world today, UCLA Anderson utilizes computing and communication technologies that have transformed management education. Students and faculty are part of a virtual community that is fully networked -- an environment in which a natural path of communication is electronic. More than 3,000 network ports connect every classroom seat, breakout area and library reading room and the UCLA Anderson community also enjoys wireless connectivity throughout the school's complex. Award-winning faculty renowned for their research and teaching, rigorous academic programs, successful alumni and world-class facilities combine to provide an extraordinary and practical learning environment.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The Center for Health Advancement provides enhanced analysis and evidence-based information to help policy makers decide which policies and programs can best improve health and reduce health disparities, in order to promote shared policy decision-making among well-informed voters, journalists, and politicians. The Center is creating a comprehensive, evidence-based guide to what works for population well-being – like a Consumer Reports for health and social policy.  The goal is to make rigorous policy analysis fun to consume and easy to browse. Successes include a study showing that cuts to after-school programs could impair the health of California’s poorest schoolchildren. This study led to state legislators reinstating means testing to prioritize funding for poorer schools and students. Information on economic and health disparities in affected communities from the Center’s study on transit alternatives for Wilshire Boulevard was included in LA County Metro’s final Environmental Impact Assessment for the Westside Subway Extension – a multi-billion dollar project spanning over a decade with the potential to transform transportation in Los Angeles. A Center Health Impact Assessment showing that free transit passes for students would help reduce truancy helped persuade the Metro board not to increase youth fares in the recent fare adjustments. And population health projections from the Center’s Health Forecasting Model are now being used by hospitals throughout Southern California in their community benefit planning and reports to the IRS.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) was founded in 1994 with a mission is to improve the public’s health through high-quality, objective, and evidence-based research and data that informs effective policymaking. CHPR advances its mission through policy analysis, policy-relevant research, public service, community partnership, media relations, and education. Since its inception it has produced high-quality, objective, and evidence-based research and data that have informed effective policymaking and improved the lives of millions of Californians. The CHPR is the premier source of data on the health and health insurance status of California's diverse population and it has made a huge impact on efforts to improve the health of all Californians, particularly those who are underserved. More than any other organization in the California, the Center has made it possible for health issues and challenges to be looked at, understood and addressed based on sound, credible data. The Center has achieved several noteworthy developments and milestones, which include housing the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), the nation's largest state health survey and a unique source of data on many ethnic, racial and sexual minority groups that are underrepresented in other surveys. In addition to housing CHIS, the Center has also developed innovative prediction tools that help policymakers such as AskCHIS Neighborhood Edition (NE), which gives users the ability to look at health data at the neighborhood level. The CalSIM microsimulation model, developed in collaboration with the UC Berkeley Labor Center, helped both the California Department of Health Care Services as well as Covered California understand how many people were likely to seek coverage as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was being implemented in 2014. The predicted estimates were proven accurate as the program unfolded. The Center’s research and analysis informs and educates state legislators and policymakers from the smallest counties in the north to sprawling San Diego County in the south on topics ranging from the link between soda and obesity to the effect of food insecurity on vulnerable groups to the inadequacy of federal measures of poverty for senior citizens. The CHPR has partnered with numerous collaborators including The California Endowment. The California Wellness Foundation and others to train thousands of people in community and advocacy groups to empower themselves by understanding and using health data in their work. In addition to the research and policy analysis capacity, the CHPR disseminates data and research findings across multiple channels to enable a wide range of users to access and utilize our work.  Dissemination modalities include:

• Publishing.  The Center’s Communications department offers a full-service publishing program, enabling researchers to produce high-quality publications in both PDF and printed form.  These publications are disseminated via topic-specific mailing lists to a broad audience of legislators, health advocates, community groups, researchers and the media.
• Web dissemination.  In addition, the Center’s two Web sites as well as the Web site of the Center-administered California Health Interview Survey serve as primary platforms for the dissemination of new research and data.
• Outreach.  The Center also conducts a significant outreach program, in which our publications and data are disseminated at more than a dozen major health conferences each year. 
• E-Newsletter.  The Center’s e-newsletter reaches a growing audience of 14,000+ subscribers, including the health policy point people within the legislative and executive offices at the local, state, and national level. 
• Media.  The Center’s Communications Department writes and disseminates press releases on select publications to hundreds of health reporters and key policy media across California and nationally.  The Center also releases select press releases through UCLA’s main media relations unit, enabling even wider dissemination to national and international media.  Communications will also schedule media interviews with researchers as appropriate.  As a result of these and other efforts, UCLA experts and publications are cited in hundreds of media outlets each year, ranging from NBC, CBS and Fox News, to The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, to regional media such as KPCC, KPBS, La Opinion and The Sacramento Bee.

 CHPR is located in 17,500 square feet of off-campus research space near the School of Public Health. The Center supports its research and public service programs with a strong administrative support unit. The Center is connected to the UCLA IT backbone and all workstations are securely connected to center-level resources that are highly secure. The Center also maintains HIPPA level secure data center. The CEC’s staff at the CHPR will have office space and facilities through CHPR, including secure, networked computers, telephones, copiers, printers and access to conference rooms as well as administrative/financial management support.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The UCLA Center for Health Services and Society’s mission is to strengthen resiliency and improve the mental health of local and national diverse populations through rigorous research, effective programs, and partnering with community-based and policy agencies. The center maintains a strong focus on improving preventive and treatment services for mental illnesses across the lifespan while also exploring broader societal issues, such as understanding the social and historical context for services and illness and building new strategies to promote community strength and resiliency through healthcare, media and communication, and the arts. The Center houses UCLA clinical faculty that includes adult psychiatrists and psychologists, child and geriatric psychiatry specialists, and staff, including doctoral level social scientists, master's level statisticians, and research and administrative staff.

Our values include: Community—collaborating with diverse partnerships to create an environment that promotes healthy development and well-being across the lifespan, Compassion—promoting respect, understanding and dignity towards persons and their families living in under-resourced communities, Creativity—using media, technology, and the arts to address stigma and engage populations, Communication—leveraging advances in mobile health technologies to improve access, engagement, and empowerment in mental health care, Commitment—dedicating effort and resources to engaging communities in all phases of research, from design to dissemination and Knowledge—employing rigorous partnered-research to promote a culture of health equity through two-way knowledge exchange and policy reform.

Last updated May 9, 2023

UCLA was among the first academic centers in the world to offer clinical-grade whole-exome sequencing, and it has now accrued an unparalleled experience more than ten years and thousands of analyses. This clinical test, performed under strict CLIA-compliant clinical laboratory conditions, utilizes so-called “next-generation” or “massively parallel” DNA sequencing platforms to obtain full DNA sequence of all the protein-coding regions in the human genome, about 30 million nucleotides of genetic code comprising about 23,000 genes. The technique thus allows testing not only of the small subset of known genes associated with genetic disorders but also any and all other genes that might be involved or yet to be discovered.  And all 23,000 genes are interrogated in parallel, in a single test, offering the chance to quickly put an end to the “diagnostic odyssey” that so many patients with mysterious presentations typically go through, taking many years, visits to countless specialists, and tens of thousands of dollars of laboratory testing and imaging.

From the beginning, this service has been structured in a holistic fashion, with strong emphasis on interdisciplinary academic and clinical input.  Every case is analyzed intensively by the unique “Genomics Data Board” that meets weekly and comprises the laboratory directors, bioinformaticists, clinical geneticists, pathologists, genetic counselors, clinical fellows and, whenever available, the ordering physicians.  Only unanimously agreed-upon findings are reported out.  While it is quite conservative in designating a DNA variant as causative (pathogenic), the center’s overall diagnostic yield has been extremely high (25-50%); such a return is much higher than virtually any other genetic test.  In addition, the test has yielded a number of new disease gene discoveries. This success has been reported in high-profile journals and at international meetings.  Lastly, the group took an early leadership role in evaluating the need (or not) for routine confirmation by Sanger sequencing of variants detected next-generation sequencing, and in the important and rather heated discussions at the national level about reporting of incidental/off-target findings. Given its uniformly high coverage across the genome, it is unusual for findings to be at all ambiguous, but if there is the slightest concern about that, the center has immediate access (just across the hall) to confirmation in the Orphan Disease Testing Center. In partnering with the UCLA Clinical Genomics Center, CTSI and Precision Health have refined a system for storage and analysis of EHR data that directly links with individual genomic data.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (DGSOM) is one of the top ranked medical schools in the United States. Since opening in 1951, DGSOM has grown into an internationally recognized leader in research, medical education, patient care, and public service. DGSOM engages the efforts of more than 2,800 full-time faculty representing 17 distinct fields of PhD training, in the biosciences; many of these faculty have been recognized with national and international awards and honors. The medical school is consistently among the top in the nation in research funding. DGSOM receives more than $559M annually in NIH research funding, contributing to a total nearly $1.4 billion annually in research awards at UCLA The School of Medicine’s education and training currently encompasses 1,300 trainees across 99 programs, over 850 medical students, 320 doctoral students, and 400 postdoctoral fellows. There are now nearly 300 endowed chairs. The school focuses on six overarching goals: ensuring that academic medicine continues to thrive at UCLA, fostering interdisciplinary efforts, increasing the financial transparency of the school, transforming the culture of the school to ensure all individuals are welcome and valued, enhancing mentorship and leadership training programs, and elevating the school’s internal and external communications. UCLA’s medical school ranks No. 10 in primary care, No. 13 in Most Diverse Medical Schools, and continues to be highly ranked in U.S. News & World Report's 2023-24 Best Medical Schools. 

Last updated May 16, 2023

A hub of deep expertise, the Department of Human Genetics helps partners across UCLA interpret data and leverage genomic technology to improve study design and solve medical problems. We demystify genetic complexities to provide vital insights for a range of clinical and research applications. We strive to improve the care of as many patients as possible by pushing our capabilities, developing novel ways to address unanswered questions.

UCLA launched the Department of Human Genetics during the start of a new age of medicine. Researchers around the world had nearly finished mapping and sequencing human genes, producing mountains of raw genomic data. The new department aimed to lead the scientific community in using this novel data to better understand and treat human disease. When our department opened its doors, genomic data was inscrutable to everyone. Today, we use genomic data to develop patient-specific treatments and prevention strategies that save lives.

The Department is dedicated to turning the mountains of raw genetic data into a detailed understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of human disease. The key to such understanding is the realization that genes not only code for specific proteins, but they also control the temporal development and maturation of every living organism through a complex web of interactions. The department serves as a focal point for genetics research on the UCLA campus, with state of the art facilities for gene expression, sequencing, genotyping, and bioinformatics. In addition to its research mission, the Department offers many exciting training opportunities for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and medical residents.

Last updated May 9, 2023

For more than 60 years, the Department of Medicine at UCLA has engaged in world-class medical research, teaching, and patient care. Across 14 sub-specialties, our physicians are world-renowned experts in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of complex and routine illnesses. UCLA investigators are situated within the following divisions and centers: Cardiology, CARE Center, Center for East-West Medicine Clinical Immunology and Allergy, Clinical Nutrition, Dermatology, Digestive Diseases / Gastroenterology, Endocrinology, General Internal Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, Hematology Oncology, Infectious Diseases, Nano Medicine, Nephrology, Pulmonology / Pulmonary and Rheumatology.

The UCLA Department of Medicine (DOM) physical computing area is maintained and secured under strict rules for data protection. The servers are protected by firewall and physically located in dedicated data centers with limited, controlled access for DOM personnel only. Access to the files is restricted to a limited number of network hosts and protected by encrypted user authentication where applicable.  All the data stored on DOM-maintained servers are automatically archived nightly to removable media by professional staff of the DOM.  The archive schedule is a 4-week media rotation with monthly archived sets; three weeks worth of media are stored in an offsite facility. On the network, access to files is protected via account and password protocols.  Regular review of these protocols ensures state of the art network security.

All UCLA faculty and staff use PCs with Windows 7 Professional or iOS operating systems and the attendant suite of Microsoft applications for word-processing, e-mail, graphics, and spreadsheet needs.  In addition, a variety of statistical packages (e.g., R, SAS, SPSS, and Stata) and systems development tools (e.g., PHP, MySQL, C++) are available.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The primary objective of the Department of Medicine Statistics Core (DOMStat) is to provide statistical analysis collaboration to investigators across the translational research spectrum (basic science, bioinformatics, observational studies, clinical trials, electronic health records research and health services). DOMStat offers faculty and staff level statistical collaboration for grant proposals, data analysis, manuscript preparation, and other research activities requiring statistical input.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The Department of Neurology at UCLA was founded by Augustus S. Rose, MD, in the 1950s in the UCLA School of Medicine. Since then, it has grown from a few faculty members in that era to more than 100. The department is also home to 125 trainees and is associated with seven affiliated hospitals. The department offers comprehensive consultation, diagnosis, and treatment services for adult and geriatric patients with disorders of the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and muscles. Clinical services are organized into general neurology and subspecialty programs. The department has significant expertise in the following specialty areas: stroke, EEG, EMG, brain mapping, computational neuroimaging, neuro-infectious diseases, Alzheimer’s Disease, critical care neurology, epilepsy, neuromuscular diseases, movement disorders, multiple sclerosis, dementia, neuro-behavior, neurogenetics, neuro-otology, headache, neuro-oncology, neuro-rehabilitation, and sleep disorders. Clinical services are organized into general neurology and subspecialty programs. 

The Department is research intensive and has been ranked #1 in NIH funding for many years. As of the 2019-2020 edition of the U.S. News & World Report, this division is ranked 6th in the nation. The faculty of the Department of Neurology are distinguished scientists and clinicians who have been ranked #1 or #2 in NIH funding since 2002. New and renovated laboratory space typifies the efficient, effective and handsome surroundings in which the department is situated. The Department of Neurology is divided into disease-specific and method-specific programs including all of the major categories of neurological diseases and methods that include neurogenetics and neuroimaging as well as health services research. 

Last updated May 9, 2023

The Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine is an integral part of the vibrant UCLA research enterprise and includes faculty members with a broad array of basic, translational, and clinical research interests in areas that include Bioinformatics, Cancer Biology, Immunology/Inflammation, Metabolism, Neuroscience, and Regenerative Medicine. Departmental researchers seek to better understand disease pathogenesis and translate these findings to the clinic. Each month, approximately 500,000 samples, including 10,000 biopsy and cytology cases, are analyzed to guide the care of patients in UCLA Healthcare, and through its referral network regionally and nationally. Departmental research has continued to thrive and grow over the past decade. Faculty publish their findings in many of the top biomedical journals such as Cell, Immunity, Molecular Cell, Nature Immunology, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  

Last updated May 9, 2023

GIM & HSR is home to >100 faculty members and includes 20 clinicians with advanced degrees and training in translational and health services research. This group includes outstanding clinician investigators and social scientists and has a close working relationship with the more than 420 clinicians throughout the Department of Medicine. The Division housed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program for over 40 years that recently transitioned into the National Clinician Scholars Program—involving nurses as well as physicians—with co-sponsorship from UCLA, VA, LAC Department of Mental Health (DMH), and LAC Department of Health Services (DHS) and has had continuous NRSA funding since 1988 in HRSA’s Primary Care Research Program. Division members specialize in a variety of translational research areas and are leaders in scholarship on quality and access to care, health status and outcomes assessment, and health economics, making major contributions in studies of diabetes, HIV, behavioral healthcare, health insurance, racial and socioeconomic variations in care, appropriateness, and other topics.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP) is an academic preparation program established in 1976 by the University of California to expand postsecondary education opportunities for California's educationally disadvantaged students. UCLA EAOP works with students to help them become competitively eligible applicants for college admission, going beyond minimum eligibility. EAOP works collaboratively with families, educators, schools, communities, and various campus departments to provide pre-college students with challenging academic enrichment activities to promote and cultivate a college-going culture. EAOP is one of the state's most successful pre-collegiate student academic development programs. UCLA EAOP works with over 15,000 students in middle school and high school each year. This includes working with over 80 schools in 10 school districts. Since 1991, approximately 60% of EAOP seniors meet UC eligibility each year, 82% attend a postsecondary institution upon high school graduation and 62% attend a 4-year institution, with 25% attending a UC school.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The UCLA Health Care Institute (HCI), housed under the UCLA Anderson School of Management, has taught a management systems approach for successful implementation of health promotion interventions in Head Start for nearly 20 years. By building leadership and management capacity in organizations serving early childhood needs, HCI enables early childhood organizations to empower families with knowledge, tools and resources to prevent disease and adopt sustainable, healthy lifestyles. HCI has a portfolio of low literacy health education topics that are culturally sensitive and includes: sick day management and injury prevention; trauma informed care training; mental health and wellness; oral health promotion; and diabetes and obesity prevention. Since 2001, the HCI has trained over 200,000 families in 7 languages and in 50 states. Its training methodology is used by over 300 Head Start grantees and has consistently delivered measurable outcomes in improving knowledge, changing behavior, and reducing unnecessary utilization of health care services.

HCI provides a structured set of tools and processes for strategic implementation of health promotion, and incorporates various learning formats: in-person education sessions, reading materials and toolkits, webinars and parent trainings. Organization teams also participate in a mock parent-training session that allows teams to experience firsthand what parents would experience during a parent training session. As a result, HCI can: increase school attendance, increase parent’s work attendance, increase staff, parent, and community engagement, improve the health literacy of staff and families, and strengthen community partnerships.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The Institute of Technology Advancement (ITA) is an off-campus technology development center established by the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science to accelerate the transition of high-impact innovative research from UCLA to technology development and commercialization. Start-up funding for the institute was donated by the Henry and Susan Samueli and the Easton Foundation. ITA provides operational flexibility for university researchers, industry, government, and investment partners alike. The flexible organizational structure of ITA complements existing capabilities of the university and industry, allowing the center to move quickly to promote the transition of discoveries to development and commercialization. ITA supports three types of research activities:

• Transitional research focuses on demonstrating technical feasibility of technologies and reducing risk in the transition from the laboratory to market. Transitional research can be funded by either government or industry.
• Developmental research focuses on innovative ideas for new applications and emerging markets. Ultimately, developmental research could result in a spin-off company funded by leveraging various sources such as SBIR/STTR grants, development contracts, debt financing, and venture capital.
• ITA can also facilitate near-term research and development projects that support industry needs by leveraging its flexible infrastructure to enable access to university expertise. ITA can enable industry research support through service agreements.

ITA, as an organization and through its business-savvy Technology Strategists, is a conduit to local, state, government agencies, industry, and venture capital investors. Each Technology Strategist has a specialized domain of expertise and relationships with various funding resources.

Last updated May 9, 2023

At the convergence of the fields of social work, urban planning and policymaking, the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs identifies and develops emerging areas of research and teaching, cultivating leaders and change agents who advance solutions to society’s most pressing problems. Founded in 1994, UCLA Luskin incorporates the best practices in scholarship, research and teaching in the fields of social work, urban and regional planning, and policymaking. Faculty of the Luskin School of Public Affairs are actively engaged in research that addresses pressing national and regional issues including immigration, drug policy, prison reform, health care financing, transportation and the environment, national security, economic development, and an aging U.S. and world population. The school also enjoys a student body of 555 students across its various disciplines, including Public Policy, Social Welfare, and Urban Planning.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The Charles R. Drew/UCLA PRIME-LA program leads to the regular MD with special emphasis on leadership and advocacy to address healthcare disparities in medically underserved populations in California (and the US). The Program in Medical Education (PRIME) is a dual degree program leading to the MD and a master’s degree in an area that complements the mission of the program.

Cohorts are composed of approximately 18 students. Students identify with one of two programs: PRIME-LA Westwood or PRIME-LA CDU. A commitment to serve in, and experience working with, diverse medically disadvantaged populations is paramount. 

During the first two years PRIME-LA students will complete the DGSOM UCLA core curriculum. In the third-year students will participate in clinical clerkships that include Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Radiology. During the fourth year, students will complete an advanced degree that designs and implements a project related to improving health for the underserved. Advanced degree options include MBA, MPH, and MPP. The fifth year will be within the Urban Underserved College. The "Colleges" at DGSOM further prepare students for residencies and future role as leaders.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The NHLBI Proteomics Center at UCLA consists of an international effort led by Dr. Peipei Ping. The central scientific goal aims to provide fundamental information on the proteome biology of cardiovascular diseases, an essential component for the Human Proteome Project. This collaborative effort has been encouraged by the UCLA leadership to advance our scientific and education missions via international collaborations. Our Center thrives to support creative investigations in proteomics science and to provide a training environment for young investigators from UCLA and from the scientific community at large.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The Orphan Disease Testing Center (ODTC) is uniquely appropriate for providing clinical confirmation of any and all mutations identified in subjects. UCLA’s ODTC was established two decades ago on just this model: to offer confirmation of DNA sequence variants identified in research laboratories and to generate an official clinical report from a laboratory that is fully licensed and accredited under CLIA, CAP, and the State of California. The laboratory director, Dr. Wayne Grody, is board-certified in Clinical Molecular Genetics, Clinical Genetics, Clinical Biochemical Genetics, Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, and Molecular Genetic Pathology. He has also maintained a continuous leadership role over many years in establishing quality assurance and ethical guidelines for molecular genetic testing through numerous governmental and professional organizations that are now in practice nationwide. In this way, all of the regulatory burdens are transferred away from the research laboratory, and the DNA results can be provided legally and appropriately to physicians and patients for purposes of future medical management.

The laboratory specializes in what is sometimes called "custom DNA sequencing", in which any mutation in any gene can readily be assessed, as long as the locus is provided by the referring research laboratory. For example, the laboratory provides validation of variants generated by the Clinical Genomics Center at UCLA that generates Whole Exome Sequencing data. In addition, the group has strong translational research interests, and were the first laboratory to be awarded NIH funding from the Office of Rare Diseases to support rapid and reliable translations of research tests to the clinical setting. Precision Health will utilize the Orphan Disease Testing Center to confirm all variants that we plan to report back to patients.

Last updated May 9, 2023

Two previous research laboratories, the Clinical and Translational Research Laboratory (CTRL) and the Clinical Immunology Research Laboratory (CIRL) have been restructured into the Pathology Research Portal (PRP). The Pathology Research Portal (PRP) is a CAP accredited laboratory, which functions as the biospecimen liaison between researchers and clinical testing. The laboratory provides coordination for sample receiving, accessioning, processing, short term and long term storage, dispatching to multiple core facilities for testing, and result retrieving. PRP also provides shipping and temporary storage services as well as customized services to meet various research needs. PRP is staffed by one supervisor and nine laboratory technicians. It occupies approximately 5,000 square feet of space located on the A-level of the Center for Health Sciences (CHS) building. The facility works with investigators both inside and outside the UCLA enterprise on a collaborative and fee-for-service basis.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The UCLA School of Dentistry was established in 1964 in response to the need for a public school of dentistry in the greater Los Angeles area. Although the UCLA School of Dentistry is fairly young, its achievements and accolades rival, and even surpass, those of other research-intensive dental schools that have been around for more than a century. Since its inception, the School has focused on achieving and maintaining excellence in four main areas: a comprehensive dental education, cutting-edge research, quality patient care and public service. Over the past five decades, these four main areas of focus, along with dedicated and talented students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends, have propelled the School of Dentistry to being one of the premier dental schools on the national and international stage. Sponsored research at the School has almost tripled since 1995. In large part, this increase reflects UCLA's internationally renowned faculty and a strong focus on faculty-student research. The School’s academic programs provide a range of opportunities to integrate clinical training with basic or applied research, and multidisciplinary research is highly valued. UCLA provides a research home for dental, undergraduate, and graduate students, with a unique opportunity to participate in significant oral health research. The School of Dentistry is an important CTSI partner, collaborates on research projects, and is on CTSI’s leadership to ensure accurate representation of Dentistry School collaborations and opportunities within the CTSI.

Last updated May 9, 2023

Founded in 1949, UCLA School of Law has garnered a reputation for artful teaching, influential scholarship and enduring innovation. As the first public law school in Southern California and the youngest top-ranked law school in the United States, UCLA Law has consistently pushed new boundaries in the study and practice of law. Over the decades, UCLA Law has developed a depth and breadth of academic offerings unsurpassed by any other law school in the nation. The Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy is among the best anywhere. UCLA Law is one of four among the top 20 law schools with a specialization in Business Law and Policy–and the only one to offer a specialization in Critical Race Studies. UCLA Law’s faculty also has emerged as one of the most influential nationwide. Our professors are leading scholars in areas including bankruptcy, corporate law, constitutional law, critical race theory, entertainment law, environmental law, intellectual property and tax law.

Today, the UCLA Law alumni community is more than 15,000 strong and extends around the world. Alumni live and practice in virtually every state, the District of Columbia, multiple U.S. territories and more than 50 foreign nations. These graduates excel in their chosen fields, from private practice to business to government to public interest and beyond. UCLA Law has a long tradition of distinction on the bench, with more than 320 alumni who are serving, or have served, on courts throughout the country. Six UCLA Law alumni are now judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit–the largest number of graduates from any one law school who are serving on the court.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The UCLA School of Nursing is a significant force in developing nurse leaders to inspire individuals across the lifespan to achieve health, wellness, and quality of life. The School embraces diversity and is committed to attracting and supporting the best and the brightest students, faculty and staff. Innovative academic programs ensure that nurses are educated to assume leadership roles and to respond to the healthcare needs of diverse populations. The School aspires to lead the field in the use of pioneering instructional technology, clinical laboratories, and communication and evaluation systems to optimize acquisition of knowledge and skills, from basic to advanced practice. The School of Nursing is an important CTSI partner, collaborates on research projects, and participates in the CTSI’s leadership to ensure accurate representation of our joint endeavors.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The UCLA Department of Public Policy offers the Master of Public Policy (MPP). MPP students can pursue interdisciplinary Global Public Affairs and Leaders in Sustainability certificate programs. Joint degrees with Law, Management, Public Health, Medicine, and Social Welfare offer an even broader range of skill and expertise development. An undergraduate Minor in Public Affairs is also available. The school takes people who are passionate about making a difference in the world and give them the tools they need to do so. The master’s program combines the best of rigorous policy education with a flexibility and responsiveness that enables us to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world. A career in public service is no longer limited to working in government. By giving students a diversified tool kit of quantitative and analytical skills and the flexibility to design their own program of study— while drawing on all the resources of one of the world’s top research universities—the school produces graduates who are equipped to become real leaders in policy making, wherever that process takes place.

Last updated May 9, 2023

Recognized as one of the world's leading centers for the management of cerebral vascular disease, the UCLA Stroke Center treats simple and complex vascular disorders by incorporating recent developments in emergency medicine, stroke neurology, microneurosurgery, interventional neuroradiology, stereotactic radiology, neurointensive care, neuroanesthesiology, and rehabilitation neurology. Care is coordinated from the moment of first contact, in the emergency department or outpatient clinics, through acute treatment and neurological rehabilitation. The UCLA Stroke Center provides comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic care of patients with disorders of blood vessels of the brain and spinal cord, including: ischemic stroke, transient ischemic attack, carotid stenosis, cerebral hemorrhage, aneurysms/subarachnoid hemorrhage, vascular malformations of the brain, and spinal vascular malformations. The UCLA Stroke Center opened one of the nation's first dedicated inpatient stroke units which offers state-of-the-art management of patients with brain infarction, brain hemorrhage and other cerebral vascular diseases. Other on-site facilities include a neurological intensive care unit, neurosurgical operating rooms, neuro-endovascular therapy suites, a clinical cerebral blood flow laboratory, stereotactic radiology rooms and an outpatient clinic.

Last updated May 9, 2023

The University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program was established in 1984 to encourage outstanding women and minority Ph.D. recipients to pursue academic careers at the University of California. The current program offers postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development and faculty mentoring to outstanding scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity at UC. The goal of the program is to provide research opportunity and career development for scholars whose work will enhance the diversity of the academic community at the University of California. Approximately 75% of UC President's Postdoctoral Fellows have received tenure track faculty appointments. Since 2003, over 100 former fellows received faculty appointments at University of California campuses.

Last updated May 9, 2023

Funded by the NIH Common Fund, the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) is an initiative to facilitate the diagnosis of conditions that have eluded diagnosis through the coordinated action of leading clinical and research centers. The UDN has two main goals: To provide answers for patients and families affected by mysterious conditions, and to learn more about rare and common diseases. The UDN is made up of clinical and research centers across the United States, UCLA housing one such center, which are all working to improve diagnosis and care of patients with undiagnosed diseases. UCLA’s UDN, under the Department of Human Genetics, supports a comprehensive “bedside-to-bench” clinical research to aid physicians in their efforts to give long-sought answers to patients living with mystery diseases. Their goal is to accelerate and expand clinical genomics, enabling quickly and definitive diagnosis and clarify the best ways to treat patients.

Last updated May 9, 2023