We are one of only two programs in the country that combines world class research and patient care focused on hereditary cancer.
The Center for BRCA Research allows UCSF, the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and our healthcare team and investigators to provide more personalized care to families that carry pathogenic variants linked to hereditary cancers, improving quality of life for families and patients. Our team is poised to be innovative and drive the progress and development of new and novel treatment protocols, as well as improving patient outcomes, survivorship, and answering genetic, pre-clinical and etiologic research questions.
Our patient-focused clinical expertise and promising translational research projects are building a model for care of hereditary cancers. The Center will drive improvement of care across the spectrum and set the standard by which this care is provided to families.
Utilizing the expertise and resources of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCSF, combined with a robust, dedicated healthcare team and researchers who are devoted to working with patients and their families, our focus is to learn more about BRCA pathogenic variants and the impact of these pathogenic variants. This enables us to provide a program that will allow for better, more focused care, and to build a research program with the engagement of families and patients, further enabling UCSF and the Center for BRCA Research to break new ground in areas of scientific and clinical knowledge.
A Comprehensive Team: Where compassion meets innovation
The expertise at the UCSF Center for BRCA Research spans the full spectrum from basic science through clinical care and survivorship. The co-directors' complementary and multidisciplinary expertise provides the foundation for the Center’s vision.
Alan Ashworth, PhD, FRS, co-director of the Center and president of UCSF’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Center, was a key part of the team that identified the BRCA2 gene. His research led to the first effective personalized treatment for cancer patients with BRCA pathogenic variants.
Pamela Munster, MD, co-director of the Center, is a clinician-scientist leading efforts to bring first-in-human treatments to patients with the most challenging cancers. As a BRCA pathogenic variant carrier and breast cancer survivor herself, Munster’s personal experience informs and further fuels the Center’s work translating discoveries made in the lab into clinical care for patients.