According to a new study, 79% of participants in the UC San Diego Health Sciences Grant Writing Course have received grant funding for their research since taking the course, which emphasizes peer…

Over the last decade, the Mentor Clinician Program Program at the UC San Diego School of Medicine has quietly transformed how tomorrow’s physicians learn, grow and connect with their patients.

By targeting proteins used to splice genes, UC San Diego researchers have unlocked a new approach to treating triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive and difficult to treat subtype of the…

Human pluripotent stem cells offer a scalable platform for generating immune effector cells with enhanced anti-tumor potential. This review explores recent advances in hPSC-derived NK cells, T cells, ...

A study of people with auto-brewery syndrome — a rare condition causing intoxication without drinking alcohol — has found a link between gut microbes and symptoms, pointing to new treatment…

Objective: There is no externally validated instrument for predicting which children will show frequent substance use (SU) in young adulthood. This study evaluated whether an instrument previously shown to predict SU outcomes in mid-adolescence could also predict SU outcomes in young adulthood, comparing performance across ages and demographics. Method: The Loeber Risk Score (LRS) is a 5-item, parent-completed screener indexing risk of future SU in children. We evaluated the predictive performance of the LRS in a nationally representative longitudinal birth cohort (N = 4,898, 48% female). Parents completed the LRS when the child was ∼5 and ∼9 years old. Subsequently, youth reported their SU at age ∼22 years old. Results: The LRS at age 9 predicted several outcomes at age 22 better than chance (ps<0.05): daily cigarette use (AUROCs=0.71-0.75), cannabis use ≥3x week (AUROC=0.59), vaping ≥3x week (AUROC=0.55), and receipt of treatment for an alcohol/drug problem (AUROC=0.60). Performance was no better than chance for alcohol outcomes (AUROCs=0.47-0.50). Children with LRS scores ≥2 were 1.3-2.0 times more likely to display frequent substance use outcomes. There were no consistent performance differences when the LRS was measured at age 5 vs. age 9 or by child’s sex, race, or ethnicity. Conclusion: The LRS would be an improvement over random or ad hoc selection, but screening accuracy is generally low. Much more accurate screeners are needed.

From meditation to molecular science, addiction treatment is being reinvented. See how new breakthroughs are giving hope for recovery.

The University of California San Diego School of Medicine is pleased to welcome Catherine L. Coe, M.D., as the new chair of the Department of Family Medicine, effective January 5, 2026.