UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education
@ctcre-ucsf.bsky.social
The Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education serves as a focal point for a broad range of research, education, and public service activities for over 70 faculty in 15 departments and all 4 schools at UCSF.
Kate Frazer, PhD, 2025 CTCRE Fulbright Visiting Scholar, and Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, CTCRE Fellowship Co-
Director, are co-authors on a new paper published last month in Health Promotion International.
Read the full article here: academic.oup.com/heapro/artic...
Director, are co-authors on a new paper published last month in Health Promotion International.
Read the full article here: academic.oup.com/heapro/artic...
Syndemic lives of women who smoke and experience homelessness: secondary analysis of US qualitative data
Abstract. Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide. Despite efforts by many countries to reduce the impact of tobacco products
academic.oup.com
January 8, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Kate Frazer, PhD, 2025 CTCRE Fulbright Visiting Scholar, and Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, CTCRE Fellowship Co-
Director, are co-authors on a new paper published last month in Health Promotion International.
Read the full article here: academic.oup.com/heapro/artic...
Director, are co-authors on a new paper published last month in Health Promotion International.
Read the full article here: academic.oup.com/heapro/artic...
Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, CTCRE Fellowship Co-Director, was recently interviewed for an article in Hunterbrook in which she discusses the benefits of cytisinicline for smoking cessation.
Read here: hntrbrk.com/achieve/
Read here: hntrbrk.com/achieve/
“Put it in the water!” — How a Toxic Tree May Save Thousands of Smokers
Achieve Life Sciences ($ACHV) is near FDA approval of cytisinicline as a safe, effective treatment for smoking addiction.
hntrbrk.com
January 7, 2026 at 10:32 PM
Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, CTCRE Fellowship Co-Director, was recently interviewed for an article in Hunterbrook in which she discusses the benefits of cytisinicline for smoking cessation.
Read here: hntrbrk.com/achieve/
Read here: hntrbrk.com/achieve/
Happy holidays from all of us at CTCRE! Wishing our community of colleagues, fellows, and partners a joyful season filled with rest, reflection, and gratitude. We’re grateful for your continued commitment to advancing tobacco control and health equity.
December 16, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Happy holidays from all of us at CTCRE! Wishing our community of colleagues, fellows, and partners a joyful season filled with rest, reflection, and gratitude. We’re grateful for your continued commitment to advancing tobacco control and health equity.
Applications are open for the 2026 CTCRE Postdoctoral Fellowship! Train with UCSF faculty and join a community committed to ending tobacco use. Apply today: tobacco.ucsf.edu/fellowship
December 9, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Applications are open for the 2026 CTCRE Postdoctoral Fellowship! Train with UCSF faculty and join a community committed to ending tobacco use. Apply today: tobacco.ucsf.edu/fellowship
CTCRE faculty Nhung Nguyen, PhD, is the lead author on a new paper published this week in Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
Access the paper here: academic.oup.com/abm/article/...
Access the paper here: academic.oup.com/abm/article/...
Barriers and facilitators to nicotine and cannabis vaping cessation among young adults: a qualitative study using Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behavior (COM-B) model and Theoretical Domain...
AbstractBackground. Despite young adults’ growing use of nicotine and cannabis vaporized products (vaping), little is known about factors influencing vapin
academic.oup.com
December 3, 2025 at 7:27 PM
CTCRE faculty Nhung Nguyen, PhD, is the lead author on a new paper published this week in Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
Access the paper here: academic.oup.com/abm/article/...
Access the paper here: academic.oup.com/abm/article/...
CTCRE is proud to sponsor this year’s Promoting Research in Social Media and Health (PRISM) Symposium! PRISM fosters collaboration between academic researchers, industry partners, patients, and advocates from over 40 unique institutions.
Registration is open! www.eventbrite.com/e/promoting-...
Registration is open! www.eventbrite.com/e/promoting-...
Promoting Research in Social Media and Health (PRISM) Symposium
Join us for the 10th Annual PRISM Health Symposium at UCSF!
www.eventbrite.com
November 21, 2025 at 11:44 PM
CTCRE is proud to sponsor this year’s Promoting Research in Social Media and Health (PRISM) Symposium! PRISM fosters collaboration between academic researchers, industry partners, patients, and advocates from over 40 unique institutions.
Registration is open! www.eventbrite.com/e/promoting-...
Registration is open! www.eventbrite.com/e/promoting-...
Stella Bialous, RN, DrPH, FAAN, Associate Director for Global Tobacco Control Initiatives, was featured today in an NPR article, where she weighs in on the harms of e-cigarettes and the debate about e-cigarettes as harm reduction tools.
Read the article here: www.npr.org/sections/goa...
Read the article here: www.npr.org/sections/goa...
Can vaping help wean people off cigarettes? Anti-smoking advocates are sharply split
Many think it's a dangerous ploy by the tobacco industry. But some say, with millions of deaths each year attributed to smoking cigarettes, it's the lesser of two evils.
www.npr.org
November 21, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Stella Bialous, RN, DrPH, FAAN, Associate Director for Global Tobacco Control Initiatives, was featured today in an NPR article, where she weighs in on the harms of e-cigarettes and the debate about e-cigarettes as harm reduction tools.
Read the article here: www.npr.org/sections/goa...
Read the article here: www.npr.org/sections/goa...
New paper co-authored by CTCRE’s Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, Pam Ling, MD, MPH, and former fellows Karla Llanes, PhD, and Arturo Durazo, PhD, explores digital smoking cessation preferences among low-income Latino residents in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Read: formative.jmir.org/2025/1/e74105
Digital Smoking Cessation Preferences of Predominately Low-Income and Latino Residents of the San Joaquin Valley in California: Qualitative Study
Background: Although rates of tobacco use in California have declined overall, adults in the San Joaquin Valley (SJV), particularly Hispanic/Latinos (“Latinos”), have disproportionately high rates of ...
formative.jmir.org
November 19, 2025 at 11:47 PM
New paper co-authored by CTCRE’s Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, Pam Ling, MD, MPH, and former fellows Karla Llanes, PhD, and Arturo Durazo, PhD, explores digital smoking cessation preferences among low-income Latino residents in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Read: formative.jmir.org/2025/1/e74105
Last week Pam Ling, MD, MPH, Director of the CTCRE, was featured in a San Francisco Chronicle article discussing the findings in “Dispensing Medical Advice: San Francisco Bay Area Budtender Recommendations for Pain and Sleep Relief.”
Read the article here: www.sfchronicle.com/health/artic...
Read the article here: www.sfchronicle.com/health/artic...
Dispensaries are recommending cannabis for pain and sleep — with no evidence, UCSF study finds
A UCSF “secret shopper” study found Bay Area dispensary workers freely giving health advice despite a lack of scientific evidence for most of the recommendations.
www.sfchronicle.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Last week Pam Ling, MD, MPH, Director of the CTCRE, was featured in a San Francisco Chronicle article discussing the findings in “Dispensing Medical Advice: San Francisco Bay Area Budtender Recommendations for Pain and Sleep Relief.”
Read the article here: www.sfchronicle.com/health/artic...
Read the article here: www.sfchronicle.com/health/artic...
Where are our fellows now? This month we spotlight Lucy Popova PhD, CTCRE alum and now Professor at Georgia State University who shows how our fellowship trains the next generation of tobacco control leaders. Learn more: tobacco.ucsf.edu/fellowship
November 12, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Where are our fellows now? This month we spotlight Lucy Popova PhD, CTCRE alum and now Professor at Georgia State University who shows how our fellowship trains the next generation of tobacco control leaders. Learn more: tobacco.ucsf.edu/fellowship
Congrats to CTCRE fellows Dan Kabella, PhD and Anthony DiMario, PhD! At the 4S conference, they received the 2025 Making & Doing Award for their multimedia and multisensory exploration of the pharmaceutical industry and community archives.
November 7, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Congrats to CTCRE fellows Dan Kabella, PhD and Anthony DiMario, PhD! At the 4S conference, they received the 2025 Making & Doing Award for their multimedia and multisensory exploration of the pharmaceutical industry and community archives.
Pam Ling, MD, MPH, CTCRE Director, is the co-author of a new report published in Cannabis titled “Dispensing Medical Advice: San Francisco Bay Area Budtender Recommendations for Pain and Sleep Relief.”
Read here: publications.sciences.ucf.edu/cannabis/ind...
Read here: publications.sciences.ucf.edu/cannabis/ind...
Dispensing Medical Advice: San Francisco Bay Area Budtender Recommendations for Pain and Sleep Relief
| Cannabis
publications.sciences.ucf.edu
November 6, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Pam Ling, MD, MPH, CTCRE Director, is the co-author of a new report published in Cannabis titled “Dispensing Medical Advice: San Francisco Bay Area Budtender Recommendations for Pain and Sleep Relief.”
Read here: publications.sciences.ucf.edu/cannabis/ind...
Read here: publications.sciences.ucf.edu/cannabis/ind...
Applications are open for the 2026 CTCRE Postdoctoral Fellowship! Train with UCSF faculty and join a community committed to ending tobacco use. Apply today: tobacco.ucsf.edu/fellowship
November 5, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Applications are open for the 2026 CTCRE Postdoctoral Fellowship! Train with UCSF faculty and join a community committed to ending tobacco use. Apply today: tobacco.ucsf.edu/fellowship
We bid farewell to Dr. Prakash Kodali, Fulbright visiting scholar at CTCRE. His research advanced tobacco cessation among vulnerable groups. Wishing him the best as he returns to India as Assistant Professor at the Central University of Kerala.
October 31, 2025 at 6:45 PM
We bid farewell to Dr. Prakash Kodali, Fulbright visiting scholar at CTCRE. His research advanced tobacco cessation among vulnerable groups. Wishing him the best as he returns to India as Assistant Professor at the Central University of Kerala.
CTCRE & @ucsfcancer.bsky.social hosted the annual Tobacco & Cancer Control Scientific Trainee Retreat in Sept! We were fortunate to be joined by Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, 2009 Nobel Laureate in medicine, who delivered the keynote conversation and thoughtfully answered questions from our fellows.
October 30, 2025 at 6:54 PM
CTCRE & @ucsfcancer.bsky.social hosted the annual Tobacco & Cancer Control Scientific Trainee Retreat in Sept! We were fortunate to be joined by Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, 2009 Nobel Laureate in medicine, who delivered the keynote conversation and thoughtfully answered questions from our fellows.
Dr. Pamela Ling joined Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN’s Chasing Life podcast to talk about nicotine addiction, vaping among young adults, and how parents can take action.
Listen to “Why Teens Just Can’t Quit Nicotine” here: www.cnn.com/audio/podcas...
Listen to “Why Teens Just Can’t Quit Nicotine” here: www.cnn.com/audio/podcas...
Why Teens Just Can't Quit Nicotine - Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
A few years ago, vaping was at the top of every parent’s list of worries — including Sanjay’s. But in just a few short years, the landscape has shifted again. Teen vaping rates have dropped, but new n...
www.cnn.com
October 28, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Dr. Pamela Ling joined Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN’s Chasing Life podcast to talk about nicotine addiction, vaping among young adults, and how parents can take action.
Listen to “Why Teens Just Can’t Quit Nicotine” here: www.cnn.com/audio/podcas...
Listen to “Why Teens Just Can’t Quit Nicotine” here: www.cnn.com/audio/podcas...
Don’t miss “Tobacco Cessation Under Siege” with Dr. Pamela Ling, Dr. Timothy McAfee & April Roeseler. Learn how tobacco control adapts to industry shifts + federal setbacks. Register: ucsf.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
October 21, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Don’t miss “Tobacco Cessation Under Siege” with Dr. Pamela Ling, Dr. Timothy McAfee & April Roeseler. Learn how tobacco control adapts to industry shifts + federal setbacks. Register: ucsf.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
We had a fantastic time at NCTOH connecting with peers and learning about the latest tobacco control activities. From talks to networking events, there were many ways to engage with CTCRE at NCTOH. We look forward to building on this momentum and expanding our partnerships in the years ahead.
October 15, 2025 at 5:18 PM
We had a fantastic time at NCTOH connecting with peers and learning about the latest tobacco control activities. From talks to networking events, there were many ways to engage with CTCRE at NCTOH. We look forward to building on this momentum and expanding our partnerships in the years ahead.
CTCRE Fellow Vuong Do, PhD is the lead author on a recently published article in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
The study used a smartphone app to see what triggers vaping nicotine, cannabis, or both substances.
Access the paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/...
The study used a smartphone app to see what triggers vaping nicotine, cannabis, or both substances.
Access the paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/...
Real-Time Antecedents of Young Adults’ Vaping and Co-Vaping of Nicotine and Cannabis: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study
Nicotine and cannabis vaping are common among young adults and can potentially lead to adverse health consequences. Identifying real-time antecedents …
www.sciencedirect.com
October 9, 2025 at 5:56 PM
CTCRE Fellow Vuong Do, PhD is the lead author on a recently published article in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
The study used a smartphone app to see what triggers vaping nicotine, cannabis, or both substances.
Access the paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/...
The study used a smartphone app to see what triggers vaping nicotine, cannabis, or both substances.
Access the paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/...
In July CTCRE welcomed the return of our Fellowship Co-Director Dorie Apollonio, PhD, MPP from a year-long sabbatical in Switzerland. During her time abroad, Dorie investigated the global role pharmaceutical companies play in commercial determinants of health.
October 2, 2025 at 6:09 PM
In July CTCRE welcomed the return of our Fellowship Co-Director Dorie Apollonio, PhD, MPP from a year-long sabbatical in Switzerland. During her time abroad, Dorie investigated the global role pharmaceutical companies play in commercial determinants of health.
We're saying farewell and congratulations to Narges Neyazi, PhD who is are wrapping up her fellowship with CTCRE this month. We are excited to see her join our colleagues at the California Tobacco Prevention Program!
September 30, 2025 at 6:40 PM
We're saying farewell and congratulations to Narges Neyazi, PhD who is are wrapping up her fellowship with CTCRE this month. We are excited to see her join our colleagues at the California Tobacco Prevention Program!
Welcome Daniel Akselrad, PhD! As a postdoctoral fellow at CTCRE he will draw on documents revealed through whistleblowing and litigation to advance a cultural studies approach to corporate harm.
September 24, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Welcome Daniel Akselrad, PhD! As a postdoctoral fellow at CTCRE he will draw on documents revealed through whistleblowing and litigation to advance a cultural studies approach to corporate harm.
In a new research article co-authored by CTCRE Co-Director Dorie Apollonio, PhD, MPP, researchers found similarities between cannabis products and popular food products. Packaging was formulated with bright colors and fruit flavors attractive to children.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
September 18, 2025 at 10:09 PM
In a new research article co-authored by CTCRE Co-Director Dorie Apollonio, PhD, MPP, researchers found similarities between cannabis products and popular food products. Packaging was formulated with bright colors and fruit flavors attractive to children.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Dorie Apollonio, PhD, MPP, Fellowship Co-Director at CTCRE, is the co-author of a new research article titled: “Characteristics and Trends in Child Cannabis Exposures During Legalization in California.”
The full article can be accessed here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The full article can be accessed here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Characteristics and Trends in Child Cannabis Exposures During Legalization in California
In 2016, California legalized cannabis for adult recreational use; after recreational sales began in 2018, it became the largest retail market worldwi…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 27, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Dorie Apollonio, PhD, MPP, Fellowship Co-Director at CTCRE, is the co-author of a new research article titled: “Characteristics and Trends in Child Cannabis Exposures During Legalization in California.”
The full article can be accessed here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The full article can be accessed here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
“Adolescent and Young Adult Tobacco and Cannabis Product Use and Co-Use”, a special issue of the Addictive Behaviors journal, has just been released.
Pam Ling, MD, MPH, Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research is a guest editor of this issue.
www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
Pam Ling, MD, MPH, Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research is a guest editor of this issue.
www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
Addictive Behaviors | Adolescent and Young Adult Tobacco and Cannabis Product Use and Co-Use | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
To advance tobacco control and regulatory science addressing the intersection of tobacco and cannabis use in AYAs, a multidisciplinary group of researchers from different institutions and other key st...
www.sciencedirect.com
August 20, 2025 at 10:18 PM
“Adolescent and Young Adult Tobacco and Cannabis Product Use and Co-Use”, a special issue of the Addictive Behaviors journal, has just been released.
Pam Ling, MD, MPH, Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research is a guest editor of this issue.
www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
Pam Ling, MD, MPH, Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research is a guest editor of this issue.
www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...