The philanthropy-funded UCSF Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) Research Program seeks to enhance the lives of patients living with PSC through high-impact research that directly addresses the need for a cure, exceptional care, and improved outcomes for patients. The founding director, Dr. Jennifer Lai, and the associate director, Dr. Michael Li, have laid out a three-pronged strategic approach to accomplishing its mission. This approach includes:
- Establishment of a patient-facing PSC cohort. Patients diagnosed with PSC participate in periodic evaluations that include standardized assessment of symptoms as well as collection of clinical data and biospecimens.
- Leveraging big data. In addition to acquiring information from publicly-available national and international databases, we are building our own comprehensive PSC-focused database from the UC Health Data Warehouse, a unique asset that houses electronic health records from the six UC Health centers.
- Developing pivotal external partnerships. To facilitate drug development and biomarker discovery, we are cultivating collaborations with key biotech and pharmaceutical firms focused on PSC for clinical trials and investigator-initiated studies. We have also partnered with PSC Partners Seeking a Cure, the largest PSC patient advocacy organization, on active research collaborations.
This program was initially established through generous support from philanthropic donors, including the Bill Falik and Candy Cohen Family Trust.