About

History

The School of Pharmacy Drug Research Unit (DRU) was established in approximately 1983 under the leadership of John Gambertoglio, PharmD. Initially situated on the 11th floor of the Medical Sciences building on Parnassus, the DRU later relocated to an expanded space at the Parnassus campus around 1987, occupying about 3,500 square feet. This new facility provided study subjects with a designated area for undergoing pharmacokinetic (PK) sampling.

Around 1995, the laboratory underwent another move, this time to the San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center (present day Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center). It was at this point that the laboratory was officially named the Drug Research Unit at the General (DRUG), which was subsequently shortened to the Drug Research Unit (DRU).

Gambertoglio served as the inaugural director of DRU and was the first tenure track faculty member with a PharmD degree in the history of the School. Francesca Aweeka began collaborating with Gambertoglio in 1986 and after serving as codirector for a few years, succeeded Gambertoglio in 2001 as director. During this time, the DRU played a crucial role as one of the first core pharmacology laboratories for the AIDS Clinical Trials Group network (ACTG), which was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Under Aweeka’s leadership, the role of the DRU expanded to serve as pharmacology laboratory for the UCSF-Gladstone Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network (IMPAACT). Over time, the DRU’s clinical science evolved to encompass research on malaria and tuberculosis, including research to inform best treatments for the most vulnerable populations in sub-Saharan Africa, in addition to its contributions in the field of HIV pharmacology domestically and internationally.

Today

In 2022, Aweeka passed the leadership of the DRU to Amelia Deitchman and Liusheng Huang who now serve as codirectors. Also in 2022, under the new leadership of UCSF-Gladstone CFAR (renamed as UCSF-Bay Area CFAR), DRU became a sub-core for Pharmacology of Cure and Pathogenesis within the Basic/Translational Science Core.

Deitchman’s and Huang’s research programs continue to focus on HIV and malaria pharmacology especially in vulnerable populations but with expanding emphasis in HIV cure pharmacology, novel methods for quantifying free and target site drug and disease biomarker quantitation, and novel methods for PK evaluations in pediatric and limited resource settings.