We are an interdisciplinary community of clinicians, researchers, and educators addressing ethical questions in health and biomedical research.

UCSF Bioethics connects faculty, staff, students, and trainees from across UCSF, creating a protected space for moral reflection that spans the university’s professional schools and health system. Faculty members conduct original research and policy analysis on a wide range of topics. They consult on moral and ethical concerns while embedded within bioscience or clinical projects. They devise strategies to effectively incorporate patient and citizen input into ongoing governance of science, clinical practice, and public health practice. And they provide a Research Ethics Consultation Service and direct educational programs for UCSF’s four professional schools.

In all of these settings, our faculty members seek to answer this question: How can we ensure the ethical use of our ever-expanding technological prowess?

Faculty Spotlight: Julia Brown, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

I am an anthropologist and bioethicist who examines lived experiences, caregiving and social value-making around controversial biotechnologies. I aim to understand and better account for different viewpoints, particularly underrepresented perspectives. My ethnographic research highlights psychosocial, emotional and temporal elements to healthcare decision-making, and the complexity of concepts such as health and quality of life. My book, “The Clozapine Clinic: Health Agency in High-Risk Conditions”, describes the incidental psychosocial benefits of a biomedical regime that is so focused on safety monitoring that patients can, for at least the time in which they are in the clozapine clinic, move beyond their psychiatric diagnosis and assert their humanity and health agency in subtle ways. I continue to look for ways that actions towards health that are embedded in hope and social support can supersede concern for risks and uncertainty.

Since joining UCSF in 2020, I have focused on prenatal and pediatric genetic technologies. My current project, supported by a K99/R00 Award from the National Human Genome Research Institute, involves doing “embedded ethics” at the Center for Maternal-Fetal Precision Medicine (CMFPM). Through qualitative research and an ethics lens, I work closely with leaders and families in the prenatal medicine space at CMFPM who are paving the way towards innovative prenatal interventions, including in utero gene editing. As a faculty affiliate at the UC Berkeley Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public (KCESP),  I am developing novel community engagement methods in the prenatal technology space, including a podcast project. I am passionate about public engagement in ethics and science and this podcast looks to help break down assumptions and value tensions, as well as better support prospective families by centering lived experiences. P

Past Faculty Spotlights:
Bani Tamraz, PharmD, PhD
Pramita Kuruvilla, MD, FAAFP, HEC-C
Becky Deboer, MD, MA
Jarmin Yeh, PhD, MPH, MSW