Breaking New Ground for Research

UCSF’s mission at ZSFG is to provide patients with extraordinary care, informed and enhanced by research. With research laboratories in close proximity to clinics, faculty can collaborate across disciplines and make the discoveries that transform health worldwide, while maintaining their focus on healing individual patients.

A new research and academic building is critical to that mission. UCSF’s current research programs at ZSFG are housed in the City & County of San Francisco’s historic red brick buildings. For safety reasons, the University of California’s seismic safety policy requires UCSF vacate the buildings by 2022.

To maintain research programs at ZSFG, UCSF is proposing to build a new research and academic building. This building would house about 800 UCSF employees, including 200 UCSF physician-scientists and clinicians.

UCSF held community meetings in 2013 to introduce the proposed research and academic building to its neighbors and is continuing to solicit feedback and perspectives from them. These neighbors play a key role in helping UCSF address the seismic challenges at ZSFG while also meeting the needs of the surrounding community. 

Read more about the proposed UCSF Research and Academic Building at ZSFG »

A Historic Partnership

In 1864, Toland Medical College opened across the street from the San Francisco county hospital, with the goal of providing scientific training for doctors to serve the citizens of the Gold Rush city. For more than 140 years, the offspring of those two entities – UCSF and ZSFG – have continued to work together to care for San Franciscans and advance health worldwide. 

At ZSFG, there are approximately 6,200 employees, including 1,900 UCSF employees.

UCSF physicians work side-by-side with the San Francisco Department of Public Health staff to treat patients, conduct research, and train medical, nursing, dental, pharmacy and advanced science students.

Toland Medical College, which eventually became UCSF, was originally built across the street from the San Francisco county hospital to provide training to doctors who would go on to serve the city's population. Photo courtesy of UCSF Library.

UCSF’s clinical and research presence at ZSFG – with strong collaboration between laboratories and clinics – has led to innovative medical solutions and better patient care for all San Franciscans.

UCSF Research at ZSFG

The UCSF research programs at ZSFG are essential to the hospital’s success in providing top quality care, delivering an outstanding teaching program and serving the community’s needs. The research at ZSFG focuses on the hospital’s patients, which often include the City’s most vulnerable populations. Our patients benefit in real time from the best that medical science has to offer.

Community & Government Relations Projects

UCSF is engaged in a variety of ongoing projects designed to enhance the campus and medical center, and better serve both patients and the greater community.

When we embark on any project, planning always includes engagement with the local community.