The Blood Systems Research Institute (BSRI) ranked #2 in The Scientist magazine's Best Places to Work in Academia 2013 survey. Additional note from BSRI Director Mike Busch, MD, PhD:
As noted in the article…our long-standing relationship with UCSF, which is formalized as an affiliation under the UCSF CTSI, is a critical reason for our success, both in the science and policy work we do and in the culture of innovation and collaboration that we enjoy.
I consider the ARI, Global Health program, and Division or Experimental Medicine to be particularly important partners and greatly appreciate the support and collaborative opportunities you have consistently provided to BSRI investigators, scientists, and post-docs.
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By The Scientist Staff & Kate Yandell
In a time of harsh budget cuts, furloughs, and other last-resort, money-saving actions, academics need all the in-house support they can get. In this year’s Best Places to Work in Academia survey, it’s clear that scientists value any form of financial and research support they can get from their employers: three out of the top four institutions scored highly on questions relating to “Infrastructure and Environment,” and two got high marks for “Research Resources.” Researchers at both the #2 and #3-ranked US institutions—Blood Systems Research Institute (BSRI) in San Francisco and the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri, respectively—cited financial and other forms of institutional support as key benefits of their workplaces.
Bound By Blood at BSRI
The San Francisco-based Blood Systems Research Institute (BSRI), which ranked #2 among US institutions in this year’s survey, unites 60 researchers from diverse disciplines to study the medical use of blood. The institute is supported in large part by its parent organization, the nonprofit Blood Systems, one of the largest collectors of blood donations in the United States.
“Everything is related to blood transfusion, but there is virology, epidemiology, immunology,” says Rachael Jackman, a staff scientist at the institute. “You get to look at a problem from a lot of different angles.”
Jackman studies the immune response to blood transfusion. Other BSRI researchers are combing the blood supply worldwide for novel pathogens, trying to understand why blood can’t be stored for medical use indefinitely, and researching the epidemiology of who chooses to donate blood.