I was looking to dig into some examples of collaboration patterns in different research areas, when I realized I didn’t even know the basics — what do UCSF researchers actually research?

UCSF Profiles uses PubMed data to extract MeSH keywords for every publication by every UCSF researcher in the system. We can use this to look at the most commonly used MeSH keywords across every researcher’s body of work. There are lots of caveats here (looking at all publications emphasizes past research interests over current ones; we’re not grouping related obscure MeSH terms with more popular ones; MeSH term assignment practices change over time; and this analysis ignores someone’s role as a first, middle, or last author). But this is certainly a start.

Here’s what I found, using the latest UCSF Profiles data:

1. 98 researchers have HIV Infections in their top 5 MeSH keywords
2. 53 researchers have Breast Neoplasms in their top 5 MeSH keywords
3. 42 researchers have Magnetic Resonance Imaging in their top 5 MeSH keywords
4. 39 researchers have Tomography, X-Ray Computed in their top 5 MeSH keywords
5. 39 researchers have Brain Neoplasms in their top 5 MeSH keywords
6. 37 researchers have Internship and Residency in their top 5 MeSH keywords
7. 37 researchers have HIV-1 in their top 5 MeSH keywords
8. 34 researchers have Alzheimer Disease in their top 5 MeSH keywords
9. 33 researchers have Prostatic Neoplasms in their top 5 MeSH keywords
10. 32 researchers have Saccharomyces cerevisiae in their top 5 MeSH keywords
11. 31 researchers have Brain in their top 5 MeSH keywords
12. 31 researchers have Anti-HIV Agents in their top 5 MeSH keywords
13. 30 researchers have Neoplasms in their top 5 MeSH keywords
14. 30 researchers have Smoking in their top 5 MeSH keywords
15. 29 researchers have Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 in their top 5 MeSH keywords
16. 29 researchers have Asthma in their top 5 MeSH keywords
17. 28 researchers have Stroke in their top 5 MeSH keywords
18. 28 researchers have Sexual Behavior in their top 5 MeSH keywords
19. 27 researchers have Myocardial Infarction in their top 5 MeSH keywords
20. 27 researchers have Proteins in their top 5 MeSH keywords
21. 26 researchers have Neurons in their top 5 MeSH keywords
22. 26 researchers have Skin Neoplasms in their top 5 MeSH keywords
23. 26 researchers have Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols in their top 5 MeSH keywords
24. 25 researchers have Cognition Disorders in their top 5 MeSH keywords
25. 25 researchers have Homosexuality, Male in their top 5 MeSH keywords
26. 25 researchers have Emergency Service, Hospital in their top 5 MeSH keywords
27. 25 researchers have Students, Medical in their top 5 MeSH keywords
28. 24 researchers have Obesity in their top 5 MeSH keywords
29. 24 researchers have Glioblastoma in their top 5 MeSH keywords
30. 23 researchers have Epilepsy in their top 5 MeSH keywords
31. 23 researchers have Pancreatic Neoplasms in their top 5 MeSH keywords
32. 23 researchers have Dementia in their top 5 MeSH keywords
33. 23 researchers have Liver Transplantation in their top 5 MeSH keywords
34. 23 researchers have Hispanic Americans in their top 5 MeSH keywords
35. 23 researchers have Education, Medical, Undergraduate in their top 5 MeSH keywords
36. 22 researchers have Lung in their top 5 MeSH keywords
37. 22 researchers have Genetic Predisposition to Disease in their top 5 MeSH keywords
38. 22 researchers have Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins in their top 5 MeSH keywords
39. 22 researchers have Lung Neoplasms in their top 5 MeSH keywords
40. 22 researchers have Glioma in their top 5 MeSH keywords
41. 21 researchers have Drosophila in their top 5 MeSH keywords
42. 21 researchers have Mass Screening in their top 5 MeSH keywords
43. 21 researchers have Heart Defects, Congenital in their top 5 MeSH keywords
44. 21 researchers have Anti-Bacterial Agents in their top 5 MeSH keywords
45. 21 researchers have Liver in their top 5 MeSH keywords
46. 21 researchers have Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide in their top 5 MeSH keywords
47. 21 researchers have Physician-Patient Relations in their top 5 MeSH keywords
48. 21 researchers have Signal Transduction in their top 5 MeSH keywords
49. 21 researchers have Primary Health Care in their top 5 MeSH keywords
50. 21 researchers have Nerve Tissue Proteins in their top 5 MeSH keywords
51. 21 researchers have Stem Cells in their top 5 MeSH keywords
52. 21 researchers have Drosophila melanogaster in their top 5 MeSH keywords
53. 20 researchers have Colorectal Neoplasms in their top 5 MeSH keywords
54. 20 researchers have Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic in their top 5 MeSH keywords
55. 20 researchers have Calcium in their top 5 MeSH keywords
56. 20 researchers have Health Services Accessibility in their top 5 MeSH keywords
57. 20 researchers have Smoking Cessation in their top 5 MeSH keywords
58. 20 researchers have Epithelial Cells in their top 5 MeSH keywords
59. 20 researchers have Wounds and Injuries in their top 5 MeSH keywords
60. 20 researchers have Drosophila Proteins in their top 5 MeSH keywords
61. 20 researchers have Models, Molecular in their top 5 MeSH keywords
62. 19 researchers have Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in their top 5 MeSH keywords
63. 19 researchers have MicroRNAs in their top 5 MeSH keywords
64. 19 researchers have Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Adult in their top 5 MeSH keywords
65. 19 researchers have Curriculum in their top 5 MeSH keywords
66. 19 researchers have Aging in their top 5 MeSH keywords
67. 19 researchers have Embryonic Stem Cells in their top 5 MeSH keywords
68. 19 researchers have Caenorhabditis elegans in their top 5 MeSH keywords
69. 19 researchers have Kidney Transplantation in their top 5 MeSH keywords
70. 18 researchers have Heart Failure in their top 5 MeSH keywords
71. 18 researchers have Membrane Proteins in their top 5 MeSH keywords
72. 18 researchers have Asian Americans in their top 5 MeSH keywords
73. 18 researchers have DNA in their top 5 MeSH keywords
74. 18 researchers have Tuberculosis in their top 5 MeSH keywords
75. 18 researchers have Mental Disorders in their top 5 MeSH keywords
76. 18 researchers have Transcription Factors in their top 5 MeSH keywords
77. 18 researchers have Coronary Disease in their top 5 MeSH keywords
78. 18 researchers have Gene Expression Profiling in their top 5 MeSH keywords
79. 17 researchers have DNA-Binding Proteins in their top 5 MeSH keywords
80. 17 researchers have CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes in their top 5 MeSH keywords
81. 17 researchers have Skin Diseases in their top 5 MeSH keywords
82. 17 researchers have Bacterial Proteins in their top 5 MeSH keywords
83. 17 researchers have Apoptosis in their top 5 MeSH keywords
84. 17 researchers have Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases in their top 5 MeSH keywords
85. 17 researchers have Homeodomain Proteins in their top 5 MeSH keywords
86. 17 researchers have Hypertension in their top 5 MeSH keywords
87. 17 researchers have Stress, Psychological in their top 5 MeSH keywords
88. 17 researchers have T-Lymphocytes in their top 5 MeSH keywords
89. 17 researchers have Abortion, Induced in their top 5 MeSH keywords
90. 17 researchers have Schizophrenia in their top 5 MeSH keywords
91. 17 researchers have Antineoplastic Agents in their top 5 MeSH keywords
92. 17 researchers have Proteomics in their top 5 MeSH keywords
93. 17 researchers have Multiple Sclerosis in their top 5 MeSH keywords
94. 17 researchers have Teaching in their top 5 MeSH keywords
95. 17 researchers have Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome in their top 5 MeSH keywords
96. 17 researchers have Hepatitis C in their top 5 MeSH keywords
97. 17 researchers have Laparoscopy in their top 5 MeSH keywords
98. 16 researchers have Muscle, Skeletal in their top 5 MeSH keywords
99. 16 researchers have Amyloid beta-Peptides in their top 5 MeSH keywords
100. 16 researchers have Ovarian Neoplasms in their top 5 MeSH keywords