August 2013 News from the Medical Schools: Research

Aug

2013

The Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY) brings you the following compilation of the most recent updates and news on research from the academic medical centers in the state.

For the e-newsletter, click here.

SUNY Downstate’s Robert F. Furchgott Society Awards Three for Outstanding Research

August 21, 2013 – “Each year, SUNY Downstate Medical Center’s Robert F. Furchgott Society recognizes medical students, graduate students, and residents for excellence in basic science and clinical research. This year it honored three awardees with cash awards that totaled $13,000.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 SUNY Downstate Medical Center. All rights reserved.}

19th Annual ‘Walk for Beauty’ Raises $25,000 for Cancer Research at Stony Brook University

August 19, 2013 – “Committee members from the “Walk for Beauty” presented a check for $25,000 representing proceeds from the 2012 walk to benefit cancer research at Stony Brook University Cancer Center. Researchers seek to develop a drug that more selectively targets cancer cells.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 Stony Brook University. All rights reserved.}

Competitive NIH Fellowship Supports Brain Receptor Study

August 16, 2013 – “A University at Buffalo student has been awarded a highly competitive, three-year fellowship from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The approximately $150,000 Ruth L. Kirschstein F31 National Research Service Award for Individual Predoctoral Students supports training for a promising researcher in a health-related area.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 University at Buffalo. All rights reserved.}

NYU Researchers Part of $2 Million NSF Grant to Develop Cutting-Edge Nanomaterials

August 6, 2013 – “The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded New York University researchers and their colleagues at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) a $2 million grant to develop cutting-edge nanomaterials that hold promise for improving the manufacturing of advanced materials, biofuels, and other industrial products.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 Phys.org. All rights reserved.}

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center Secure $16 Million NIH Grant to Study HIV/AIDS in Women

July 30, 2013 – “Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center today announced they received a $16 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the impact of HIV and AIDS on women. The funds allow Montefiore and Einstein to continue as a scientific and clinical site for the Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS).”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 Albert Einstein College of Medicine. All rights reserved.}

UB’s New CTRC Imaging Center Advances Translational Research

July 26, 2013 – “For the first time, biomedical researchers will have 24/7 access to some of the world’s most powerful scanners at the University at Buffalo’s Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC). Installation of four new state-of-the-art scanners will soon be complete in the new CTRC Molecular and Translational Imaging Center, Western New York’s first imaging facility devoted exclusively to clinical and preclinical research.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 University at Buffalo. All rights reserved.}

Defecting to Great Scientific Success

July 22, 2013 – “Dr. Jan Vilcek, a professor of microbiology at NYU Langone Medical Center, left Communist Czechoslovakia in 1964 to become more deeply involved with medical research in New York. For his discoveries and his philanthropy, Dr. Vilcek, now 80, received a 2013 National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.}

Pretreating Aggressive Lymphoma with Targeted Therapy Improves Chemotherapy Effectiveness

August 16, 2013 – “Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital led a study on the treatment of patients with aggressive lymphoma, which often relapses and kills within two years. Patients who took a commercially available drug showed significant improvement; the targeted drug made chemotherapy more effective.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 Weill Cornell Medical College. All rights reserved.}

Celiac Disease Patients with Ongoing Intestine Damage at Lymphoma Risk

August 5, 2013 – “Patients with celiac disease, a common autoimmune disease, who had persistent intestine damage (identified with repeat biopsy) had a higher risk of lymphoma than patients whose intestines healed, according to findings by Columbia University researchers.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 Columbia University Medical Center. All rights reserved.}

Blocking Sugar Intake May Reduce Cancer Risk or Progression in Obese and Diabetic People

August 1, 2013 – “Blocking dietary sugar and its activity in tumor cells may reduce cancer risk and progression, according to researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine. The study provides insight as to why metabolism-related diseases such as diabetes or obesity are associated with certain types of cancer, including pancreatic, breast, liver, and colon cancers.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. All rights reserved.}

Novel Drug Shuts Down Master Protein Key to Lymphoma

August 1, 2013 – “Researchers have discovered how an experimental drug is capable of completely eradicating human lymphoma in mice after just five doses. The study, led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College, sets the stage for testing the drug in clinical trials of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the seventh most frequently diagnosed cancer in the U.S.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 Weill Cornell Medical College All rights reserved.}

Women’s Height Linked to Cancer Risk

July 25, 2013 – “According to a study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, the risk for developing cancer is greater for taller postmenopausal women.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 Albert Einstein College of Medicine. All rights reserved.}

URMC Heart Research Expands to Asia with Launch of New Device

August 6, 2013 – “Cardiologists at the University of Rochester Medical Center are launching a new study in an effort to improve the treatment of a very common form of heart disease in the Asian population.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 University of Rochester Medical Center. All rights reserved.}

Study Shows Coronary CT Angiography Useful for Triaging Patients with Chest Pain

July 31, 2013 – “A study conducted at Stony Brook University School of Medicine revealed that the use of coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) led to fewer hospital admissions and shorter ED stays. The findings provide evidence that CCTA offers an alternative means of improving the triage of chest pain patients.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 Stony Brook University. All rights reserved.}

Inhalable Gene Therapy May Help Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Patients

July 30, 2013 – “The deadly condition known as pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), which afflicts up to 150,000 Americans each year, may be reversible by using an inhalable gene therapy, report an international team of researchers led by investigators at the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.“

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. All rights reserved.}

Trial Aims to Advance Prenatal Diagnosis of Genetic Defects

August 21, 2013 – Reproductive genetics researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) are leading a multicenter prospective clinical study investigating the effects of prenatal genetic abnormalities. The goal of the study is to gain further information on genetic variances not previously found and share it with parents during pregnancy.

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 Columbia University Medical Center. All rights reserved.}

UB Study Visually Depicts Anti-Cancer DNA Repair Process

August 14, 2013 – An associate professor at the University at Buffalo will use a $1.8 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to develop the first clear model of a biochemical DNA repair mechanism needed to stave off cancer.

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 University at Buffalo. All rights reserved.}

br />NIH-Funded Study Discovers New Genes for Childhood Epilepsies

August 13, 2013 – Columbia University researchers participated in a genetic study of childhood epilepsies, which has linked two new genes to severe forms of disease and provides a novel strategy for identifying therapy targets. The study is part of a worldwide, $25 million project, largely funded by the National Institutes of Health, called Epilepsy 4000 (Epi4K).

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 Columbia University Medical Center. All rights reserved.}

Study Reveals Genes that Drive Brain Cancer

August 13, 2013 – “A team of researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Medical Center has identified 18 new genes responsible for driving glioblastoma multiforme, the most common—and most aggressive—form of brain cancer in adults.”

For the full story, click here.
_{© 2013 Columbia University Medical Center. All rights reserved.}

Largest Study of Epilepsy Patients Ever Conducted Reveals New and Surprising Genetic Factors

August 12, 2013 – “Neurologists and epilepsy researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center were among scientists conducted a study on why some with an elevated genetic risk for epilepsy never get the disease and why certain medications work better for some patients than others.”

DNA Robots Find and Tab Blood Cells

August 7, 2013 – “Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, working with their collaborators at the Hospital for Special Surgery, have created a fleet of molecular “robots” that can home in on specific human cells and mark them for drug therapy or destruction.”

Genetic Testing for Kidney Disease Among African Americans with Hypertension to Become Part of Primary Care Offerings Through Mount Sinai and Partners

July 31, 2013 – “The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is partnering with the Institute for Family Health to launch the first-ever genetic testing program in the primary care setting to identify genetic risk for kidney disease in patients with hypertension. The program will be funded through a $3.7 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health.”

UB Study Finds Biological Links Between Obesity, Asthma

July 25, 2013 – “New University at Buffalo research is the first to uncover several biological ties between obesity and asthma. Two interrelated studies found that genes linked to chronic inflammation in asthma may be more active in obese people.”

Copper Identified as Culprit in Alzheimer’s Disease

August 19, 2013 – A study led by a research professor at the Univeristy of Rochester Medical Center revealed that copper appears to be one of the main environmental factors that trigger the onset and enhance the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by preventing the clearance and accelerating the accumulation of toxic proteins in the brain.

Obesity Kills More Americans Than Previously Thought

August 19, 2013 – A study on obesity at Columbia University, the first to account for differences in age, birth cohort, sex, and race in analyzing risk, predicts that obesity will be responsible for an increasing share of deaths in the United States and perhaps even lead to declines in U.S. life expectancy.

UB Study Seeks Molecular Mechanism Leading to Myelination

August 14, 2013 – “An assistant professor at the University at Buffalo will use a $1.74 million grant to study how cellular processes involving calcium channels contribute to myelination and myelin pathology. The five-year grant is from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.”

Scientists Develop Method That Ensures Safe Research on Deadly Flu Viruses

August 11, 2013 – “A new strategy that dismantles a viral genome in human lung cells will ensure safe research on deadly strains of influenza, say researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.”

Study Reveals Potential Role of “Love Hormone” Oxytocin in Brain Function

August 5, 2013 – “In a recent study, NYU Langone Medical Center researchers decipher how oxytocin, acting as a neurohormone in the brain, not only reduces background noise, but more importantly, increases the strength of desired signals. These findings may be relevant to autism, which affects one in 88 children in the United States.”

From Harmless Colonizers to Virulent Pathogens: UB Microbiologists Identify What Triggers Disease

August 5, 2013 – University at Buffalo researchers study how the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae, which harmlessly colonizes the mucous linings of throats and noses in most people, becomes virulent when they leave those comfortable surroundings and enter the middle ears, lungs or bloodstream.

Advance in Regenerative Medicine Could Make Reprogrammed Cells Safer While Improving Their Function

August 1, 2013 – “A new finding by a team of researchers led by Weill Cornell Medical College has the potential to improve both the safety and performance of reprogrammed cells. The study suggests the potential to repair a patient’s organs using cells from ailing tissue.”

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Highlights

Cancer

Cardiology

Genetics

Other Studies

SUNY Downstate’s Robert F. Furchgott Society Awards Three for Outstanding Research

19th Annual ‘Walk for Beauty’ Raises $25,000 for Cancer Research at Stony Brook University

Competitive NIH Fellowship Supports Brain Receptor Study

NYU Researchers Part of $2 Million NSF Grant to Develop Cutting-Edge Nanomaterials

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center Secure $16 Million NIH Grant to Study HIV/AIDS in Women

UB’s New CTRC Imaging Center Advances Translational Research

Defecting to Great Scientific Success

Pretreating Aggressive Lymphoma with Targeted Therapy Improves Chemotherapy Effectiveness

Celiac Disease Patients with Ongoing Intestine Damage at Lymphoma Risk

Blocking Sugar Intake May Reduce Cancer Risk or Progression in Obese and Diabetic People

Novel Drug Shuts Down Master Protein Key to Lymphoma

Women’s Height Linked to Cancer Risk

URMC Heart Research Expands to Asia with Launch of New Device

Study Shows Coronary CT Angiography Useful for Triaging Patients with Chest Pain

Inhalable Gene Therapy May Help Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Patients

Trial Aims to Advance Prenatal Diagnosis of Genetic Defects

UB Study Visually Depicts Anti-Cancer DNA Repair Process

br />NIH-Funded Study Discovers New Genes for Childhood Epilepsies

Study Reveals Genes that Drive Brain Cancer

Largest Study of Epilepsy Patients Ever Conducted Reveals New and Surprising Genetic Factors

DNA Robots Find and Tab Blood Cells

Genetic Testing for Kidney Disease Among African Americans with Hypertension to Become Part of Primary Care Offerings Through Mount Sinai and Partners

UB Study Finds Biological Links Between Obesity, Asthma

Copper Identified as Culprit in Alzheimer’s Disease

Obesity Kills More Americans Than Previously Thought

UB Study Seeks Molecular Mechanism Leading to Myelination

Scientists Develop Method That Ensures Safe Research on Deadly Flu Viruses

Study Reveals Potential Role of “Love Hormone” Oxytocin in Brain Function

From Harmless Colonizers to Virulent Pathogens: UB Microbiologists Identify What Triggers Disease

Advance in Regenerative Medicine Could Make Reprogrammed Cells Safer While Improving Their Function