A multi-institutional team of scientists led by Dr. Mario Gaudino, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Professor in Cardiothoracic Surgery and assistant dean for clinical trials at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been approved for a nearly $30 million funding award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The award will fund the first study among women and Black and Hispanic patients comparing the effectiveness of two revascularization options used to treat coronary artery disease. Learn more.

 

Psychosocial stress profoundly affects people’s lives globally, not least because it can be a critical risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Thanks to an $11.5 million award renewal from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, distinguished researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and elsewhere aim to gain a deeper understanding of how stress influences cardiovascular health. Learn more.

 

Nursing homes were a key battleground during the COVID pandemic and prioritized for distribution of PPE, vaccines, and COVID testing kits. However, new research shows that monoclonal antibodies and oral antiviral drugs were not used in these facilities as much as would be expected given the high-risk of resident populations. Learn more.

 

Black Americans are 1.6 times more likely to believe medical information presented by a Black physician or patient as compared with information presented by a White speaker, a new study shows. This finding, the authors say, highlights the importance of increasing racial diversity among healthcare providers to improve healthcare discussions with minority populations. Learn more.

 

When detected early oral cancer has a high survival rate, but most cases are not detected until the disease is very advanced. A new saliva-based, non-invasive test, CancerDetect for Oral & Throat Cancer™ [CDOT], developed by VIOME life sciences and tested by a group of researchers from around the world, including Salomon Amar, Ph.D., D.D.S., vice president for research at New York Medical College, senior vice president for biomedical research at Touro University and professor of pharmacology and of pathology, microbiology and immunology, has the potential to enable early diagnosis, saving lives and significantly reducing health care expenditures. Learn more.

 

Advances in the treatment of leukemia have improved the outlook for people with these blood cancers, but new therapeutic approaches that target unique aspects of leukemia cells are needed. To this end, the Center for Blood Cancers, part of NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, has awarded its first pilot project grants to encourage path-breaking translational or preclinical blood cancer research. Learn more.

 

Remi Adelaiye-Ogala, PhD, knows that choosing a career in science requires a thick skin. An assistant professor of medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, Adelaiye-Ogala is familiar with the ups and downs of competing for grants and peer review, not to mention the uncertainties of microscopic worlds that don’t yield their secrets easily. Learn more.

 

New research appearing in the journal Nature Biotechnology answers important questions about the viability of treatments that seek to replace diseased and aged cells in the central nervous system with healthy ones. Its findings have implications for a number of neurological and psychiatric disorders—including Huntington’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and schizophrenia—that have been linked to glia, a population of cells that support brain health and function. Learn more.

 

A non-opioid designer molecule for treating chronic neuropathic pain by calming hyperactive pain-sensing neurons in the peripheral nervous system has had promising results in a preclinical study conducted by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Burke Neurological Institute. In the study, published Aug. 2 in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, the first-in-class drug conceptualized by lead author Dr. Gareth Tibbs was found to function according to its design at both the molecular level and as an apparently side-effect-free pain reliever in rats. Learn more.

 

Moving basic-science discoveries out of the lab and into clinical trials isn’t easy. Just ask Steven Almo, Ph.D., professor and chair of biochemistry at Einstein. In 2011, he came up with an idea for a new form of immunotherapy, known as Immuno-STAT™, that didn’t enter clinical trials until 2019. Learn more.

 

For many people trying to lose weight, shedding pounds is the easy part. Keeping the pounds off over time is usually the hard part, and most people regain weight. What makes some succeed in maintaining weight loss for the long haul? Learn more.

 

A pediatric infectious disease team led by University at Buffalo faculty is screening and treating hepatitis C virus (HCV)-exposed infants. The clinic’s efforts are documented in a new paper based on an 11-year retrospective chart review, published this month in BMC Gastroenterology. Learn more.

 

Children with asthma spend more time in the hospital when there is a greater amount of particulate matter (PM 2.5) – tiny pieces of solids or liquids – and Ozone (O3) – a colorless gas – in the air, according to a new study by researchers at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM). The study, just published in the Journal of Asthma, comes days after New York City was blanketed in wildfire smoke. Learn more.

 

Perhaps the most profound advance in primate evolution occurred about 6 million years ago when our ancestors started walking on two legs. The gradual shift to bipedal locomotion is thought to have made primates more adaptable to diverse environments and freed their hands to make use of tools, which in turn accelerated cognitive development. With those changes, the stage was set for modern humans. Learn more.

 

The Obstetrics and Gynecology Summer Research Program at New York Medical College marked another successful year this July with more than 20 medical students participating in team research projects on a wide variety of obstetrics and gynecology-related topics, including treatment for pudendal neuralgia, hypertension in pregnancy, sarcopenia among cervix cancer patients and understanding patient perspectives about vaginal estrogen. Now in its third year, the program has led to both publications in academic journals and numerous presentations at national conferences for program participants. Learn more.

 

“My mom said ‘why’ was my favorite word when I was younger,” says Alexis Perez, a research associate in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the College of Osteopathic Medicine. “That word stuck with me throughout my life and is a critical question in my field.” A self-described “curious person” who asks many questions in order to understand how things work, Perez has an extensive background in the sciences. Learn more.

 

Albany Medical College scientists have been awarded a four-year, $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the role of lung epithelial cells – the cells that form a mucosal barrier in the lungs – in protecting against tuberculosis (TB). Learn more.

 

This summer, several faculty from the College of Osteopathic Medicine’s (NYITCOM) Department of Biomedical Sciences have secured federal grants in support of their impressive research projects. The awards, which total approximately $1.4 million (as of July 1, 2023), include NYITCOM’s first grant from the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and two competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Learn more.

 

Daniel Canals, PhD, Research Assistant Professor at the Stony Brook Cancer Center, has received a grant from the Long Island League to Abolish Cancer (LILAC) for the purchase of two cutting-edge instruments that enable him and colleagues to better understand how lipids are regulated in cancer, and in turn, the many functions that lipids perform in cancer cells. Learn more.

 

The Lasker Foundation announced that Salman E. Qasim, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is among five winners of its 10th annual Lasker Essay Contest. The winning submissions were selected from hundreds of essays penned by biomedical graduate students and health professions trainees from 25 countries. Dr. Qasim’s essay, titled “The Human Brain: The Final Frontier, and the Wild West,” was published in The Journal of Clinical Investigations and on the Lasker Foundation website. Learn more.