Investigators at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Health System, Regenstrief Institute, and Indiana University School of Medicine have received an $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to evaluate an Einstein-developed test for assessing cognitive impairment and dementia. Learn more.

 

The death of a loved one, financial or food insecurity, or a newly developed disability were some of the strongest predictors of whether a patient hospitalized for COVID-19 would experience symptoms of long COVID a year later, a new study finds. Led by researchers from NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study found that adult patients with such “major life stressors”—present in more than 50 percent of those followed—were at least twice as likely to struggle with depression, brain fog, fatigue, sleep problems, and other long-term COVID-19 symptoms. Learn more.

 

On Nov. 3, the New England Journal of Medicine published a paper that described how children with high-risk Hodgkin lymphoma responded to a targeted therapy for the disease that has been effective in adults. Conducted by the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) and led by pediatric oncologists at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, the trial found that the therapy was shown to significantly reduce relapse rates when tested in a large multicenter clinical trial. Learn more.

 

A form of blood cancer known as mantle cell lymphoma is critically dependent on a protein that coordinates gene expression, such that blocking its activity with an experimental drug dramatically slows the growth of this lymphoma in preclinical tests, according to a study from Weill Cornell Medicine researchers. The discovery, reported Oct. 25 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to new mantle cell lymphoma drugs as well as a better understanding of how this type of lymphoma develops. Learn more.

 

A significant obstacle to treating brain cancer is not the cancer, but the brain itself. The blood-brain barrier is an important aspect of the brain’s blood vessels that prevents poisons, viruses, and bacteria in blood from infiltrating the brain—but it inadvertently blocks most therapeutic substances. Learn more.

 

Immune checkpoint inhibitors such as Keytruda and Opdivo work by unleashing the immune system’s T cells to attack tumor cells. Their introduction a decade ago marked a major advance in cancer therapy, but only 10% to 30% of treated patients experience long-term improvement. In a paper published online today in The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI), scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine describe findings that could bolster the effectiveness of immune-checkpoint therapy. Learn more.

 

Physicians at the Stony Brook Heart Institute Valve Center have expanded the array of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) approaches with two innovative techniques for treating patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS). Aortic stenosis, a narrowing of the aortic valve opening, affects up to 20 percent of older Americans. AS can lead to significant heart problems. Learn more.

 

A gene linked to autism spectrum disorders plays a critical role in early brain development and may shape the formation of both normal and atypical nerve connections in the brain, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The study, published Nov. 28 in Neuron, employed a combination of sophisticated genetic experiments in mice and analysis of human brain imaging data to better understand why mutations in a gene called Gabrb3 are linked to a high risk of developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a related condition called Angelman Syndrome. Learn more.

 

Researchers from the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team of scientists from around the globe, have identified rare genetic variants in patients with autoimmune diseases of the central nervous system called Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorders (NMOSD). Learn more.

 

A team of equity researchers at Mount Sinai’s Institute for Health Equity Research (IHER) will use a $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to assess how unequal access to health care impacts patient health. The researchers will assemble and analyze a formidable data set to examine the associations between the level of segregation and selected quality measures in order to craft a blueprint for reducing these disparities, which they will disseminate to other hospitals and health systems. Learn more.

 

On February 6, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of many flavored e-cigarettes, with some important exceptions. According to a survey conducted by University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) researchers, the ban did not result in adults quitting e-cig use and may have driven some back to smoking regular cigarettes. The researchers point to policy loopholes as the main reasons the policy failed to push people to quit. Learn more.

 

The diminished power of the immune system in older adults is usually blamed on the aging process. But a new study by Columbia immunologists shows that decades of particulate air pollution also take a toll. The study found that inhaled particles from environmental pollutants accumulate over decades inside immune cells in lymph nodes associated with the lung, eventually weakening the cells’ ability to fight respiratory infections. Learn more.

 

One in five people who survive cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after cardiac arrest may describe lucid experiences of death that occurred while they were seemingly unconscious and on the brink of death, a new study shows. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and elsewhere, the study involved 567 men and women whose hearts stopped beating while hospitalized and who received CPR between May 2017 and March 2020 in the United States and United Kingdom. Learn more.

 

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York have identified 35 genes that are particularly highly expressed in people with long-term Lyme disease. These genes could potentially be used as biomarkers to diagnose patients with the condition, which is otherwise difficult to diagnose and treat. Learn more.

 

An Albany Medical Center sports medicine expert recently presented his department’s concussion research at an international conference held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Hamish Kerr, MD, Sports Medicine Fellowship Program Director and Professor of Medicine & Pediatrics, was the lead author for a five-year study focusing on how to more accurately predict an athlete’s safe return to competition following a sports-related concussion. Learn more.

 

On November 18, 51 medical students showcased their research and scholarly work at the College of Osteopathic Medicine’s (NYITCOM) Fall 2022 Student Research Symposium. The event, organized by the NYITCOM chapter of the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) under Associate Professor Nathan Thompson, Ph.D., and NYITCOM’s Office of Research, took place in Salten Hall on the Long Island Campus. Learn more.

 

CUNY School of Medicine Student Research Day took place on November 16th, 2022. The top 3 posters in each category received prizes at the awards ceremony. Keynote speaker, Dr. Hasina Outzz Reed, gave her lecture as well. Learn more.

 

When ophthalmologist Dr. John Pena was a first-year resident, he helped to treat a child with a form of cancer that originates in the back of the eye. Dr. Pena used advanced technology to see inside the eye’s clear, gel-like structure called the vitreous, and found abundant microscopic structures that transport biological information from one cell to another. The patient’s case inspired Dr. Pena, then a Weill Cornell Medicine physician-scientist, to develop new methods for visualizing these structures, or extracellular vesicles, in tissues, and explore their role in cancer. Learn more.

 

Upstate Medical University’s Eric Olson, PhD, has been awarded $1.8 million from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to study the effects of alcohol on kinase signaling pathways in brain development, specifically in developing fetuses. Olson is an associate professor of neuroscience and physiology. Olson will use the funding to test why the wiring of the fetal brain, can be so deeply impacted by exposure to alcohol during development. Learn more.

 

The Center for Health + Technology (CHeT) received a $2.9 million award from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop novel outcomes measures for use in therapeutic studies involving a range of chronic diseases. These tools will provide a platform for patients to provide insight into the merit of promising therapies during clinical trials. Learn more.

 

Wen-Hui Wang, M.D., professor of pharmacology at New York Medical College, has been awarded a $2.7 million, four-year grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health for research on the role of the Kir4.1 potassium channel in the regulation of hypertension and potassium excretion in the kidney. The study will explore the mechanism by which the kidney adequately balances sodium and potassium ions in the body. Learn more.

 

Growing up in Žiar nad Hronom, Slovakia, where his parents worked at the local aluminum plant, Toma dreamed about studying medicine. But math always came easy to him, so he decided to pursue that instead. After graduating with a master’s degree in applied mechanics and mathematics from the University of Žilina in northern Slovakia, Toma left for Portugal to pursue his Ph.D. in engineering science (structural biomechanics) at the Technical University of Lisbon. Learn more.

 

Upstate head and neck surgeon Sherard ‘Scott’ Tatum, MD, traveled to Ukraine in September to perform facial surgeries on civilians and soldiers injured in the war with Russia. He was among a team of eight surgeons, two nurses, one surgical technician, and four support staff who made the trip with Face to Face (F2F), the humanitarian arm of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Tatum has been a member of the AAFPRS for 37 years. Learn more.