Crain’s New York Business reports: The state’s decision last year to halt funding for stem cell research has forced local scientists to hit pause on work that could spur new treatments for cardiovascular disease, sickle cell anemia and much more. As state lawmakers negotiate the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, researchers are calling for them to reinstate the program. Learn more.

 

Prisons and jails have been fertile ground for COVID-19 outbreaks, leading to millions of cases in the United States. Individuals released from these facilities often transition to other congregate settings, such as homeless shelters and group homes, where COVID-19 infections can continue to spread. Now, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System have been awarded a five-year, $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to test a program aimed at reducing SARS- CoV-2 transmission among people recently released from incarceration. Learn more.

 

Researchers have discovered a mechanism that may explain why people with COVID-19 lose their sense of smell. Published online February 1 in the journal Cell, the new study finds that infection with the pandemic virus, SARS-CoV-2, indirectly dials down the action of olfactory receptors, proteins on the surfaces of nerve cells in the nose that detect the molecules associated with odors. Learn more.

 

An FDA-approved drug that has been in clinical use for more than 70 years may protect against lung injury and the risk of blood clots in severe COVID-19 and other disorders that cause immune-mediated damage to the lungs, according to a preclinical study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Learn more.

 

COVID-19 can cause acute cardiac injury (ACI), which increases the risk for serious illness and death during and after hospitalization. But it’s unclear how often ACI affects COVID-19 patients nor whether cardiac injury persists. Learn more.

 

In a study published in the journal Gastroenterology, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai describe a troubling increase in early-onset colorectal cancer and precancerous polyps, based on a large, nationally representative study of patients under age 50 who underwent colonoscopy. It was the first large-scale study to look at precancerous polyps in this age group. Learn more.

 

Even for cancer researchers, it can be difficult to look at experimental data and images and understand what’s going on. So, at Columbia, some researchers are donning virtual reality (VR) headsets to get a more immersive view. Learn more.

 

New research turns the old idiom about not being able to walk and chew gum on its head. Scientists with the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester have shown that the healthy brain is able to multitask while walking without sacrificing how either activity is accomplished. Learn more.

 

Few things are more frightening for a parent than seeing their child experience a seizure. For the parent and for the paramedics who arrive on the scene, the primary goal is to stop the child’s seizure. Now, University at Buffalo researchers are leading a project designed to determine how to achieve that more quickly, even when on the way to the hospital. Learn more.

 

Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that greater increases, decreases, or variability in body mass index (BMI) over time are associated with an accelerated rate of cognitive decline, irrespective of whether a person was originally normal weight, overweight, or obese. Learn more.

 

An experimental drug first tried at Columbia University Irving Medical Center as a last-ditch effort to help a 25-year-old woman with juvenile ALS is now being tested in ALS patients in a global, phase 3 clinical trial, based on promising results from a new study(link is external and opens in a new window) at Columbia. Learn more.

 

A paper published this week in Immunity, a leading research journal highlighting discoveries in immunology by Cell Press, lays the groundwork to better understand and treat Crohn’s disease, a type of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Beneficial interactions among intestinal cell types limit the harmful effects of a dysregulated gut microbiota, which is comprised of trillions of bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms. Learn more.

 

A growth factor protein produced by rare immune cells in the intestine can protect against the effects of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to a new discovery from Weill Cornell Medicine researchers. In their study, published Jan. 31 in Nature Immunology, the researchers found that the growth factor, HB-EGF, is produced in response to gut inflammation by a set of immune-regulating cells called ILC3s. Learn more.

 

A joint study conducted by researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of California, Los Angeles is revealing for the first time that behavioral self-management of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a painful and common gastrointestinal disorder, can fundamentally change the gut microbiome. Learn more.

 

Chioma M. Okeoma, Ph.D., has been named vice chair of research in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, bringing years of experience as an award-winning interdisciplinary scientist to NYMC’s research program. Dr. Okeoma has extensive experience leading prominent research projects, as she has played a lead role in defining the role of BST-2 in breast cancer and has been published extensively in national and international journals. Learn more.

 

In-hospital mortality rates dropped by 33 percent at a hospital serving one of the highest Medicaid populations in the country after its 2016 merger with NYU Langone Health, showcasing how properly managed mergers can improve quality of care, a new study finds. Learn more.

 

The enthusiasm for student research at New York Medical College (NYMC) was clearly on display during the 26th Annual Medical Student Research Forum (MSRF) on February 3, with 105 abstracts–a record number–submitted by School of Medicine (SOM) students. Rather than filling the hallways of the Medical Education Center with their presentations, students presented their wide-ranging research projects virtually, but the quality of the research projects and the importance of the topics studied continued to shine through. Learn more.