There’s still time to apply for the Science Forward: Towards Inclusive Excellence in Academia, a two-day symposium to increase diversity, expand inclusion and uphold equity in basic science research at New York State’s academic research institutions. The Science Forward symposium will be held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on March 20-21, 2023.

 

Over the course of one and a half days, we look forward to welcoming postdoctoral researchers and early-career faculty from groups underrepresented in the basic sciences (URiS) to engage, network and build community via scientific and professional development sessions. We are very excited to welcome Dr. Erich D. Jarvis, head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language at Rockefeller University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator as a keynote speaker on day one, and Dr. Hasina Outtz Reed, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College as a keynote speaker on day two. We are excited to host a wide array of professional development sessions and two engaging panels on Research Excellence and Funding Opportunities for prospective research projects. We also look forward to welcoming Dr. James L. Moore III, Assistant Director for the Directorate for Education and Human Resources at the National Science Foundation (NSF), Dr. Blanton Tolbert, Vice President of Science Leadership and Culture at HHMI and other distinguished panelists to join us to engage with you this March!

 

 

The post-COVID syndrome known as long COVID has four major subtypes defined by different clusters of symptoms, according to a study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. The study, published Dec. 1 in Nature Medicine, was the largest of its kind to examine long COVID. Learn more.

 

Adults experiencing long COVID may be interested in a new University at Buffalo clinical trial that is testing low-dose lithium as a potential treatment. The placebo-controlled trial is examining the effects of low-dose lithium therapy on long COVID symptoms. Learn more.

 

Scientists at Albany Medical College study many well-known diseases, including breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, hepatitis B, influenza, and heart disease. They also research very rare diseases. “It’s very motivating to know that the work you do could lead to new treatments for patients living with a cancer that very little is known about,” said John Lamar, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. Learn more.

 

Traditional heart surgery, which involves fully opening the chest and cutting through the breastbone, comes with a high risk of complications and a long recovery time. Newer minimally invasive procedures avoid a lot of that risk and can get people back on their feet quicker, but a new University of Rochester Medical Center study suggests that Black patients do not have the same level of access to these new, safer procedures as white patients. Learn more.

 

A new study that maps the characteristics of coronary artery disease (CAD) by leveraging machine learning and clinical data from electronic health records was led by Iain S. Forrest, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Do and an MD/PhD student in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Icahn Mount Sinai. The study is the first known research to map characteristics of CAD on a spectrum. Learn more.

 

Kick-starting the brain’s natural ability to adjust to new circumstances, known as neuroplasticity, improves how effectively a cochlear implant can restore hearing loss, a new study in deaf rats shows. Researchers say the investigation may help explain why some implant recipients respond so much better to treatment than others. Learn more.

 

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) accounts for 50,000 pediatric hospitalizations annually in the United States and remains the most common cause of morbidity and mortality among pediatric and adolescent patients. A nationwide survey conducted by a group of New York Medical College (NYMC) students and faculty and physicians at Westchester Medical Center (WMC), a major NYMC clinical affiliate, demonstrated those with poor socioeconomic status suffered worse outcomes, including increased mortality, more complicated courses of treatment and longer hospital stays. Learn more.

 

A new method can illuminate the identities and activities of cells throughout an organ or a tumor at unprecedented resolution, according to a study co-led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian and the New York Genome Center. The method, described Jan. 2 in a paper in Nature Biotechnology, records gene activity patterns and the presence of key proteins in cells across tissue samples, while retaining information about the cells’ precise locations. Learn more.

 

Arielle Sheftall, Ph.D. is determined to help young people navigate depression and anxiety by offering new treatments tailored to modern adolescents. She is using digital approaches that include a peer-to-peer support app and at-home nerve stimulation as methods of early intervention with high-risk teenagers. Her current research project will compare the efficacy of these two treatments, and is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Learn more.

 

Using the latest technologies—including both single-nuclear sequencing of mice and human liver tissue and advanced 3D glass imaging of mice to characterize key scar-producing liver cells—researchers have uncovered novel candidate drug targets for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The research was led by investigators at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Learn more.

 

In the annals of shoulder surgery, NFL quarterback Drew Brees is an anomaly. In 2005, Brees was tackled and the rotator cuff tendon in his throwing shoulder was severely torn, a potentially career-ending injury. But after surgery and rehab, Brees returned the next season, led his team to the playoffs, and went on to win the 2010 Super Bowl. Learn more.

 

Paying cash to people with obesity for losing a specific amount of weight or completing weight-reducing activities works better than offering stand-alone free tools, such as weight-loss programs, diet books, and wearable fitness trackers, a new study shows. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study tracked the weight-loss efforts for up to a year of 668 low-income, mostly Hispanic men and women whose average weight to start the trial was 218 pounds. Learn more.

 

A new study of tick behavior by the SUNY Center for Vector-Borne Diseases at Upstate Medical University shows that ticks infected with pathogens carrying Lyme disease prefer to bite humans in different areas than uninfected ticks. According to the paper, “Human attachment site preferences of ticks parasitizing in New York,” published in Nature.com’s Scientific Reports Journal, the location of tick attachment is of clinical importance because it can allow for ticks to be rapidly discovered and removed, curtailing their ability to transmit pathogens. Learn more.

 

Heather Snell, Ph.D., an associate in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, has been named one of six new Next Generation Leaders (NGL) by the Allen Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Seattle. The NGLs are members of a neuroscience advisory panel made up of early-career researchers who will help advise research efforts at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the MindScope Program, and the Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics. Learn more.

 

Cardiology researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System have received a five-year, $5.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore the underlying causes of heart failure among Hispanics/Latinos, who are at heightened risk for heart disease. Learn more.

 

Supriya Jain, M.D., clinical associate professor of pediatrics and of radiology and clinical education liaison, at New York Medical College, has been awarded a Broad Agency Agreement (BAA) of $1,997,031 over five years by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to support groundbreaking research on COVID vaccine-associated myocarditis using advanced cardiovascular imaging, including cardiac MRI (CMR). Dr. Jain will lead a collaborative research network of clinical investigators spanning more than 30 U.S. medical institutions. Learn more.

 

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, known as SLE or lupus, is a disease with an array of symptoms from rashes to fatigue and pain to organ damage, explained Akshay Patel, an MD/PhD student in the lab of Upstate’s Andras Perl, MD, PhD. It affects women far more than it does men, often in their childbearing years, he said. Singer and actress Selena Gomez was diagnosed a decade ago and increased public awareness of lupus when its effects required her to get a kidney transplant in 2017. Learn more.

 

A research team led by Yingtao “Jerry” Zhao, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical sciences at the College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM), has secured a three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The $428,400 grant will support research that could improve understanding of brain cell function and deliver new treatments for some of the most pressing neurological conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and autism spectrum disorder. Learn more.

 

Two faculty researchers from the College of Osteopathic Medicine’s (NYITCOM) Department of Anatomy have been awarded grants from the Leakey Foundation, a non-profit organization that exclusively funds research related to human origins. Assistant Professor of Anatomy Michael Granatosky, Ph.D., and Associate Professor of Anatomy Nathan Thompson, Ph.D., have each received grants to complete new studies that will explore early primate origins and human bipedalism (the ability to walk on two feet), respectively. Learn more.

 

A transformational gift from the Carol and Gene Ludwig Family Foundation will support the launch of a neurodegenerative disease research center at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. The foundation’s gift will establish The Carol and Gene Ludwig Center for Research on Neurodegeneration to support research on the underlying biological and genetic mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders and to discover innovative and more effective, targeted treatments for these diseases. Learn more.

 

Getting a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a career-crowning achievement for any medical researcher. This fall, within one week, it happened to two members of the Department of Pediatrics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, both of whom also happen to be Jacobs School alumnae. Learn more.