A patient living with HIV who received a blood stem cell transplant for high-risk acute myeloid leukemia has been free of the virus for 14 months after stopping HIV antiretroviral drug treatment, suggesting a cure, according to the Weill Cornell Medicine physician-scientists who performed the transplant and managed her care. As in two other successful cases that have been reported, the transplanted donor cells bore a mutation that makes them resistant to HIV infection. Learn more.

 

The University of Rochester Medical Center was recently funded to join a prestigious network of academic and clinical researchers, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Accelerating Medicines Partnership®: Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Diseases (AMP AIM) program. The program is a collaborative effort between the NIH, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, pharmaceutical companies, and nonprofit organizations to study the cellular and molecular interactions that lead to inflammation and autoimmune diseases. 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.

 

A new study by physicians at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons has identified unique features of MIS-C, a rare but potentially deadly complication of COVID in children, that suggest how the syndrome gets started. The findings may lead to faster diagnosis and better treatment of MIS-C (also known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children). Learn more.

 

Respiratory, cardiac, gastrointestinal, neuropsychiatric and other symptoms persisting for months after infection with COVID-19 have given rise to the term “long COVID.” A new study by New York Medical College and Westchester Medical Center Health System researchers has found persistent neuropsychiatric issues—diminished focus, forgetfulness, and difficulty making decisions and multitasking—still present in some patients months after recovering from acute COVID-19 infection. Learn more.

 

In early 2020—before most people asked, “What’s a coronavirus?”—infectious disease experts around the world knew something serious was brewing. “From the top down, everyone recognized what an urgent problem we were facing. From day one, it was priority No. 1,” says David Ho, MD, professor of medicine and microbiology & immunology and director of Columbia’s Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center. Learn more.

 

A team of researchers and doctors at Upstate Medical University, led by Leszek Kotula, MD/PhD, have published ground-breaking findings in breast cancer research. The translational study, titled “ABI1 based expression signature predicts breast cancer metastasis and survival” was published in the prestigious journal Molecular Oncology in December. Learn more.

 

A new study that monitors patients who received “on-pump” or “off-pump” coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) over a 10-year period reveals that outcomes between the two forms of heart bypass surgery are not much different. Led by Laurie Shroyer, PhD, Professor of Surgery in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, and Northport Veteran Affairs (VA) Medical Center WOC Health Science Officer, the findings are published early online in JAMA Surgery. Learn more.

 

In a large study of cognitively normal older adults, results from a simple memory test correlated closely with the early presence of toxic brain proteins that appear to cause Alzheimer’s disease. The test, developed by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, could potentially identify people in the very first stages of Alzheimer’s—before dementia is diagnosable—and help in selecting those especially likely to benefit from therapies. Learn more.

 

Mount Sinai researchers have learned from a study with mice that increased levels of a hormone produced by the pituitary gland that acts on brain cells could explain the disproportionate increase and severity of Alzheimer’s disease in post-menopausal women. In the study, published in Nature, the Mount Sinai team, in collaboration with researchers from Emory School of Medicine, reported that blocking the action of follicle-stimulating hormone on brain cells significantly reduced the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s disease in mice, laying the foundation for a new drug therapy that might also impact osteoporosis and obesity. Learn more.

 

Glioblastoma is the most common malignant primary brain tumor, with a median survival of just 15 months despite an aggressive treatment regimen. Using a new imaging technique, quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), to combat this highly aggressive and often fatal brain tumor has shown great promise for predicting patient outcomes in a new study, recently published in the Journal of Neuro-Oncology that was co-first authored by Samantha Guiry, School of Medicine Class of 2023. Learn more.

 

The use of probiotics during a child’s key growth period of between birth and 59 months has little effect on the promotion of growth in apparently healthy children from high income countries, such as the United States, according to researchers at Upstate Medical University. However, probiotics taken by apparently healthy children between the ages of zero and 59 months from low and middle income countries did have a small effect on growth. Learn more.

 

A Stony Brook University physician-scientist has identified that mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells, an unconventional form of immune cell, exercise several complex roles during healthy and disease states. The findings, published in the Journal of Immunology, the flagship journal of the American Association of Immunologists, may help to serve as a benchmark for future research on MAIT cells as targets for immunotherapies and vaccines. Learn more.

 

Children in Rochester were recently among the first in the nation to receive an experimental treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The study is part of an accelerating trend of clinical trials involving gene therapies that could transform how we treat a number of devastating childhood neurological disorders. Learn more.

 

People who develop colitis with the virulent bacterium C. difficile, usually after a course of antibiotics or chemotherapy, experience severe diarrhea, inflammation of the colon and abdominal pain. Each year, nearly half a million Americans suffer from it. About 1 in 6 will go on to experience a relapse and sometimes it continues to recur. C. difficile infections are responsible for approximately 20,000 deaths annually. Learn more.

 

After years of advocating for a standardized educational pathway for cardiologists interested in critical care, Robert O. Roswell, MD, FACC, associate dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and associate professor of Cardiology & Science Education, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, has been appointed to co-chair the American College of Cardiology’s new Critical Care Cardiology member section. Learn more.

 

Damian Shin, PhD, associate professor in the Departments of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics (DNET) and Neurology, has been appointed interim chair of DNET. An electrophysiologist, Dr. Shin came to Albany Med in 2009, after earning his PhD from the University of Toronto and completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Toronto Western Hospital in Toronto, Ontario. Learn more.

 

In a demonstration of research excellence and entrepreneurial vision, faculty at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have secured two of the five 2022 XSeed Awards, which provide $100,000 in funding for each winning team to advance promising basic science findings that have startup potential. The theme of this year’s competition was neurodegeneration, with proposals offering novel approaches to address key questions about the pathogenesis, progression, diagnosis, or treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Learn more.

 

A research team from the College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM), led by Biomedical Sciences Instructor Satoru Kobayashi, Ph.D., has secured a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The three-year $428,400 grant will support innovative research that may deliver life-saving treatments for diabetic heart failure. Learn more.

 

A research team from the College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM), led by Biomedical Sciences Instructor Satoru Kobayashi, Ph.D., has secured a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The three-year $428,400 grant will support innovative research that may deliver life-saving treatments for diabetic heart failure. Learn more.

 

The Fourth Clinical Climate Change Conference, held virtually on January 7, 2022, provided a path forward for the health care community to address the health effects of the climate crisis and improve patient care through state-of-the-science research and practical, evidence-based tools. This annual continuing medical education conference at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai was attended by more than 250 physicians, medical students, researchers, and allied community leaders from across the United States. Learn more.

 

CUNY Med professor, Dr. Victor Schwartz co-authored this article on how the media should safely report on suicide. Learn more.