A study that assessed the brains of 99 World Trade Center (WTC) responders by using diffusion tractography, a 3-D imaging technique, showed that WTC responders with cognitive impairment (CI), a possible sign of dementia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have a different presentation of the white matter in their brains compared to responders with CI without PTSD. Led by researchers at Stony Brook University affiliated with the Stony Brook WTC Health and Wellness Program, the study suggests a specific form of dementia could be affecting WTC responders who also have PTSD. Learn more.

 

As the first responders to the attacks of September 11, 2001, grow older, Mount Sinai’s nationally lauded experts in aging have received a $2.4 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study how best to care for them into old age. Learn more.

 

A team of Mount Sinai researchers has produced a high-resolution crystal structure of an enzyme essential to the survival of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The discovery could lead to the design of critically needed new antivirals to combat current and future coronaviruses. Learn more.

 

A new study led by Columbia researchers has uncovered 60 genes linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that may provide important clues to the causes of autism across the full spectrum of the disorder. “Overall, the genes we found may represent a different class of genes that are more directly associated with the core symptoms of ASD than previously discovered genes,” says Wendy Chung, MD, PhD, the Kennedy Family Professor of Pediatrics and chief of clinical genetics in the Department of Pediatrics at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Learn more.

 

Researchers at the University at Buffalo and their collaborators have developed powerful new ways to study and potentially reverse the cellular mechanisms that cause mitochondrial diseases and premature aging. Mitochondria provide the lion’s share of energy that cells need to function normally, so genetic defects in mitochondria can cause severe diseases that can be devastating if not caught and treated early. Learn more.

 

Stephen V. Faraone, PhD, Distinguished Professor at Upstate Medical University, has been named to a special committee that will examine and ultimately recommend guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in adults. Faraone’s selection to the Steering Committee of the Guidelines Committee was announced by the American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders (APSARD). Learn more.

 

Of all the heartbreaking events of my father’s long, slow demise from Alzheimer’s disease, the most devastating was when he turned to my mother and said, in a rare moment of clarity, “I can’t do this anymore.” My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s—the most common type of dementia, accounting for 60% to 80% of cases—in the late 1990s. Learn more.

 

A new study shows that a device that passively monitors breathing during sleep can not only detect Parkinson’s, but also track the progression of the disease over time. The researchers used an artificial intelligence tool to sift through mountains of data from study participants to find patterns that identify the disease and determine severity. Learn more.

 

Coma is a medical and socioeconomic emergency but how common coma occurs after acute brain injury was previously unknown. In a new study published in Brain Communications, Stephan A. Mayer, M.D., professor of neurology and neurosurgery at New York Medical College (NYMC) and director of neurocritical care and emergency neurology services at Westchester Medical Center, along with researchers from the Curing Coma Campaign®, have now managed to calculate the very first epidemiological estimates of the frequency of coma. Learn more.

 

Huntington’s disease – a hereditary and fatal genetic disorder – has long been considered a neuronal disease due to the permanent loss of medium spiny motor neurons, the death of which over time is responsible for the clinical hallmarks of the disease: involuntary movements, problems with coordination, cognitive decline, depression, and psychosis. However, a growing body of research, including a new study appearing in the journal Cell Reports, suggests that the disease may also flow from defects in glia, important support cells found in the brain. Learn more.

 

The opioid overdose and death epidemic continues to worsen across the United States, but medications such as methadone, buprenorphine, and extended-release naltrexone are proven to reduce opioid overdoses by more than 50 percent. New findings led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine indicate the vast majority, or 86.6 percent, of people living with opioid use disorder (OUD) are not receiving these evidence-based, lifesaving medications. Learn more.

 

Karna Sura, MD, and a team of researchers from Upstate Medical University recently published a study looking at cancer patients’ experience with medical marijuana and found that almost half the patients who qualified for it never obtained any. The study, “Experience with Medical Marijuana for Cancer Patients in the Palliative Setting,” is published in in the June 2022 edition of in The Cureus Journal of Medical Science. Learn more.

 

Two doses of psilocybin, a compound found in psychedelic mushrooms, reduces heavy drinking by 83 percent on average among heavy drinkers when combined with psychotherapy, a new study shows. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the investigation involved 93 men and women with alcohol dependence. Learn more.

 

Columbia researchers have found a link between a common back ailment and a type of heart failure, suggesting that screening patients with lumbar spinal stenosis could identify those at risk of the heart disease and prevent premature deaths. Once considered rare, the heart disease, called transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, is now thought to be a more common but underdiagnosed cause of heart failure. Learn more.

 

Jason Mouzakes, MD, ’95, has been named the inaugural chair of the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at Albany Medical Center. Dr. Mouzakes has been serving as the interim chair of the department since September 2021, when the Otolaryngology program was elevated to department status. Learn more.

 

Steven E. Lipshultz, A. Conger Goodyear Professor and Chair of Pediatrics, is launching the first international pediatric cardio-oncology conference this fall. Scheduled for Oct. 21-22 in Cincinnati, the conference is expected to attract 300 to 500 global health professionals to discuss the latest developments in the rapidly emerging subspecialty of pediatric cardio-oncology. Learn more.

 

Weill Cornell Medicine has been awarded a five-year, $5 million grant from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health to establish a new multi-institutional center for tuberculosis (TB) research and training the next generation of TB investigators. Learn more.

 

Weill Cornell Medicine has been awarded a $1 million, three-year grant from the Department of Defense’s Kidney Cancer Research Program to fund research on the role of the protein ATF4 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), a form of kidney cancer. Learn more.

 

According to a 2021 Gallup survey, 7.1% of Americans identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Many of them face discrimination that imperils their health and curtails their access to healthcare. Consider these findings from a nationally representative survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning and/or queer (LGBTQ) people conducted in 2020 by the Center for American Progress. Learn more.

 

Dr. Victoria Frye, Medical Professor in the Department of Community Health and Social Medicine at the CUNY School of Medicine (CUNY SoM), is completing the final year of a three-year research project (#1R34DA049664) funded by a $727,874 grant from the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA). The project is entitled Peer-based HIV Self-Testing among High-Risk Women Who Inject Drugs in Kazakhstan Central Asia. Learn more.