Mount Sinai Researchers Develop a First-in-Class Humanized Antibody Targeting Bone and Fat

Blocking the Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH) whose levels rise at menopause could solve bone loss and weight gain Senior Author: Mone Zaidi, MD, PhD, MACP, Director of the Mount Sinai Bone Program and Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease) at…

Cancer treatment without side effects?

Irvine, Calif., Oct. 27, 2020 – Treating cancer without debilitating side effects has long been the holy grail of oncologists, and researchers at the University of California, Irvine and Switzerland’s Lausanne University Hospital may have found it. Charles Limoli, professor of radiation oncology at UCI, and Marie-Catherine Vozenin, associate professor of radiation oncology at the Swiss facility, used an ultra-high dose rate of radiation therapy to eliminate brain tumors in mice, bypassing key side effects usually caused by cranial irradiation.

UNLV Physician: Why COVID-19 Makes Flu Shots More Important Than Ever

As the race for a COVID-19 vaccine intensifies, health care officials are reminding the public not to forget another important vaccine this fall: the flu shot. Flu season in the U.S. technically began in September, with illnesses expected to peak in December and February, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Less than half of Americans received a flu vaccine during the 2019-2020 flu season, and a staggering 405,000 hospitalizations and 22,000 deaths were attributed to influenza.

Diagnosing Parkinson’s disease with skin samples could lead to earlier detection

New research shows a simple skin test can accurately identify Parkinson’s disease, which could lead to earlier detection of the disease and better outcomes for patients. Currently, Parkinson’s disease is diagnosed by clinical signs and symptoms but only definitively diagnosed at autopsy. The researchers conducted a blinded study of 50 skin samples using an assay originally designed to detect mad cow disease.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Awards and Appointments

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) announces its most recent awards and appointments for the institution’s physicians, scientists, nurses, and staff.

Ultrasound Technique Offers More Precise, Quantified Assessments of Lung Health

Researchers have developed a technique that uses ultrasound to provide non-invasive assessments of pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary edema. The technique has been shown to both quantify lung scarring and detect lung fluid in rats. A study on pulmonary edema in humans is under way.

Jennifer Doudna Wins 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Biochemist Jennifer Doudna, a professor at UC Berkeley and faculty scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), is co-winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “the development of a method for genome editing.”

Chicago Center for HIV Elimination awarded $5 million for community COVID-19 testing and prevention

The Chicago Center for HIV Elimination, housed at the University of Chicago, has been awarded $5 million over two years through the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) RADx Underserved Populations program to support a COVID-19 testing project to engage two disenfranchised populations.

Cellular processes and social behaviors and… zombies?

The Zombie Apocalypse Medicine Meeting will happen online October 15-18, 2020. The meeting spans the sciences, the arts and the scary while bringing scientists, artists and journalists together with the general public. This year’s meeting has been reanimated into a livestream broadcast on Channel Zed. Registrants will have access to programming on topics like how birth control, race relations, the pandemic, sex, literature and social media can all be thought of as zombification processes.

Rutgers Expert Available to Discuss Communicating About COVID-19 Vaccine

New Brunswick, N.J. (Sept. 17, 2020) – Rutgers University–New Brunswick Professor William Hallman is available for interviews on how to communicate with the public about a potential COVID-19 vaccine. “For a COVID-19 vaccine to be embraced by the public, officials can’t…

Mail delays may affect medication supply for nearly 1 in 4 Americans over 50

The timeliness of mail delivery may affect access to medication for many middle-aged and older adults, according to a new analysis of data from a national poll of people aged 50 to 80.
Nearly one in four people in this age group said they receive at least one medication by mail, but that percentage rises to 29% when the poll results are limited to people who take at least one prescription medication.

Vaccine to prevent tuberculosis may help limit spread of COVID-19, Missouri S&T researchers say

A vaccine developed about a century ago to prevent tuberculosis may also help prevent the transmission of COVID-19, according to two Missouri S&T researchers who examined the spread of COVID-19 among countries that require the vaccine and those that do not.The Missouri S&T researchers analyzed COVID-19-related death and incidence rates among nations that require the BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccine.

UCLA Fielding School of Public Health expert available for comment on White House plans for an executive order directing the federal government to buy certain drugs solely from American factories.

William S. Comanor is Professor of Health Policy and Management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and director of the Research Program on Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy and also organizes a Seminar by the same name. From 1991…

Epigenetic Changes in ADNP Syndrome, a Cause of Autism, Do Not Indicate Profound Presentation of the Disorder

A study led by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai found that two different blood epigenetic signatures associated with ADNP syndrome (also known as Helsmoortel-Van Der Aa syndrome) have only a modest correlation with clinical manifestations of the syndrome.

Mount Sinai Researchers Discover Treatment Option for Rare Genetic Disorder

Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine used a novel genetic sequencing technology to identify the genetic cause of—and a treatment for—a previously unknown severe auto inflammatory syndrome affecting an 18-year-old girl since infancy.

The Mount Sinai Hospital Ranked Among Top in the Nation by U.S. News & World Report; Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Claims No. 1 Spot in Specialty Rankings

The Mount Sinai Hospital, the flagship hospital of Mount Sinai Health System, was listed among the nation’s top hospitals for care excellence in U.S. News and World Report, marking the fifth straight year the hospital has been listed among the top 20 in the country while landing on the distinctive “Honor Roll” list.

Doctors urge hospitals to become ‘artificial intelligence ready’

Disorganized efforts to implement artificial intelligence in hospitals could undermine the technology’s vast potential to benefit patients, the group warns.

SARS-CoV-2 is More Severe in Men, Emerging Data Suggests in New Review by Mount Sinai Researchers

Senior Author:  Ash Tewari, MBBS, MCh, Chair of the Department of Urology at the Mount Sinai Health System, Professor, Urology, Oncological Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai First Author: Dimple Chakravarty, PhD, Assistant Professor, Urology, Icahn School of Medicine…

Nurses’ Use of Physician Term Anesthesiologist Misleading to Patients

The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) yesterday urged the New Hampshire Supreme Court to uphold the New Hampshire Medical Board’s decision that health care professionals using the term “anesthesiologist” must be licensed physicians and meet all the requirements to practice medicine in the state, according to an amicus curiae brief filed on behalf of ASA and the American Medical Association (AMA).

New book examines human right to health, pushes for rating system for pharmaceutical companies

Every human being has the right to health and new initiatives should be put in place to encourage pharmaceutical companies to ensure that everyone has access to essential medicine, according to a new book from Nicole Hassoun, professor of philosophy at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

MIPT geneticist Pavel Volchkov shares his thoughts on using genetic mechanisms to oppose diseases, and talks about his vision of science communication.

Progress can be safely considered synonymous with science. We have seen a tangible improvement over the last hundred years. But who are the people behind such a mysterious sphere as science? What is its future focus? And why are academic partnerships so important now?
Explains MIPT geneticist Pavel Volchkov

Women Underrepresented in Academic Hospital Medicine Leadership Roles, Study Finds

In recent years, the number of women who entered U.S. medical school surpassed the number of men. But gender inequities still exist in many areas of medicine. Of academic hospital medicine programs, 79% are run by men, Johns Hopkins researchers report in a new paper published March 3 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, and male hospitalist leaders are more likely to have attained the rank of full professor than women leaders.

FAU Resident Physicians Create a Critical Pipeline for South Florida’s Healthcare Workforce

With the Association of American Medical Colleges estimating a shortage of up to nearly 122,000 physicians in the U.S. by 2032, and demand for physicians growing faster than supply, FAU’s resident physicians are creating a critical pipeline for South Florida’s healthcare workforce.

Mount Sinai seeks EUA from Food and Drug Administration for potential quantitative serologic test for COVID-19

If authorized for quantitative use, the assay could be used to provide a numeric result for the concentration of neutralizing anti-COVID-19 antibodies in plasma.

Caution urged for reopening schools to prevent spread of COVID-19 crisis

Irvine, Calif., June 15, 2020 — With fast-approaching preparations required for a new school year with no consensus plan yet in place, a team of clinicians, scientists and educators – including a University of California, Irvine pediatrician – stress the need for caution when re-opening America’s schools and advocate for large-scale viral testing in children, contract tracing and other actions to avoid compounding the COVID-19 crisis.

“Prescribing Art” course teaches med students to recognize bias and better address racial disparities

Can art help doctors better understand their patients and address racial disparities? An innovative collaboration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham uses art to help medical students hone their observational skills, in order to make more accurate diagnoses. “Prescribing Art: How Observation Enhances Medicine” is a partnership between the School of Medicine, the Abroms-Engel Institute for Visual Arts and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Scientists Aim Gene-Targeting Breakthrough Against COVID-19

Scientists at Berkeley Lab and Stanford have joined forces to aim a gene-targeting, antiviral agent called PAC-MAN against COVID-19.

Mount Sinai Health System and Renalytix Form Joint Venture, Kantaro Biosciences, To Develop and Scale Production of COVID Antibody Test Kits

– Kantaro Biosciences partners with Bio-Techne for manufacturing and global kit distribution
– Scaled kit production to enable clinical laboratories to conduct 10M tests per month is planned to begin in July

Insulin Resistance Contributes to Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer Prognosis in U.S. Women, Mount Sinai Researchers Reveal

New study identifies that differences in insulin resistance can explain in part the disparities in breast cancer survival between black and white women

Tu Foundation gives $2.5 million to UCI to support COVID-19 patient care, research

Irvine, Calif., May 11, 2020 — A $2.5 million gift from the John and Mary Tu Foundation to the University of California, Irvine is supporting COVID-19-associated patient care at UCI Health and advance clinical and translational research across campus focused on new ways to test for and treat the viral infection. As the region’s only combined academic health system and public research university, UCI is at the forefront in galvanizing an active response to the pandemic.

FDA Approves First At-Home Saliva Collection Test for Coronavirus

Rutgers’ RUCDR Infinite Biologics received an amended emergency use authorization from the FDA late Thursday for the first SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus test that will allow people to collect their own saliva at home and send to a lab for results. The decision follows the FDA’s recent emergency approval to RUCDR Infinite Biologics for the first saliva-based test, which involves health care workers collecting saliva from individuals at testing sites.

Research and innovation as an essential function amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Necessity being the mother of invention, Houston Methodist clinicians, researchers and staff have collaborated on a number of clinical device and research innovations in response to COVID-19. Houston Methodist Academic Institute leadership has continually emphasized translational research in new technologies.

Study describes cocktail of pharmaceuticals in waters in Bangladesh

An analysis revealed that water samples held a cocktail of pharmaceuticals and other compounds, including antibiotics, antifungals, anticonvulsants, anesthetics, antihypertensive drugs, pesticides, flame retardants and more. Not all chemicals were found at every test site.

COVID-19 Concerns? FAU Medicine Now Offers Telehealth

FAU Medicine, a primary care practice in Boca Raton is now offering “virtual visits” (telehealth) with its physicians. These virtual visits can be related to preventive care, check-ups, follow-ups or acute illnesses, including supporting patients who are concerned about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

New Rutgers Saliva Test for Coronavirus Gets FDA Approval

The FDA has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to Rutgers’ RUCDR Infinite Biologics and its collaborators for a new collection approach that utilizes saliva as the primary test biomaterial for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the first such approval granted by the federal agency. The new saliva collection method, which RUCDR developed in partnership with Spectrum Solutions and Accurate Diagnostic Labs (ADL), will allow for broader population screening than the current method of nose and throat swabs.