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Penn Medicine's Gordon Baltuch performs 1,000th deep brain stimulation procedure

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) improves many of the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) and is a life-alerting surgery for many patients. Penn Medicine's Gordon Baltuch, MD, a professor of Neurosurgery and director of the Penn Center for Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery, is one of the most prolific DBS surgeons in the world, having recently performed his 1,000th procedure, marking an important milestone for Baltuch and Penn Medicine.

31 Oct 2015

UCSD researchers develop new computational strategy to find tumor-shrinking molecules

Patients with glioblastoma, a type of malignant brain tumor, usually survive fewer than 15 months following diagnosis. Since there are no effective treatments for the deadly disease, University of California, San Diego researchers developed a new computational strategy to search for molecules that could be developed into glioblastoma drugs. In mouse models of human glioblastoma, one molecule they found shrank the average tumor size by half.

31 Oct 2015

Miriam Hospital enrolling local participants for Parachute implant clinical trial to treat heart failure

The Miriam Hospital is actively recruiting local participants for a U.S. clinical trial of the Parachute device for treating heart failure. The study is focused on determining if the new minimally invasive catheter-based device can slow the progression of heart failure, reduce repeat hospitalizations and death, and significantly improve quality of life for patients who experience enlargement of the left ventricle after a heart attack.

31 Oct 2015

RNA profiles of tumor-educated platelets may diagnose cancer, identify potential therapeutic approaches

Analysis of tumor RNA carried in platelets - blood components best known for their role in clotting - may prove to be more useful than other "liquid biopsy" technologies for diagnosing cancer and determining its primary location and potential therapeutic approaches.

31 Oct 2015

Chronic pain sufferers may benefit from therapy to help them sleep better, study finds

Research conducted at the University of Warwick indicates that chronic pain sufferers could benefit from therapy to help them sleep better.

31 Oct 2015

Low-fat diets do not lead to greater weight loss in long term, shows meta-analysis research

Low-fat diets do not lead to greater weight loss in the long term compared to higher-fat diets of similar intensity, according to a large meta-analysis involving more than 68000 adults, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal.

31 Oct 2015

New online tool may allow researchers explore formation of hair follicles

A new online database will empower researchers exploring how hair follicles and the surrounding skin develop, according to an article published recently in the journal Developmental Cell. The work is central to understanding the interactions between stem cells and their environment - or "niche cells" - during fetal development, and will specifically facilitate future attempts to make skin grafts with functional hair follicles or to regenerate lost hair in patients.

30 Oct 2015

Study finds no major difference in hippocampal size between men and women

A research study at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science has debunked the widely-held belief that the hippocampus, a crucial part of the brain that consolidates new memories and helps connect emotions to the senses, is larger in females than in males.

30 Oct 2015

Ensemble models provide accurate real-time estimates of current and impending flu activity

By combining data from a variety of non-traditional sources, a research team led by computational epidemiologists at Boston Children's Hospital has developed predictive models of flu-like activity that provide robust real-time estimates (aka "now-casts") of flu activity and accurate forecasts of flu-like illness levels up to three weeks into the future.

30 Oct 2015

Scientists one step closer to developing new treatment for inflammatory bowel disease

For patients with inflammatory bowel disease, the possibility of taking a single pill to bring long-lasting relief might seem too good to be true. Scientists at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University are on the brink of making that happen, thanks to a recent proof-of-concept study, in which the severity of a form of inflammatory bowel disease in mice was dramatically reduced with one oral dose of a protein isolated from a bacterial biofilm.

30 Oct 2015

Penn Medicine study shows that married people fare better following heart surgery

Patients who are divorced, separated or widowed had an approximately 40 percent greater chance of dying or developing a new functional disability in the first two years following cardiac surgery than their married peers, according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania published in this week's JAMA Surgery.

29 Oct 2015

New research shows that autophagy can operate in cell nucleus to guard against start of cancer

Autophagy, literally self-eating or the degradation of unwanted cellular bits and pieces by the cell itself, has been shown for the first time to also work in the cell nucleus. In addition, in this setting it plays a role in guarding against the start of cancer, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

29 Oct 2015

Scientists call for coordinated effort to drive cutting edge microbiome research

A consortium of 48 scientists from 50 institutions in the United States - including Pamela Silver, Ph.D., a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University - are calling for a Unified Microbiome Initiative that would span national cross-institutional and cross-governmental agency support.

29 Oct 2015

Rutgers Cancer Institute scientist leads phase III trial of FDA-approved viral melanoma therapy

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a viral melanoma therapy that was the focus of a phase III clinical trial led by Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey Associate Director for Clinical Science and Chief Surgical Officer Howard L. Kaufman, MD, FACS.

29 Oct 2015

Many nonprofit hospitals have room to improve charity care and emergency care policies

If you don't have health insurance, or your insurance coverage still leaves you with big bills, hospitals are supposed to let you know if you qualify for free or reduced-price care, and to charge you fairly even if you don't.

29 Oct 2015

Mount Sinai researchers provide a glimpse of precision medicine in action

A new publication from scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai offers a glimpse of precision medicine in action, with a massive data analysis project that identified clinically and genetically distinct subtypes of patients with type 2 diabetes. This work not only points to the possibility for more tailored diagnosis and treatment of type 2 diabetes in the future, but also reveals a novel approach that can be applied to virtually any disease.

29 Oct 2015

Study suggests potential new way to block cancer-causing gene

A new study suggests a potential new way to block one of the most common cancer-causing genes, without causing severe side effects.

28 Oct 2015

New method to grow 3D pancreatic cancer organoid may help test drug responses and personalized treatments

The development of a new method to grow three-dimensional organoid cultures of pancreatic tumors directly from patients' surgical tissue offers a promising opportunity for testing targeted therapies and drug responses and personalizing treatments in a rapid, cost-effective manner.

28 Oct 2015

Wyss Institute, UMass team up to develop drug-device combination for treating blood clots in stroke patients

Scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University developing novel nanotherapeutics for clearing obstructed blood vessels have teamed up with researchers at University of Massachusetts' New England Center for Stroke Research (NECSTR) to develop a new, highly effective drug-device combination for treating life-threatening blood clots in patients with stroke.

28 Oct 2015

Praziquantel treatment safe for pregnant women after first trimester

A study by Rhode Island Hospital researchers confirmed that a drug used to treat a disease afflicting millions of people in developing countries is safe to give pregnant women following their first trimester. The finding could prove critical to the care of pregnant women and lactating women with schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic worm, who were denied the drug out of concern for their health and the health of their fetuses.

28 Oct 2015

Medical School News and Research

Penn Medicine's Gordon Baltuch performs 1,000th deep brain stimulation procedure

UCSD researchers develop new computational strategy to find tumor-shrinking molecules

Miriam Hospital enrolling local participants for Parachute implant clinical trial to treat heart failure

RNA profiles of tumor-educated platelets may diagnose cancer, identify potential therapeutic approaches

Chronic pain sufferers may benefit from therapy to help them sleep better, study finds

Low-fat diets do not lead to greater weight loss in long term, shows meta-analysis research

New online tool may allow researchers explore formation of hair follicles

Study finds no major difference in hippocampal size between men and women

Ensemble models provide accurate real-time estimates of current and impending flu activity

Scientists one step closer to developing new treatment for inflammatory bowel disease

Penn Medicine study shows that married people fare better following heart surgery

New research shows that autophagy can operate in cell nucleus to guard against start of cancer

Scientists call for coordinated effort to drive cutting edge microbiome research

Rutgers Cancer Institute scientist leads phase III trial of FDA-approved viral melanoma therapy

Many nonprofit hospitals have room to improve charity care and emergency care policies

Mount Sinai researchers provide a glimpse of precision medicine in action

Study suggests potential new way to block cancer-causing gene

New method to grow 3D pancreatic cancer organoid may help test drug responses and personalized treatments

Wyss Institute, UMass team up to develop drug-device combination for treating blood clots in stroke patients

Praziquantel treatment safe for pregnant women after first trimester

Improving healthcare sustainability through carbon data

A New Approach to Preventing Bladder Cancer Recurrence

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

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