Medicine & Health

Parkinson’s disease is caused by the injury or death of brain cells known as dopaminergic neurons. A new School of Medicine study shows that people who take drugs that suppress the immune system are less likely to develop the disease, which is characterized by difficulty with movement.

Most people with the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma die less than 18 months after diagnosis. But a multicenter clinical trial of a personalized vaccine that targets the aggressive cancer has indicated improved survival rates for such patients. The study appears May 29 in the Journal of Translational Medicine.

The School of Medicine’s Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, has received the 2018 Copley Medal from the Royal Society in Britain. He is being honored for his studies of human gut microbial communities, which have led to a fundamental shift in the way scientists understand the relationship between microbes, health and disease.

Two new studies of patients with difficult-to-control asthma show that the eczema drug dupilumab alleviates asthma symptoms and improves patients’ ability to breathe better than standard therapies. Researchers at the School of Medicine and colleagues elsewhere conducted the studies.

Researchers at the School of Medicine and colleagues at Northwestern University and elsewhere have uncovered new clues in early lung transplant failure.

Zebrafish embryos are transparent and develop outside the mother’s body, giving scientists a detailed view of early development. A research team led by Lila Solnica-Krezel, of the School of Medicine, is revealing new clues to how birth defects develop.

A new study from the School of Medicine shows that a kind of E. coli most associated with “travelers’ diarrhea” and children in underdeveloped areas of the world causes more severe disease in people with blood type A. The findings could lead to a vaccine that could potentially protect people with type A blood against the deadliest effects.

School of Medicine researchers have identified the molecular handle that the chikungunya virus grabs to get inside cells. The findings could lead to ways to prevent or treat disease caused by chikungunya and related viruses.

A $5 million grant will support research at the School of Medicine aimed at improving breast cancer therapies. The research focuses on HER2-positive breast cancer. Ron Bose, MD, PhD, and Cynthia X. Ma, MD, PhD, are leading the effort.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have discovered, in mice, why a touch can cause such severe itching and, in the process, identified some possible therapeutic targets.