School of Medicine

A narrow region on chromosome 15 contains genetic variations strongly associated with familial lung cancer, says a study conducted by scientists at the School of Medicine and other institutions. The researchers found a more than five times higher risk of lung cancer for people who have both a family history of the disease and these genetic variations. The risk was not affected by whether the study participants smoked or didn’t smoke.

Scientists at the School of Medicine, working as part of a large-scale federally funded research collaboration, have discovered new genetic mutations and molecular pathways underlying glioblastoma, the most common form of brain cancer and the most aggressive.

School of Medicine research found that silver-coated endotracheal tubes led to a 36 percent reduction of ventilator-associated pneumonia.

When School of Medicine scientists genetically tweaked a part of the brain in fruit flies, the flies were unimpaired even after being deprived of sleep.

Ultra-miniature particles could soon be carrying medicinal compounds through patients’ bloodstreams to tumors or atherosclerotic plaques.

Applications are due Oct. 10 for awards from the University’s American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant.

Alberto Friedmann hasn’t let a diagnosis of a degenerative joint disease stop him from doing anything he has wanted to do in life.

Researchers have found a potential new approach to treating endometrial cancer — a drug that was shown to be effective even against human endometrial cancer cell lines that tend to be treatment resistant. Scientists at the School of Medicine and the Translational Genomics Research Institute discovered that introducing a particular inhibitor drug can turn off cell receptors that are responsible for tumor growth.

For the first time, researchers have described hour-by-hour changes in the amount of amyloid beta, a protein that is believed to play a key role in Alzheimer’s disease, in the human brain. A team of scientists at the School of Medicine and the University of Milan report their results this week in Science.

The School of Medicine will receive about $9 million over five years to investigate new ways to diagnose and treat stroke. The new research center will become part of a national network of stroke centers.