School of Medicine

Babies who get severe respiratory viral infections are much more likely to suffer from asthma as they get older. Now School of Medicine researchers have pinpointed a key step in the development of asthma in mice after a severe respiratory infection. They suggest that medications designed to interfere with this mechanism could potentially prevent many […]

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Age-related macular degeneration (week of Nov. 7) • An eye on curing diabetes (week of Nov. 14) • Obesity and heart disease in kids (week of Nov. 21) • Depression and diabetes (week of Nov. 28)

The cowpox virus, a much milder cousin of the deadly smallpox virus, can keep infected host cells from warning the immune system that they have been compromised, researchers at the School of Medicine have found. The scientists also showed that more virulent poxviruses, such as the strains of monkeypox prevalent in Central Africa, likely have the same ability.

Subtle markers in obese children’s hearts can help physicians predict who could be at risk for heart disease and heart attacks.

New School of Medicine research provides an unprecedented view of the abnormal genetic landscape in lung cancer cells from patients with lung cancer.

Medications designed to interfere with this mechanism could prevent many cases of childhood asthma, School of Medicine researchers have found.

Injection of a West Nile virus antibody created by the University and Macrogenics Inc. blocked a complication of West Nile virus in laboratory animals.

A gene linked to pediatric brain tumors is an essential driver of early brain development, researchers at the School of Medicine have found. The study, published in October in Cell Stem Cell, reveals that the neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) gene helps push stem cells down separate paths that lead them to become two major types of brain cells: support cells known as astrocytes and brain neurons.

The anthropological works of Glenn Conroy, Ph.D., professor of anatomy and neurobiology and of anthropology, are on display through January 2008 in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center.

Researchers at the School of Medicine are seeking volunteers with Parkinson’s disease for two studies. One is investigating the effects of antidepressant drugs on depression and motor function. The second study is assessing the safety and effectiveness of a drug for Parkinson’s patients who also have psychotic symptoms. In the NIH-funded depression study, investigators are evaluating paroxetine (Paxil) and venlafaxine XR (Effexor) for their success in alleviating depression and for their potential effect on motor function in Parkinson’s patients.