ScienceCache
Vol. 164
March 25, 2004
EXPLORING NEW PATHS TO COMBAT HEART DISEASE
Medical center researchers are studying the genes in damaged heart tissue
that switch on and off when, sometimes inexplicably, a bad heart begins
to heal itself. This path might lead to treatments that could induce
the repair, or to a simple blood test that would give a more informed
diagnosis. It’s a new approach in cardiology, where scientists
are still trying to solve the underlying causes of the nation’s
No. 1 killer, according to Burns C. Blaxall, who recently joined the
faculty from Duke University. Blaxall’s research has a direct link
to better patient care at the Strong Health Program in Heart Failure
and Transplantation, the only program in upstate New York to perform
cardiac transplants. “Rochester is unique because most transplant
centers do not also have top-rate scientists to study failing hearts,” says
Mark B. Taubman, chief of Strong’s Cardiology Unit and director
of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Cardiology. “While technology
and treatments are always improving, we believe basic science will ultimately
answer the big questions that may lead to a dramatic improvement in the
way we treat heart failure.” Already, University cardiologists
and scientists have made great strides in understanding cholesterol and
plaque buildup, inflammation, blood vessel damage, the development of
atherosclerosis, and the risks associated with arrhythmias and sudden
death due to other electrical malfunctions. Blaxall’s laboratory
is also investigating mouse genes that play a key role in heart function
to see if they correspond with the same human genes, and the different
gene expressions that occur in different types of heart failure.
Full story
ROCHESTER TESTS BIRD-FLU VACCINE IN HUMANS
Doctors are beginning one of the first tests in the United States of
a vaccine designed to protect people against one form of bird flu should
an outbreak of the virus occur in humans. While the vaccine under study
is not designed to protect against the precise bird-flu virus causing
the current outbreak in poultry and in people, scientists will learn
whether it protects against another strain of the virus that infects
birds and people. With funding from the National Institutes of Health,
physicians at the University of Rochester and Baylor College of Medicine
have embarked on an eight-month study to test an investigational vaccine
in about 200 people. While only about two dozen people worldwide have
died in recent months after becoming infected from a strain of flu known
as H5N1 that is normally found in birds, bird flu is seen as a potent
threat to human health because of its potential to rip quickly through
a human population. A typical flu virus that normally circulates in humans
causes tens of thousands of deaths each year, even though most people
have some immunity against this “normal” flu. But avian flu
is feared by doctors because hardly anyone carries any defenses. “People
generally haven’t been exposed to bird flu viruses and so they
have no immunity. A bird flu virus that acquired the ability to thrive
in people could cause a severe epidemic,” says John Treanor, professor
of medicine, who is leading Rochester’s portion of the study.
Full story
GENETICS DAY TO HIGHLIGHT LATEST RESEARCH
Researchers from around the University will gather next month to share
the latest findings in the broad field of genetics. The annual University
Day in Genetics will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, April 23,
in Flaum Atrium of the Arthur Kornberg Medical Research Building. Poster
sessions in the morning and afternoon will bracket a keynote lecture
by Cynthia Kenyon, a developmental biologist and researcher on aging
from the University of California at San Francisco, at noon in the Class
of ’62 Auditorium. Kenyon, a newly elected member of the National
Academy of Sciences, will present the second annual Fred Sherman Lecture
on Genetics and will discuss “Genes and cells that regulate the
aging of C. elegans.” Recently Kenyon has used the nematode C.
elegans, a type of worm that is a close cousin to the roundworm, to identify
a number of crucial genes that regulate the aging process. Her research
has led to important insights into how migrating cells navigate through
an organism, enabling it to develop properly. To register to present
a poster, contact Lynn Stull at 275-8836 or bstull@mail.rochester.edu.
Full story
|
