Vaccines have been in the news a lot this week because Wednesday was exclusion day in Oregon schools. (The first day unvaccinated students aren’t allowed to attend school without records explaining the decision.) OHSU Oregon National Primate Research Center researcher Mark Slifka, Ph.D., has appeared in several stories to talk about vaccines and the role they play. Here he is on KGW this week. Dr. Slifka will talk further … Read More
KATU came up to OHSU this week to do an interesting story on flu “hot spots” in the Portland region. KATU defined our hot spots as the areas of town with higher kid populations as the flu tends to spread amongst children more significantly that it does with adults. Here’s a link to that story. Interesting topic. However, flu experts would push back a bit on one point made in the story. The reporter says … Read More
The phrase “Humanized Mice,” may sound strange. However, this OHSU-based discovery is in the process of saving lives. The latest use of this technology is to aid in combatting malaria. Here are a few of the details from an OHSU press release. A novel human liver-chimeric mouse model developed at Oregon Health & Science University and Yecuris Corporation has made possible a research breakthrough at Seattle Biomedical Research Institute that will greatly accelerate studies of … Read More
Some exciting news today from OHSU’s Oregon National Primate Research Center. OHSU Scientist Dr. Mark Slifka published a paper that may change and improve the way vaccines are made. An excerpt from our OHSU press release explains the breakthrough: “Most vaccines have an outstanding safety record,” explained Slifka. “It is important to keep in mind that no medical achievement has saved more lives than the simple act of vaccination. However, for many diseases, we have … Read More
Some encouraging news this week in the hunt for an AIDS Vaccine in the Wall Street Journal: Here’s a link to the story which includes comments from OHSU’s Dr. Louis Picker (referring to an earlier study): “It confirms what was seen in the Thai trial was real” said Louis Picker, associate director of the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute at Oregon Health Science University who reviewed the study led by Dr Barouch but … Read More
Unless you live in a cave and I know you don’t…you have probably heard that today is World AIDS Day. OHSU has had some significant successes as of late in developing an AIDS vaccine (see here and here) …but what does that mean for patients? I spoke with OHSU AIDS researcher and primate center director Dr. Nancy Haigwood about the chance of an AIDS vaccine in the next decade or so. Here’s what she had … Read More
Health research tends to look to the future. But every once and a while, we also need to look in the rearview mirror We just spotted this article about a major success story. In a sentence: Chickenpox deaths may be a thing of the past thanks to previous vaccination efforts. A full copy of the study has been made available to the public and it can be read here. Unless you have been on a … Read More
As the AIDS epidemic turns 30 this month, a lot of news outlets are looking to both the past and the future in the long, complex battle to develop a vaccine. One recent story focused on ongoing efforts, including the work by OHSU’s Dr. Louis Picker. Just last month, Dr. Picker and his team announced the development of a promising AIDS vaccine candidate which uses a unique method to stage an ongoing war against HIV … Read More
