Discoveries

A new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that 63 percent of multiple myeloma patients have a reduced risk of disease progression or death if treated with lenalidomide (Revlimid®) following a stem cell transplant. The study was co-authored by Richard Mariarz, MD, medical director of the Adult Stem Cell Transplantation Program & Center for Hematologic Malignancies at the Knight Cancer Institute. Read the OHSU News Release to learn more.

Two OHSU researchers, Fay Horak, Ph.D., professor of neurology, and Robert Peterka, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering, were recently recognized by the American Physiological Society for having highly cited publications in the Journal of Neurophysiology. Dr. Horak’s paper, “Central programming of postural movements: Adaptation to altered support-surface configurations,” was one of the top ten cited papers from 1980-1989, and Dr. Peterka’s, “Sensorimotor integration in human postural control,” was one of the top ten from 2000 to 2011. … Read More

A recent clinical trial involving researchers from OHSU’s Casey Eye Institute comparing two drugs used to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has shown that both Lucentis and Acastin are nearly equally as effective despite the fact that Avastin costs a fraction of what Lucentis costs. These findings were published this week in the medical journal Ophthalmology. A single dose of Lucentis costs approximately $2,000 whereas one dose of Avastin is around $50. Both drugs are … Read More

In 2011, OHSU’s Mother-Baby Unit stopped routine distribution of pacifiers to breastfeeding newborns in accordance with recommendations by the Joint Commission and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Their goal was to increase the number of infants in the unit who were breastfed only and received no supplemental formula. What happened, though, was quite the opposite. When the no-pacifier policy was implemented, the percent of exclusively breastfed infants dropped from 79 to 68 percent. During the … Read More

According to a study by lead author Erick Turner, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and pharmacology, physicians who prescribe antipsychotic medications may be doing so based on incomplete information. Dr. Turner and his colleagues found that while overall, antipsychotic medications appear to be more effective than placebos in clinical trials, sometimes the results of these studies are not published, or articles are written in such a way that overstates a drug’s effectiveness. For example, there … Read More

OHSU researchers Jessica Martin, Ph.D., Alexandra Brown, and Agnieszka Balkowiec, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator and associate professor of integrative biosciences in the School of Dentistry, have discovered the importance of glial cells in regulating the growth of brainstem neurons. Until now, glial cells had been thought to play a peripheral role in regulating the neurons that control blood pressure and breathing. This new research, published in Neuroscience, shows that glial cells actually play a significant … Read More

Tai Chi has been shown to improve balance and decrease risk for falls in Parkinson’s patients, according to research published today in the New England Journal of Medicine by a team of Oregon scientists. Elizabeth Eckstrom, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor and director of geriatrics at OHSU, was part of the collaboration, which was led by a scientist from the Oregon Research Institute. The study was one of the first large-scale clinical trials to test the … Read More

You’ve been hearing it for years: eat more fruits and veggies, and replace red meat with omega-3-rich fish like salmon. A new study by Gene Bowman, N.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of neurology, showed that people with higher intake of B vitamins, vitamins C, D, E, and omega 3 fatty acids, had less brain shrinkage (which is associated with Alzheimer’s disease) and higher mental acuity than those who were vitamin deficient. Another interesting finding: the study … Read More

OHSU researchers, led by Shoukrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., associate scientist at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, have produced the world’s first chimeric monkeys, developed from stem cells taken from two different embryos. This is an important development, not because the researchers plan to develop human chimeras, but because the study reveals new information about different stages of embryo cells. For example, while cells from either early-or later-stage embryos can be combined to create a chimeric … Read More

Until recently, research on the scarring of skin after surgery has neglected to address a major factor in the healing process: movement. Scars tend to be most severe on parts of the body where there is frequent strain on the tissue, but scientists didn’t know why. Victor W. Wong, M.D., a general surgery resident at OHSU, in collaboration with Anna Kuang, M.D., head of pediatic plastic and craniofacial surgery, and others at Stanford University, has … Read More