Posts Tagged ‘Discoveries’

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

OHSU Research Week kicks off TODAY, with presentations on cancer and stroke starting at noon in the Old Library. Throughout the week, you’ll have opportunities to see over 300 oral and poster presentations from faculty, postdocs, students, and others from all types of disciplines. Today’s keynote speaker is Nora Disis, M.D., from the University of Washington, at 5 p.m. You won’t want to miss: The Fourth Annual Jungers Symposium on Tuesday, May 8 from 9 … 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

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

Recent research from Agnieszka Balkowiec, M.D., Ph.D.,  associate professor of integrative biosciences in the School of Dentistry,  and published in Neuroscience, makes advances in Rett syndrome—a neurological disorder affecting one in 10,000 baby girls. The research team found that  brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is essential for development and plasticity of nerve cells but that it appears to be missing in those with Rett syndrome neuronal mutations.  Intriguingly, these mutant neurons don’t produce enough BDNF in … 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

As a child, Peter Steyger, Ph.D., was given an aminoglycoside antibiotic to treat a severe case of meningitis. While this type of antibiotic is incredibly effective at treating life-threating infections, Dr. Steyger can tell you all about one of the drug’s potential side effects: deafness. Forty-eight years later, Dr. Steyger has finally discovered how those antibiotics caused his hearing loss. He found that the antibiotics cross a “blood-layrinth” barrier in the inner ear that transports … Read More

OHSU researchers have been getting quite a bit of media attention because of next week’s World Congress on the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) in Portland. Here are some highlights you don’t want to miss: On Friday, September 16, OHSU announced a $25 million donation by Bob and Charlee Moore, founders of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods. The Moore’s donation will support research, policy, and public outreach related to the health effects of … Read More