Students Look Beyond the Chart at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
All Feinberg students complete a two-week Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation clerkship at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, where they are encouraged to think about their patients’ overall function, rather than just their illness.
Investigating Family Genetics of Severe Epilepsy
A team of scientists has discovered that in children with epilepsy thought to be caused by a spontaneous mutation, about 10 percent of parents in fact carry the same variant in a small proportion of their own cells.
Early Synaptic Dysfunction Found in Parkinson’s Disease
Genetic mutations dysregulating synapse function contribute to a toxic cascade that leads to neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease, according to a Northwestern Medicine study.
Celebrating the Class of 2018
On May 21, members of the class of 2018, faculty, friends and family members gathered at Navy Pier to celebrate Feinberg’s 159th convocation.
Exceptional Achievement Recognized at Honors Day 2018
Feinberg faculty and fourth-year medical students gathered to recognize clinical and academic achievement at the sixth annual Honors Day, held May 19.
Resetting the Epigenetic Balance for Cancer Therapy
Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered an epigenetic imbalance that can lead to cancer, and used these findings to inhibit tumors in models.
Media Coverage
Loneliness does more than pull on your heart strings — it may hurt your heart
Over 6 million people live with heart failure in the United States, with over 960,000 new cases diagnosed each year. By 2030, there may be more than 8 million cases of heart failure. “One in five Americans over the age of 40 are affected by heart failure,” Dr. Clyde Yancy, American Heart Association (AHA) spokesperson and chief of the cardiology division at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told ABC News. It’s a condition that makes the heart unable to pump enough blood to the body, and heart failure already takes up millions of healthcare dollars each year. Research shows that one in four of these 6 million patients with heart failure feel moderate to high levels of social isolation.
New efforts to save lives with early detection
To catch it early, Dr. Shohreh Shahabi, chief of gynecologic oncology at Northwestern Medicine, is experimenting with a procedure known as uterine lavage…The Partial Wave Spectroscopic microscope, developed by professor Vadim Backman of Northwestern University, detects changes in chromatin (the bundle of genetic material and protein that makes up chromosomes), alerting doctors to a possible malignancy. Shahabi is working with Backman to test this technology in ovarian cancer.
13 Ways Being a Night Owl Could Hurt Your Health
“The main role of circadian rhythm is to anticipate what you’re going to be doing at certain points of the day,” says Kristen Knutson, PhD, associate professor of neurology and sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “When there’s a mismatch and you’re not doing what your biology expects at a certain time, your body may not handle it as well; it may not process food or glucose as rapidly, for example.”
Reducing Injury Risk in Youth Sports
Many parents want their children to reap the benefits of sports participation. In addition to socializing with their peers and enhancing self-esteem, sports participation fosters a child’s overall health and bone density and reduces the risk of overweight, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, risk-taking behavior and teen pregnancy, noted Dr. Cynthia LaBella, pediatric orthopedist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and co-author of an editorial on youth sports injury prevention in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.