Media Coverage
The work done by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine faculty members (and even some students) is regularly highlighted in newspapers, online media outlets and more. Below you’ll find links to articles and videos of Feinberg in the news.
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Crain’s Chicago Business
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Researchers Home in on Radiation Treatments Using Gene Mutations
A Northwestern Medicine study identifies common and rare gene mutations that impact radiation resistance and sensitivity, work that could help provide more individualized, effective radiotherapy for cancer patients, the system said in a statement. “The lack of incorporation of genetic data into radiation treatment is a significant unmet clinical need,” corresponding author Mohamed Abazeed, MD, PhD, associate professor of radiation oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine radiation oncologist, said. However, researchers developed a computational algorithm and test mutations by placing them in several human cells and assessing the impact on them. “Cancer genomics over the last decade has revolutionized how we treat cancer patients from a drug perspective,” Abazeed, also co-leader of the lung cancer program at Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, said in the statement. “If you find the right mutation in a patient’s tumor, there are now a host of drugs that can selectively target that mutation and, therefore, that tumor.”
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US News & World Report
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New Omicron Subvariants BQ.1, BQ.1.1 Could Help Fuel Next COVID-19 Surge in US
Since omicron first topped delta to become the dominant strain in the U.S. in December 2021, the variant has stuck around in various forms. Subvariant after subvariant of omicron emerged and rose to dominance, only to be replaced by another in a matter of months. Now, the U.S. is dealing with an alphabet soup of omicron subvariants – BA.5, BA.4.6, BQ.1.1, BQ.1, BF.7, BA.2.75.2, BA.2.75 and BA.4 – as it approaches a potential fall and winter coronavirus wave. It’s unclear if any of the subvariants will rise to dominance as BA.5 declines or if several of them will continue to co-circulate into the winter. With so many strains circulating, even a small advantage could be what drives a subvariant to dominance. “That’s why each of these could potentially be the ones that form the new lineage that dominates,” says Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine in infectious diseases and bioinformatics at Northwestern University. Given that these numbers are low so far – less than 10% of the eligible population has taken an updated booster shot – Lorenzo-Redondo suggests focusing in on populations that are at high-risk for severe COVID-19, like the immunocompromised. Lorenzo-Redondo says that if cases and hospitalizations do start going back up in the U.S., health officials should turn back to mitigation measures known to work, like masks.
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Yahoo! News
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Easy Ways to Improve Your Blood Cholesterol Levels
According to the CDC, 38% of Americans are living with high cholesterol, which is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. Cholesterol in itself is not a toxic substance—in fact, it performs many vital processes in the human body. But, if there is too much bad cholesterol versus good cholesterol, it can cause serious health issues. One thing to improve cholesterol levels is to not smoke. One study showed that for many smokers, a stroke was the first sign they had of cardiovascular disease. “There is often more awareness and concern about cancer as a result of smoking than heart disease, so we wanted to better define the risks of smoking related to different types of cardiovascular disease and, most importantly, to cardiovascular death,” says Sadiya S. Khan, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “In our analysis, even after adjusting for deaths not related to the heart, such as due to lung cancer, we found that fatal or non-fatal events related to cardiovascular disease are more likely to occur among people who smoke. People who smoke may not realize the harm cigarettes are causing their body until it’s too late.”
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The Washington Post
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FDA wants to yank pregnancy drug. Firm argues Black women will suffer.
“Help give your baby more time.” The eye-catching bright pink ads for the drug Makena tout its ability to reduce the risk of preterm birth. Introduced in 2011, it has been seen as a potential miracle drug for women at high risk. The problem: The Food and Drug Administration contends it does not work. As Alan Peaceman, professor emeritus of maternal-fetal medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, recalls, back in the 1970s and 1980s, there were studies showing that animals given the hormone progesterone could have prolonged pregnancies. He remembers thinking that was a bit “weird” because the amount of the medication being given was “a drop in the ocean given how much progesterone is circulating in the body already.” But as a researcher who was part of a National Institutes of Health maternal-fetal network that ran a clinical trial of 17P, a synthetic form of progesterone given by injection, he was happy and surprised to find that it appeared to reduce the risk of recurrent preterm birth.
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WGN
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Living with ALS for decades: The long struggle and complex questions patients face
ALS is a debilitating and deadly disease with no cure. There are some known genetic markers. The majority of ALS patients, 85 percent, have sporadic disease, meaning there’s no family history. But 15 percent have familial disease – and researchers have identified 30 different genes in which a mutation can be passed down and cause ALS. Some mutations lead to a slow progression, others to a faster course. Gene modifier play a key role. According to Robert Kalb, MD, director of the Les Turner ALS Center and professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of medicine, “There’s something in the background genotype affecting whether the disease will manifest or not and if it does, when it will manifest.” To help answer some of the key questions, Kalb and his team are looking closely at genetically modified worms that are used to model the disease. They’ve identified genetic modifiers that improve their coordination, research supported by the Les Turner ALS Foundation.
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Chicago Tribune
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Another COVID wave could be coming. Here’s how to make your holiday plans.
At this stage in the long slog of the pandemic, many of us are forgoing masks in places we previously wore them and getting together indoors when we had formerly avoided it. But the holidays throw new variables at everyone’s risk calculus. People trek across the country to see each other. Families crowd around dinner tables, with older, more vulnerable people sitting beside their younger relatives. Individual risk tolerance may vary among your family members, but in general, plan around the person at your gathering who is highest-risk. That means taking more precautions if you have a family member who is older than 60, on immunosuppressant medications, received a transplant, or is a cancer patient, said Dr. Michelle Prickett, pulmonary and critical care specialist at Northwestern Medicine.
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WBEZ Chicago
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Study: South Asian women see higher rates of diabetes
More than 23% of South Asians in the U.S. reported having diabetes between 2011 and 2016. That’s higher than any other racial group, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. A study out of Northwestern University — focused on South Asian women — is exploring how much simple exercise can help the problem. Dr. Namratha Kandula, lead researcher on the study and The mission of the work really is to reduce the disparities and risk for diabetes in South Asian women and girls. We wanted to start prevention and encourage South Asian women and their daughters to join this exercise program together. The study is still going on actively throughout the pandemic and now. Different types of exercise is really important for prevention of diabetes. Aerobic exercises and resistant exercises both are equally important to preventing diabetes. We think the cause of diabetes involves genetics, environment, behaviors and larger society and things that may be influencing our health. Specifically in South Asians, is the predisposition to carrying more fat around the waist, rather than in the thighs or legs, and that fat often goes into the liver and can cause high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.
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WebMD
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Tips for Adjusting to Life With Idiopathic Hypersomnia
Idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) is a sleep disorder without a cure. It’s not well-understood. Even experts don’t know what causes it. Most adults need about 7 to 9 hours of sleep every day. But people with IH are different. “They can sleep more than 11 hours every single night,” says Sabra Abbott, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology and sleep medicine at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. You may not feel very awake even if you sleep a lot. But you still need to get a good night’s rest. The effects of not getting enough sleep will likely hit you harder than someone who doesn’t have IH. “Sleep is less of an optional thing,” Abbott says. “Not that sleep is optional for anybody, but [people with IH] are going to be much less likely to be able to function well if they [stay up late] and only get 5 to 6 hours of sleep.” Psychologist Jason C. Ong, PhD, behavior sleep medicine director for Nox Health and adjunct associate professor of neurology and sleep medicine at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, created a pilot program called CBT for hypersomnia (CBT-H). His early research shows that people with IH can get more done while sleepy when they break up their day.
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WebMD
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The Mystery Behind Idiopathic Hypersomnia
Idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) is a rare neurological disorder. Treatment can help, but there’s no cure. You may snooze upwards of 9 hours a night without feeling refreshed. You may fight to wake up in the morning. Your sleepiness may persist or get worse, even when you take lengthy naps during the day. If you live with IH, you’d probably like to know what’s causing your symptoms. Unfortunately, that’s not something experts have figured out yet. “Literally, the name idiopathic hypersomnia means you’re sleepy and we don’t know why,” says Sabra Abbott, MD, assistant professor of neurology and sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. There’s ongoing research into this theory. But Abbott says the idea is that something in your body acts like an all-day sleeping pill.“That’s helpful for when you’re trying to go to sleep, but not when you’re trying to be awake during the day.”
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WebMD
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Treating the Cold or Flu When You Have COVID-19
It’s possible to catch more than one respiratory virus at the same time. That means you could get a cold or the flu along with COVID-19. But so far, these “coinfections” haven’t happened enough for scientists to study them very much. Experts think that’s due to all the physical distancing and other safety measures we took to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It’s important to watch for shortness of breath, very high fever, ongoing chest pain or pressure, trouble staying awake, confusion and pale, gray or bluish skin or lips. We need more research to know if a coinfection will make your symptoms twice as bad. But Benjamin D. Singer, MD, associate professor of medicine in pulmonary and critical care, says there’s some limited evidence that people with the flu and COVID-19 fare about the same as those with COVID-19 alone.
