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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WebMD
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Future COVID Vaccines Must Be Better; Science Races to Respond
The COVID-19 vaccines were a remarkable medical accomplishment, credited with preventing more than 3 million deaths and 18 million hospitalizations in the U.S. alone in 2 years, but scientists and public health officials say future versions will have to work even better. Current vaccines are best at preventing serious illness, hospitalizations, and death. Improved vaccines would need to up the ante and make infection and transmission far less likely. Other research is focused on how the antibodies generated by the original COVID-19 vaccines may limit the effectiveness of the subsequent booster shots, and what to do about it. “What happens is, those antibodies play a critical role in protecting you against the virus,” says Pablo Penaloza-MacMaster, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, “but those antibodies do the same thing to the vaccine.” His team’s studies have found that antibodies generated by prior vaccines speed up the clearance of the vaccine from the body, making less vaccine available to trigger new immune responses after the booster.
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Yahoo! News
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The Best Foods to Heal Your Gut After Taking Antibiotics
After taking antibiotics the resulting imbalance is known as gut dysbiosis. (Gut dysbiosis can also occur for other reasons, like stress, diet, long-term inflammation, diet, alcohol use, and other types of medications.) “In some cases, antibiotics can also weaken the gut barrier, making the digestive system more vulnerable to inflammation and irritation,” Melinda Ring, MD, a board-certified internal medicine doctor and executive director of the Osher Center for Integrative Health at Northwestern University, explains. “Broad-spectrum antibiotics, which target a wide range of bacteria, tend to have a greater impact on gut health compared to more targeted antibiotics,” Dr. Ring adds. Broad-spectrum options are typically used when the precise cause of an infection is unknown or when multiple types of bacteria may be involved—examples include azithromycin (Z-pack) and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (Augmentin)—versus a situation where doctors can pinpoint the specific bacteria to blame and prescribe a more targeted medication.
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USA Today
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Longevity icon Bryan Johnson’s methods may be a bust. Is there a secret to living longer?
Longevity experts are mostly over Bryan Johnson’s shtick and hope people consider the basics when it comes to taking care of themselves. “Biological age,” they add, isn’t currently as useful a measure as many companies might persuade you into thinking. The things that we know that work today include sticking to an exercise routine, keeping your weight at a healthy level, getting regular and good sleep and avoiding cigarettes and other toxins, according to Douglas E. Vaughan, professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the director of the Potocsnak Longevity Institute. You should also try and reduce stress in your life and maintain healthy relationships with loved ones.
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WebMD
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New Treatment for Atopic Dermatitis: Expert Insights, Key Facts
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is the most common form of eczema. It causes itchy, inflamed skin that can show up anywhere on the body, though it likes to settle in skin folds like the elbows and behind the knees. AD is a long-term condition that comes and goes, and it can affect people of all ages. you can’t stop scratching, a new treatment might help. The FDA approved nemolizumab (Nemluvio) for moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis in December 2024. To explain how this medication works and who might benefit from it, shared Jennifer Shastry, MD, a dermatologist with Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. “Most other treatments, like steroid creams, focus on calming the rash. Nemolizumab goes straight to the source of the itch to help break the itch-scratch cycle, giving your skin a chance to heal,” said Dr. Shastry. Nemolizumab should reduce itch and other eczema symptoms, but some people with AD experienced a flare during treatment. If your symptoms get worse after you start it, check in with your doctor. They might do a skin biopsy to confirm you have atopic dermatitis and not something else.
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USA Today
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Tuberculosis is one of the deadliest infectious diseases in human history. Here’s why.
When most of us think of serious diseases that kill millions of people, the ones that come to mind are often the ones that get the most attention: cancer, COVID-19, heart disease and diabetes. But a disease that’s been killing a shocking number of people for over a century is tuberculous. Each year, tuberculosis kills some 1.25 million people globally and more than 10 times that number become infected with the disease annually, according to the World Health Organization. In fact, the disease is so prevalent that the organization has identified tuberculosis as one of the top 10 leading causes of deaths worldwide. “Since its identification in 1882, over 1 billion people have died from tuberculosis, making it one of the deadliest infectious diseases in human history,” says Richard Doyle, MD, PhD, a practicing physician and clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine at Northwestern University. Doyle adds that anyone infected with TB can potentially develop the active form of the infection, but people with weakened immune systems are especially vulnerable. The good news is that even if one is dealing with the active form of the disease, TB is still curable—but it requires “a prolonged course of antibiotics,” says Doyle. These rounds of antibiotics usually last between four to six months, “and most people respond very well to treatment,” says Hewison. Still, because treatment requires a combination of multiple drugs, “it can be difficult for patients to remain adherent for such a long time, especially when the drugs often have unwanted side effects,” she says. To prevent this, “treatment should always first be guided by drug susceptibility testing,” Doyle says, “which can usually ensure the most effective medications are used.”
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Chicago Tribune
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Northwestern engineers develop tiny pacemaker, smaller than a grain of rice
A new, tiny pacemaker — smaller than a grain of rice — developed at Northwestern University could play a sizable role in the future of medicine, according to the engineers who developed it. Researchers unveiled the device, which they say is the smallest pacemaker in the world, in a study published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature. Though the device is still years away from being used in humans, it could eventually be useful for infants with congenital heart defects and also for adults, the researchers say. “I think it’s really exciting technology that will change how electrical stimulation is done,” said Igor Efimov, PhD, a Northwestern experimental cardiologist who co-led the study. The device can be inserted with a catheter or syringe. After it is placed in or on the heart, it’s paired with another small, patch-like device worn on the patient’s chest. When the device on the chest detects irregular heartbeats it emits pulses of light into the chest that activate the pacemaker, delivering electrical stimulation to the heart. The device is designed for patients who need a pacemaker only temporarily. It dissolves into the patient’s body once it’s no longer needed.
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NBC 5 Chicago
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Shingles vaccine may protect against dementia, new study suggests
Getting vaccinated against shingles — a painful and debilitating condition that can flare up years after infection from varicella zoster — not only lowers the risk of infection, but may also offer some protection against dementia, a provocative new study suggests. The new research, published Wednesday in Nature, analyzed data from more than 280,000 older adults in Wales and found that people who received the original shingles live virus vaccine were 20% less likely to develop dementia of any type than those who were not vaccinated. The most important take-home message from the Stanford study is that getting vaccinated might lower the risk for dementia, said Aarati Didwania, MD, a professor of medicine and medical education at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Exactly how the vaccines might protect against dementia isn’t clear, Didwania said. “But it’s an intriguing question,” she added. “Is it by decreasing inflammation or preventing the virus from reactivating?” There’s certainly a good reason for getting vaccinated, Didwania said. “Shingles is a terrible, painful and debilitating condition that can lead to horrendous long-term pain,” she said.
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Chicago Tribune
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Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital uses dual chamber pacemaker implant to aid patient
Jerry Karzen has had many successes as both a tennis player and a coach. Now he is getting the chance to extend those accomplishments with the assistance of a new generation of pacemaker. January, Karzen was one of the first patients to receive a new dual chamber leadless pacemaker now offered at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital. The device received Food and Drug Administration approval in 2023 and went into use inside the Northwestern medical system last summer. Karzen discussed the situation initially with his primary care physician and soon they connected with his friend and fellow tennis player, Nishant Verma, an electrophysiologist at Lake Forest Hospital and associate professor of medicine (cardiology) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Verma said one main difference of this pacemaker is that it is inserted through a small incision in the leg and not the arm. He added that in a traditional pacemaker, there is a battery under the skin and then there are wires that connect to that battery. The wires are connected through a vein under the collarbone that leads into the heart and plug it into the battery that is sitting in the chest. Verma said the dual-chamber pacemakers might not be right for every patient as it depends on the type of heart issue someone faces. In addition, given its recent debut on the market, safety data is still being collected, and it is yet to be determined how long the device will last. Yet overall he remains pleased with the initial results in Karzen and his other patients.
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CBS News Chicago
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Northwestern Medicine hopes to improve treatment for AFib using an Apple Watch
Researchers at Northwestern Medicine plan to give Apple Watches to thousands of people as part of a health study. The study is geared toward patients with atrial fibrillation, or AFib, the most common type of heart arrhythmia. The condition is characterized by fast and regular heartbeats from the atria, or the two upper chambers, of the heart. This new study looks at how an Apple Watch can monitor a person’s heartbeat, then tell them to take their medications when needed — instead of every day. “So we believe that not only with the strategy where we reduce the amount of blood thinners will reduce the risk of bleeding from, will reduce the cost of taking a pill every day — but will also improve the quality of life,” said Rod Passman, MD, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute and the director of the Center for Arrhythmia Research at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Participants must have their own iPhones, but Apple Watches will be provided through a contribution from Apple itself.
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ABC 7 Chicago
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‘People will die based on these decisions’: Trump administration cuts funding for many HIV studies
The NIH has eliminated funding for dozens of HIV-related research grants, according to a US Department of Health and Human Services database that was updated last week, halting studies and threatening patient care across the country. Several researchers said the cuts put a stop to hopes of ending HIV in the US and around the world. For researchers and their work, the immediate future is uncertain and the long-term future feels bleak. Michelle Birkett, PhD, a psychologist and associate professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University, said the NIH canceled grant funding for a project that looks at disparities in HIV. She had just finished hiring people for the work and was about to start data collection when her school informed her that the funding had been eliminated. The NIH never contacted her directly, Birkett said. Birkett said she is looking for other funding, but the competition will be stiff. “A lot of my colleagues received terminations in the last few days,” she said. “I just worry about the viability of this work going forward.”
