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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Yahoo! News
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What parents need to know about shigella – an antibiotic-resistant bacteria affecting children under 5
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning about an increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria kown as shigella, and according to the CDC, the majority of infections happen in children under the age of 5. Shigella can cause bloody diarrhea, fever and stomach pain, among other symptoms, making this an illness no one wants to have. “Shigella can be spread routinely among young children with poor handwashing, and outbreaks can be seen in daycare and schools,” said Bessey Geevarghese, DO, assistant professor of pediatrics in infectious diseases at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. In general, “the main danger from this illness is dehydration,” Geevarghese says. And if your child is struggling, they may be given oral antibiotics for three to five days. Also keep in mind, per Geevarghese: Most anti-biotic resistant strains detected in the U.S. so far have been in adults.
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CBS News
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Study: Poor sleep decreases vaccine effectiveness, especially for men
Sleeping less than six hours the night before a vaccination may limit your body’s response to the vaccine, reducing protection against the virus or bacteria, according to a new study. However, the findings present there are differences according to sex. “There are known sex differences in immune response to foreign antigens, like viruses, and also to self antigens, like in autoimmune disorders, said Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD, neurology professor and director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “In general, women have stronger immune response, including (to the) flu vaccine,” said Zee, who was not involved in the study. “The evidence is that these differences reflect hormonal, genetic and environmental differences, which can change over the lifespan, so these differences may be less prominent among older adults.”
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CNN
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A family is racing to raise $2.5 million to save their toddler, who suffers from an ultrarare neurological disorder that turns babies into ‘human time bombs’
A woman’s three-year-old son, Henry suffers from alternating hemiplegia of childhood, or AHC, a rare neurological disorder whose patients are referred to as “human time bombs.” Through their foundation and GoFundMe fundraiser the family is raising money needed to design from scratch an antisense oligonucleotide, or ASO treatment, which would knock down the toxic impact of a genetic mutation that is causing dysfunction in Henry’s brain. Using the money raised so far, scientists have developed candidate ASOs, a term of researchers led by pharmacologist Dr. Alfred George at Northwestern University is currently testing them in Henry’s neurons to determine the most effective ASO. This process of developing the treatment cannot continue without the remaining $2.5 million, which the family must raise on their own.
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NBC News
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What people with ‘super immunity’ can teach us about Covid other viruses
Three years into the pandemic, a select group of people have achieved something some once thought impossible: They have never tested positive for Covid. Scientists around the world are searching for the genetic reasons these people have dodged Covid – despite repeated exposure to the virus. As scientists search for more genetic factors that may render a lucky few immune to Covid, experts encourage caution. “You never want to be like, ‘I haven’t gotten Covid, therefore I am invincible,’” said Michael Angarone, DO
associate professor of infectious diseases and medical education at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. -
CBS News
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Tips for surviving the Daylight Saving Time change
For folks who are adjusting their clocks, the body isn’t going to like getting up a whole hour earlier, so it’s best if you and your kids start adapting by going to bed and waking up fifteen to twenty minutes earlier each day. Prepping in advance is an especially good plan for teenagers, who are naturally programmed to stay up late and sleep late, and for anyone else in the family who is a night owl, said Dr. Phyllis Zee
, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Zee, who is also a professor of neurology at Feinberg, agreed: “For most younger children, moving their bedtime and wake time by about 10 to 15 minutes earlier starting three days before the time change can help them adjust to the social clock time change by Monday morning,” she said. -
WTTW
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Lab-Leak Theory Resurfaces as House Republicans Investigate COVID-19 Origins
Republicans claim that early in the pandemic Dr. Anthony Fauci, then director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and an advisor to President Donald Trump on the coronavirus pandemic, deliberately downplayed the notion that the virus may have come from a lab leak. However, infectious disease expert Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director of the Robert J. Havey Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has his doubts about this theory. “There’s four agencies in the government that have any kind of medical background, the CDC, NIH, the White House staff and Department of Defense. People say with almost certainty, which means 99% or more, it’s [COVID-19] is from the animals. There’s tons of epidemiological evidence that that is correct,” said Murphy.
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NBC 5 Chicago
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A Naperville Woman’s Heart Started Racing While Walking. A Year Later, Her Diagnosis Was Unexpected
Doctors at Northwestern Medicine are trying to raise awareness about an often misunderstood and underrecognized condition called CTEPH, which stands for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. “Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension is a long-term complication after someone has an acute pulmonary hypertension is a long-term complication after someone has an acute pulmonary embolism or a blood clot in the lung,” said Mike Cuttica, MD, associate professor of medicine in pulmonary and critical care. The Naperville woman, experienced shortness of breath while out walking her dog. Dr. Cutica said CTEPH often starts with blood clots in the legs. “They break off the travel up into the heart and they cut pumped into the lung and they lodged in the blood vessels in the lungs, and that’s when it becomes a pulmonary embolism or blood clot in the lung,” Dr. Cuttica explained.
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The Washington Post
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Why daylight saving time is fun but bad for you
It’s easy to love daylight saving time. Once you get past that grogginess of the time change, you’re left with an extra hour of daylight in your spring and summer evenings. The trade-off is that your body will lose an hour of early morning sun, and experts say that lost sunlight will be missed. Morning sun is key to maintaining our circadian rhythms, sleep-wake cycles and overall health. Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD, a neurologist and chief of sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said without that sunlight, we can slip into circadian misalignment — “when your internal body clocks fall out of sync with that of the sun clock and your social clocks. Lawmakers have proposed adopting a permanent change to daylight saving time — it’s called the Sunshine Protection Act. The Senate has approved it, but the bill died in the House amid questions over whether year-round daylight saving time was safe or healthy.
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WBEZ Chicago
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Meet the Northwestern scientist in charge of new bioscience lab funded by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan
Zuckerberg and Chan have invested $250 million in a move that aims to put Chicago at the center of future biotech research. :Our science work is focused on curing, preventing or managing all disease. That’s what drove us to start the San Francisco biohub, now we’re launching the second,” said Chan. Northwestern professor Shana Kelley will be the president of the new project. “I was absolutely delighted. This is going to be a really exciting effort bringing together three great Chicago universities and with the resources we have from the Chan/Zuckerberg initiative, we’re going to be able to make a big impact,” said Kelley when she found out she would be leading the lab.
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ABC News
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When does daylight saving time begin? Everything you need to know about ‘springing forward’ in 2023
Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, meaning the sun sets later in the evening – but most Americans lose an hour of sleep. Many experts have pointed to the time change’s adverse health effects, and polls show that the majority of Americans would rather avoid the switch back and forth. Time changes mess with sleep schedules, a potential problem when so many people are already sleep-deprived, says Dr. Phyllis Zee, a sleep researcher at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. And numerous studies have linked the start of daylight saving time in the spring with a brief spike in car accidents, and with poor performance on tests of alertness, both likely due to sleep loss.
