Recent News

April 14, 2004 April 20 Marks Lecture by Internationally Renowned Geneticist The Feinberg School’s Center for Genetic Medicine hosts a free public lecture by internationally known geneticist David Botstein, PhD, on April 20, from 4–5 p.m., in Turnbull Auditorium, 303 East Chicago Avenue, Ward 1-074, on the Chicago campus. Dr. Botstein, Anthony B. Evnin Professor[…]

April 9, 2004 “NU Explores” Travels to Washington Feinberg School of medicine faculty members Rex L. Chisholm, PhD, and John A. Kessler, MD, continue their travels for “NU Explores” on May 12, when they and Mark A. Ratner, PhD, professor of chemistry, will present “Small is Big: Science That’s Changing the Quality of Your Life”[…]

April 26, 2004 Medical Alumni Honored During Reunion Weekend At the Reunion Ball on April 24, the closing event of the Feinberg School of Medicine’s annual Alumni Weekend, pediatric endocrinologist Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, MD (shown here with Dean Lewis Landsberg, MD), received this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award. She credited Northwestern for instilling in her a[…]

  In this year’s U.S. News & World Report rankings of research-oriented medical schools, Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine has moved up one place from last year, from 21st to 20th, tying with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The criteria for ranking research-oriented schools are research funding (30 percent), student selectivity[…]

April 9, 2004 ENH Center Studies Genetics of Schizophrenia Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, a member of the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University, has established a new Center for Genetics in Psychiatry, headed by Pablo V. Gejman, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Gejman holds one of the[…]

April 12, 2004 Accepted Students Take a “Second Look” at the School Approximately 150 prospective students accepted to the Feinberg School’s incoming Class of 2008 will take a second look at the school as part of “Second Look Weekend.” The annual revisit weekend for accepted students begins with a welcome reception on Thursday evening, April[…]

April 8, 2004 Broadcast Media: Tamara Kerrill Field at (847) 491-4888 or attlk@northwestern.edu Stem Cells Used in Bone Marrow Research CHICAGO— Researchers at Northwestern University have devised a method to induce embryonic stem cells to develop into bone marrow and blood cells. Injecting the stem cells into the bone marrow cavity of mice whose bone[…]

April 8, 2004 Trauma Highly Prevalent Among Delinquents CHICAGO— Almost every boy and girl currently detained in a juvenile facility in the United States has experienced at least one major trauma, and a large proportion of these children have post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a study in the April issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.[…]

April 9, 2004 RIC Delivers Revolutionary Wheelchair The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) has become one of the first U.S. distributors of a power wheelchair that can climb and descend stairs; traverse sand, gravel, and grass; navigate over 4-inch curbs; and rise on two wheels. Mike D’Arcy of Plainfield, Illinois (shown here with his family),[…]

Better Analysis Needed for Breast Cancer Treatment Treatment of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)—a group of abnormal cells confined to the breast ducts—varies widely in the United States. Treatment ranges from potential overtreatment with aggressive surgical therapy to possible undertreatment by not providing radiation. In the absence of data that allow identification of women with[…]

CARDIA Marks 20th Year They say youth is often wasted on the young. Yet, when it comes to reducing coronary heart disease, it is the young who may have the most to gain from following healthy lifestyles starting in their youth, according to findings of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study.[…]

Free Public Lectures Focus on Ethnicity and Disease Ethnicity distinguishes people in many ways from language to culture. Unfortunately, certain genetic disorders also follow along the same lines and frequently occur among different ethnic populations. Discussing DNA, mutations, and dominant and recessive inheritance, Ira S. Salafsky, MD, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics, will speak on[…]

Questions Raised on Shorter Hospital Stays During the past decade, time spent in-hospital has declined dramatically, even for patients with serious illnesses. This trend raises concern that increasing numbers of patients may be discharged before their conditions are stable, particularly if a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order has been written. A Northwestern University study of Medicare patients[…]

Lupus Discovery May Lead To Improved Drugs In an important development for the treatment of lupus as well as certain cancers, scientists at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University have discovered how autoimmune lupus T cells stave off programmed cell death and drive production of autoantibodies directed against the body’s own DNA. Syamal[…]

Medical Students Meet Their Matches On March 18, “Match Day,” fourth-year Feinberg School of Medicine students learned where they will be going for the next phase of their medical careers. The day marked the culmination of the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) in which graduating medical students are matched with residency positions in the specialties[…]

In Memoriam (Michael Ravitch) Michael M. Ravitch, PhD, associate professor and former director of the Office of Medical Education at the Feinberg School of Medicine, died February 27 in his Evanston, Illinois, home; he was 61. A native of Baltimore, Dr. Ravitch began undergraduate studies at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, wanting to[…]

Longtime Leader of Student Affairs Office to Step Down Compassionate. Understanding. Leader. Friend. Advocate. Words like these pepper conversations about Jack F. Snarr, PhD ’67, associate dean for student programs, who will be stepping down July 1 after 28 years in the position. What students and graduates see as special in Dr. Snarr is simply[…]

February 3, 2004 Soybean Chemical May Treat Prostate Cancer CHICAGO— Genistein is a chemical found in soybeans that blocks development of prostate cancer in laboratory models of the disease. Now, a Feinberg School of Medicine study will determine whether genistein is effective in the treatment of prostate cancer in humans. The principal investigator for the[…]

More Study Needed on Protein-Cancer Link A preliminary study suggests that persistent inflammation, as indicated by increased levels of C-reactive protein in the blood, is a risk factor for the development of colon cancer. However, according to an editorial by Feinberg School of Medicine researcher Boris C. Pasche, MD, the link between chronic inflammation and[…]