Recent News

July 29, 2003 Estrogen Therapy Raises Risk Factors CHICAGO— Women who use estrogen replacement therapy to relieve menopausal symptoms are more likely to develop risk factors for potentially fatal irregular heartbeats (arrythmias) and heart attacks than women who take hormone therapy combining estrogen and progestin. Prior to the early termination of the estrogen plus progestin[…]

Helping Minority Students Achieve Goals The Feinberg School of Medicine is serving as home base for more than 40 students taking part in the Minority Medical Education Program (MMEP) that runs from June 16 to July 25. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Association of American Medical Colleges, the program aims to help[…]

July 8, 2003 Immune System Genes Stave Off HIV Infection CHICAGO— Researchers have new answers as to why some HIV-infected individuals don’t progress to full-blown AIDS as rapidly as other HIV-positive people. Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine scientist Steven M. Wolinsky, MD, and colleagues found that individuals with certain rare variations, or alleles, of[…]

July 8, 2003 Stem Cell Therapy Doesn’t Improve Cancer Outcome CHICAGO— Adding high-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation to conventional chemotherapy offers little benefit for women with primary breast cancer who are at high risk for recurrence, finds a study reported in the July 3 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Moreover, toxicities[…]

July 29, 2003 ‘Suicide’ Enzymes May Be Missing Alzheimer’s Link CHICAGO— Feinberg School of Medicine researchers have found that caspases, a family of protein-cutting enzymes involved in programmed cell death (apoptosis), may be a missing link in the chain of molecular events leading to Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative condition affecting an estimated[…]

Reuben Feinberg Portrait Hangs in Ward Lobby Reuben Feinberg, the Chicago businessman whose generosity led to the renaming of Northwestern’s medical school to the Feinberg School of Medicine in February 2002, will be known to future generations of medical students and faculty and staff members, thanks to a portrait of him that hangs in the[…]

Honors Program Selects Students for Entering Class Northwestern University’s baccalaureate/MD degree program, in which students complete three years of undergraduate work on the Evanston campus before entering the Feinberg School, has completed the admissions process for next fall’s entering class. A total of 509 applicants (up from 398 in 2002) vied for 45 available positions.[…]

Northwestern Welcomes New Residents and Fellows At the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University, 250 new residents were welcomed during orientation sessions held at the member hospitals. On June 16, 28 residents began programs (pediatrics, pediatric neurology, and child and adolescent psychiatry) at Children’s Memorial Hospital (CMH), located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago.[…]

Five Departments Make NIH Top 20 List Five departments at the Feinberg School have been ranked among the top 20 by the National Institutes of Health for total NIH funding in 2002. The Department of Urology, chaired by Anthony J. Schaeffer, MD, Herman L. Kretschmer Professor of Urology, was ranked third among U.S. urology departments,[…]

June 11, 2003 ‘Lost’ Protein Key To Prostate Treatment? CHICAGO— Northwestern University researchers have found that a protein normally made in the body is critical for normal prostate growth regulation because mice that lack this protein develop an enlarged prostate. The excessive prostate growth in these animals resembles the human disease benign prostatic hyperplasia. In[…]

Feinberg School Leads Research Funding at NU In 2002 the Feinberg School of Medicine received $158,026,695 in research awards, more than any other Northwestern school. Medical school awards accounted for more than 48 percent of overall awards to the University, which totaled $324,507,137. This is the first time in University history that research volume has[…]

June 12, 2003 Contact: Pat Vaughan Tremmel at 847/491-4892 or atp-tremmel@northwestern.edu Study on Differences in Female, Male Sexuality EVANSTON, ILL.— Three decades of research on men’s sexual arousal show patterns that clearly track sexual orientation—gay men overwhelmingly become sexually aroused by images of men and heterosexual men by images of women. In other words, men’s[…]

VA Chicago Moves Inpatient Care to West Side Division On August 7all inpatient care at the VA Chicago Health Care System—Lakeside Division, located on Northwestern University’s Chicago campus, will move to the VA West Side Division, located on Chicago’s Near West Side. The Department of Veterans Affairs is carrying out its Capital Asset Realignment for[…]

May 20, 2003 $6.8 Million Grant Funds Alzheimer’s Study CHICAGO— Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine has received a $6.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to unravel the molecular triggers that cause overactivation of glia brain cells that leads to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and other diseases. Glia are important cells[…]

Cancer Survivors’ Walk Draws 4,000 Approximately 4,000 cancer survivors, friends, family members, and others touched by cancer participated in the 10th Annual Cancer Survivors’ Celebration and Walk, which kicked off June 1 at 9 a.m. at Chicago’s Grant Park. The five-mile, lakefront walk was sponsored by the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern[…]

Northwestern Remembers Reuben Feinberg “A straight-talking, unassuming, and generous man….who enjoyed life….who was committed to improving health care for the people of Chicago….who gave Northwestern a big boost.” These were among the many attributes describing Reuben Feinberg heard by friends, colleagues, and family members when they gathered May 19 in Thorne Auditorium on Northwestern University’s[…]

May 5, 2003 Foundation Gift Funds Virology Research Center CHICAGO— The Drucker Family Foundation has made a $5 million gift to Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine through the Midwest AIDS Foundation/Engle Fund to create the Fred and Norman A. Drucker Virology Research Laboratories at the medical school. The labs will occupy the entire 12th[…]

Graduates Urged to Be High Tech and High Touch Surrounded by family members and friends, 164 medical students celebrated their official entry into the medical profession at the Feinberg School’s 145th Graduation Convocation, held May 23 at Navy Pier’s Grand Ballroom. The event featured guest speaker Jordan J. Cohen, MD, president of the Association of[…]

Schweitzer Fellows Help the Underserved Just as the program’s namesake Dr. Albert Schweitzer helped needy people in Africa, the 28 health care students participating in the 2003–04 Chicago Area Schweitzer Fellows Program will help the underserved as they work with agencies providing health care to fragile populations. Among next year’s Schweitzer fellows are first-year Northwestern[…]