Recent News

Accepted Students Take a “Second Look” With the busy interview season behind them and acceptance decisions made, the Feinberg School’s Office of Admissions is giving accepted students another chance to experience the environment of the medical school during Second Look Weekend April 10–12. This year 150 students representing 65 undergraduate are expected to participate; last[…]

April 15, 2003 Two Genes Required For Testis Formation CHICAGO— The sex of newborns is dictated by the X and Y chromosomes—girls are XX whereas boys are XY. However, new research from Northwestern University has shown that normal testis formation depends on two genes: the so-called male-determining Sry gene, found on the Y chromosome 10[…]

March 25, 2003 Controlling Neurons May Ease Parkinson’s Disease CHICAGO— Blocking or eliminating a specific potassium channel in a small group of brain cells may improve or prevent the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating and progressive neurodegenerative disease that afflicts more than 1 million people in the United States. In Parkinson’s disease, neurons that[…]

Healthy Eating Depends on Personal Responsibility Jack Sprat could eat no fat, and it appears Americans can eat no lean or, at least, very little. A growing and heavy body of evidence shows the country as a whole tipping the scales into obesity. “The state of the nation is one of excessive intake of calories[…]

In Memoriam (Martin Brandfonbrener, Lee Gladstone, William Sullivan) Martin Brandfonbrener, MD, professor emeritius of medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine, died on February 21 in Chicago at age 75. Growing up in New York and showing brilliance in science, Dr. Brandfonbrener graduated from Stuyvesant High School and entered New York University at age 16.[…]

Linda Van Horn Named Editor-in-Chief of Nutrition Journal This March the American Dietetic Association (ADA) celebrates 30 years of promoting healthy eating via its National Nutrition Month®, an annual nutrition education and information campaign. So it seems fitting that the organization announced on March 10 the appointment of Linda V. Van Horn, PhD, RD, a[…]

Medical Students Find Their Matches Fourth-year medical students at the Feinberg School of Medicine learned on March 20 what residency programs they will enter this summer and celebrated the news with their classmates and families. The Northwestern students were part of 14,332 United States medical school seniors who participated in the annual Match Day, sponsored[…]

Research Grant Honors Ann Landers Seema Singhal, MD, professor of medicine at the Feinberg School, has received a two-year, $200,000 research award to investigate the genetic abnormalities associated with multiple myeloma. The Ann Landers Research Fund Award was presented to Dr. Singhal at a dinner in Chicago on March 4 by the Multiple Myeloma Research[…]

Sherman Elias Appointed Chair of Ob-Gyn Sherman Elias, MD, has been appointed chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Feinberg School effective June 1. Currently head of ob-gyn at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Dr. Elias holds a secondary appointment as professor in UIC’s Department of Molecular Genetics and specializes in[…]

February 14, 2003 Contact: Megan Fellman at (847) 491-3115 or atfellman@northwestern.edu Center Targets Brain Disorders CHICAGO— Northwestern University has received $3 million from the Falk Foundation to establish the Falk Center for Molecular Therapeutics, an interdisciplinary research center within the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science on the University’s Evanston campus. “Our[…]

February 7, 2003 Cardiac MRI Detects Heart Muscle Death CHICAGO— Researchers from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine have demonstrated that cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology can detect small areas of dead heart tissue that cannot be detected by commonly used imaging techniques. Their finding is important because these small areas of muscle cell[…]

Family Medicine Grant Aids Underserved The nearly 130,000 underinsured residents and Medicaid recipients in Lake County, Illinois, will benefit from a $200,000 grant to the Department of Family Medicine at the Feinberg School and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (ENH), working in conjunction with the Lake County Health Department. By enabling family medicine residents to complete rotations[…]

February 7, 2003 Lupus Link to Other Diseases Studied CHICAGO— A link between lupus, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease in young women may be key to understanding why postmenopausal women who do not have lupus are at increased risk for the bone mineral loss and heart disease. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that affects predominantly young,[…]

Northwestern Launches Neuroendovascular Service The Departments of Neurological Surgery and Radiology at the Feinberg School have launched a joint Neuroendovascular Service. Department chairs H. Hunt Batjer, MD, Michael J. Marchese Professor of Neurological Surgery, and Eric J. Russell, MD, Drs. Frederick John Bradd and William Kennedy Professor of Radiology, jointly recruited Bernard R. Bendok, MD,[…]

February 27, 2003 Contact: Megan Fellman at (847) 491-3115 or atfellman@northwestern.edu Progesterone Regulates Male Mouse Behavior EVANSTON— In an unexpected discovery, a team led by Northwestern University scientists has become the first to show that progesterone, a hormone usually associated with female reproduction and maternal behavior, plays a key role in regulating male aggression toward[…]

Safety Improves on NU’s Chicago Campus Reported crimes against persons and property have dropped significantly during the past three years on the Northwestern University Chicago Campus, according to University Police statistics reported at a town hall meeting on campus safety held February 20 in Turnbull Auditorium. Crimes against persons dropped from 18 in 2000 to[…]

In Vivo Plays This Weekend More than 100 medical students from all four classes at the Feinberg School of Medicine will present In Vivo, the annual comedy-musical show on Friday, January 31, and Saturday, February 1. Playing from 7 to 9 p.m. each night at Thorne Auditorium, this year’s production is titled “Lube” and will[…]

Quilt Project Commemorates Historic Study Two quilts commemorating the historic Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) have been created by staff members and participants at the Feinberg School of Medicine’s WHI clinic on the Northwestern University Chicago campus. Northwestern became involved with the WHI, the largest clinical study ever conducted in the United States, when it was[…]

January 21, 2003 Researchers Search for Sex Reversal Gene CHICAGO— Northwestern University has received a five-year, $2.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to identify the gene mutations that cause sex reversal, a condition in which individuals have the chromosomes of one sex but the physical attributes of the other, resulting in[…]