Music-based medical interventions can have remarkable therapeutic benefits for patients diagnosed with cognitive impairments such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and aphasia. Neurologist Borna Bonakdarpour, MD, explains how he is using and studying these clinical interventions through the new Northwestern Music and Medicine Program.
A novel gene therapy promoted transfusion independence in more than 90 percent of adult and pediatric patients with transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia. Study co-author Jennifer Schneiderman, MD, discusses results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Man’s best friend is helping scientists find new treatments for brain tumors. Amy Heimberger, MD, is a board-certified neurosurgeon with extensive training and experience in the field of immunology. She is part of a promising new study in canine glioblastoma that could lead to more effective human glioblastoma clinical trials.
Sachin Patel, MD, PhD, is the new chair and Lizzie Gilman Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Feinberg and psychiatrist-in-chief at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Norman and Ida Stone Institute of Psychiatry. In this episode, he talks about the current mental health crisis in this country, his research and vision for the department.
Judith Moskowitz, a social psychologist and professor of Medical Social Sciences at Feinberg, talks about how her NIH-funded research and intervention programs will be used to address stress and burnout in Chicago’s front-line violence prevention workers.
David Gate, PhD, discusses his study on the detrimental role the immune system plays in Lewy body dementias. This disease encompasses two disorders: Parkinson’s disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. Actor Robin Williams famously passed away with dementia with Lewy bodies. NBA coach Jerry Sloan died of dementia with Lewy bodies as well. Gate’s new research published in Science suggests pathways toward unprecedented treatment therapies for this devastating disease.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. According to a new Northwestern Medicine study published in the journal Circulation, about sixty percent of pregnant women in the U.S. have poor heart health. Study authors Sadiya Khan, MD, and Natalie Cameron, MD, explain the results of the study and what needs to be done to reverse this alarming trend.
In response to the first successful animal heart transplant into a human patient, internationally renowned transplant surgeon Satish Nadig, MD, PhD, reviews some of the scientific developments that have culminated in this moment and stresses the ongoing need for other experimental strategies. Nadig is also the new director of Feinberg’s Comprehensive Transplant Center.
Since coming to Northwestern in 2013, Deborah Smith Clements, MD, chair of the Department of Family & Community Medicine, has established three thriving family medicine residency programs and has been an advocate for improving the residency match process, health policy and social justice. She talks about her work, leading her department through COVID-19 and her recent Distinguished Service Award from Illinois Academy of Family Physicians.
Gregory Smith, PhD, professor of Microbiology-Immunology at Feinberg, has been investigating a path to long-needed vaccine development for herpes virus. He recently published findings in the journal Nature that bring the possibility of a preventive vaccine a step closer.