Cell and Developmental Biology is a field that’s integral to finding new therapies for a wide variety of diseases. At Feinberg, Luisa Iruela-Arispe, PhD, a vascular biologist, leads the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology as chair. In this episode, talks about her research and the future of cell-based treatments for diseases.
Providing evidence-based medical care to transgender and gender nonconforming youth has been a challenge in the past, as trans-related healthcare has long been understudied. Robert Garofalo, MD, MPH, discusses how gender-affirming care can improve the overall health and well-being of transgender and gender diverse children and adolescents. He also discusses his research on the short-term and long-term outcomes of gender-affirming medical treatment.
Accelerating new advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases is an important goal of the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS) and the past two years have been a crucial time for the study of infectious diseases. Richard D’Aquila, MD, professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern and director of NUCATS, discusses some milestone discoveries made and recent lessons from the COVID-19 and the HIV/AIDs pandemics.
Nearly half of all patients with heart failure have preserved ejection fraction, or HFpEF, yet there is much that is unknown about HFpEF and how to best prevent it and treat it. Northwestern Medicine cardiologist, Sanjiv Shah, ’00 MD, leads the world’s first clinical program dedicated to the study of heart failure with HFpEF. He discusses latest discoveries on the mechanisms of HFpEF and identifying therapeutic targets for it.
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.
