Author Interviews, Autism, JAMA, Mental Health Research, Pediatrics, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 08.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Kevin Lu PhD Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences College of Pharmacy Medical University of South Carolina MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?  Response: It is documented that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been increasing in the past few years. However, no information on potential racial and ethnic disparities in ASD diagnosis can be found in the literature. Most recently, the possible structural racism and health inequities have been a concern for the public and policy makers. (more…)
Nursing / 08.03.2021

If you are a registered nurse, or you are thinking about nursing as a career option, then becoming a nurse practitioner is a great way to prove your experience and expertise. It allows you more agency when working with patients, as the advanced level of qualification that nurse practitioners have means that they are allowed to make treatment decisions without the supervision of a physician. Becoming a nurse practitioner also gives you access to higher remuneration, and to specialize in an area of medicine which can be incredibly fulfilling.

What is a nurse practitioner?

nursing, nurse, health care, NP, nurse practitionerNurse Practitioners are registered nurses who have carried out extra training, which means that they have more authority than registered nurses and share a similar responsibility level to doctors. They are able to prescribe medications, order diagnostic tests and provide treatments much as a physician would. Also like a physician, they will have undertaken their training to specialize in a particular area of medicine. Nurse Practitioners begin their careers as registered nurses, which means that they are used to approaching medicine in a patient-centric way. They will often work with an idea of patient comfort at the forefront of their minds, whereas a doctor can operate with an idea of medical treatment at the forefront of theirs. This means that a combination of doctors and Nurse Practitioners within a healthcare facility can lead to a more rounded care experience. In some states, Nurse Practitioners are able to operate without the supervision of a doctor. However, in others, they do need to get a sign off for any treatments that they provide. There is a general movement towards allowing Nurse Practitioners more agency as this is helping to relieve strain on the healthcare system. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cannabis, JAMA, OBGYNE, Pediatrics / 08.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Erica M. Wymore, MD MPH Assistant Professor, Neonatal- Perinatal Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Section of Neonatology University of Colorado School of Medicine Children's Hospital Colorado Maya Bunik, MD, MPH  |  Professor, Pediatrics Medical Director, Child Health Clinic, Primary Care  |  Breastfeeding Management Clinic Adult and Child Consortium for Health Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS) School of Medicine| University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Children's Hospital Colorado MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Marijuana legalization has been increasing in the United States, with increasing consumption of marijuana products. Currently, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) do not recommend marijuana use during pregnancy or lactation due to concerning though limited data on the effects of perinatal marijuana exposure. As there has been increasing prevalence of women using marijuana during pregnancy due to legalization and perceptions of safety, we sought to determine the duration of THC excretion in breast milk among women who had evidence of marijuana use at delivery and abstained post-partum.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Environmental Risks, Pediatrics, Toxin Research, Weight Research / 08.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alison P. Sanders, PhD Pronouns:  She/Her Assistant Professor Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health Department of Pediatrics Director, Interdisciplinary Environmental Health Postdoctoral Fellowship MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: My research group is dedicated to understanding environmental and early life risk factors that contribute to kidney function decline. While some of the pathobiology leading to chronic kidney disease remains unclear, we understand that the process is complex and, like many chronic diseases, begins long before clinical diagnosis. My research investigates how the environment and mixtures of environmental chemicals/toxicants interact with traditional risk factors such as obesity, preterm birth, and nutritional status to hasten or prevent chronic kidney disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, FDA, JAMA / 07.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Marie C. Bradley, PhD, MPharm, MScPH Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology Center for Drug Evaluation and Research US Food and Drug Administration Silver Spring, Maryland MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Long-acting insulin analogs, insulin glargine (glargine) and insulin detemir (detemir) are increasingly used in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).  In recent years the price of long-acting insulin analogs has increased substantially2 Higher costs for these insulin analogs may limit patient access.1 Clinical trials showed the risk of severe hypoglycemia did not differ between long-acting insulin analogs and neutral protamine Hagedorn (NPH) insulin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). An observational study examining severe hypoglycemia in T2DM patients found similar results. However, these previous studies did not focus on patients aged ≥65 years, who are at an increased risk for hypoglycemia, or did not include patients with concomitant prandial insulin use. Therefore, to investigate this further we used Medicare data to assess the risk of severe hypoglycemia among older T2DM patients who initiated a long acting analog ( glargine or detemir) compared to NPH in real-world settings. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, JAMA / 05.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ninh T. Nguyen, MD Chief of Gastrointestinal Division, Surgery UCI  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings  Response: There are limited national data on hospitalized patients in the US. To our knowledge, the current publication provides data on the largest cohort of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at US academic centers. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Stroke / 05.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Fernando D Testai, MD, PhD, FAHA Associate Professor of Neurology and Rehabilitation Stroke Medical Director University of Illinois Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Stroke constitutes a leading cause of disability and mortality in the United States. Large observational studies have shown that up to 90% of the strokes are caused by modifiable vascular risk factors, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and several others. In addition, previous history of stroke is one of the most powerful predictors of recurrent stroke. Thus, controlling vascular risk factors in patients with stroke is of paramount importance. To this end, the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association have developed specific targets for blood pressure, glycemic, and cholesterol levels. (more…)
Author Interviews, Columbia, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease, JAMA / 05.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David J. Engel, MD, FACC Division of Cardiology Columbia University Irving Medical Center New York, New York MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: ​​Early reports and observations in the COVID-19 pandemic found that patients recovering from mild to severe forms of COVID-19 illness had a higher prevalence of cardiac injury in comparison with what historically has been seen and reported with other viruses. This cardiac injury, categorized as inflammatory heart disease, could have serious implications, including a risk for exercise-triggered sudden cardiac death, for athletes and highly active people who have had prior COVID-19 illness and who return to intensive exercise activity with unknowing subclinical cardiac injury. To address these concerns in COVID positive athletes, the ACC generated return to play cardiac screening recommendations (troponin blood test, ECG, resting echocardiogram) for all competitive athletes after COVID-19 infection prior to resumption of competitive and intensive sport activity. The professional leagues were among the first organizations to return to full-scale sport activity in the setting of the pandemic, and they uniformly adopted and implemented the ACC return to play screening recommendations for all athletes that tested positive for COVID-19. The leagues recognized that there was value in collaborating and formally analyzing their pooled cardiac data, not only for league athlete health and safety purposes, but also to share broadly this information to add to the growing body of knowledge about the virus. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Stem Cells / 05.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Khalid Shah, MS, PhD Vice Chair of Research, Department of Neurosurgery Director, Center for Stem Cell Therapeutics and Imaging Director, Center for Excellence in Biomedicine Brigham and Women's Hospital Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School Principal Faculty, Harvard Stem Cell Institute  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Approximately 15-to-30 percent of patients with metastatic breast cancer have brain metastasis (BM), with basal-like breast cancer (BLBC) metastasizing to the brain most frequently. The prognosis for BLBC-BM patients is poor, as the blood-brain barrier prevents most therapeutics from reaching the brain. Testing candidate therapies in clinical trials is also challenging because animal models that mimic BM are limited. In this study we engineered a bimodal tumor-suppressing and killing molecule that can be delivered to the brain by stem cells and tested them in mouse models of brain metastases that mimic clinical setting. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, JAMA, Pediatrics, Pulmonary Disease / 04.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dott.ssa Silvia Bloise MD Prof. Riccardo Lubrano MD PhD Pediatric and Neonatology Unit Maternal and Child Department Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Pending new evidence, the universal facial masking, with other preventive measures remain the only strategies to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The use of face mask is particularly debated in the children, especially in younger children. Therefore, we wanted to test whether their in children was associated with episodes of desaturation or respiratory distress. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Cost of Health Care, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Electronic Records, JAMA, Technology / 04.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Carlo Giovanni Traverso, MB, BChir, PhD Associate Physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital Assistant Professor, Peter R. Chai, MD, MMS Emergency Medicine Physician and Medical Toxicologist Harvard Medical School Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Medicine   Dr-Spot-HealthCare-Assistant.jpgMedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are some of the functions that Dr. Spot can facilitate? Response: During the COVID-19 pandemic, we wanted to consider innovative methods to provide additional social distance for physicians evaluating low acuity individuals who may have COVID-19 disease in the emergency department. While other health systems had instituted processes like evaluating patients from outside of emergency department rooms or calling patients to obtain a history, we considered the use of a mobile robotic system in collaboration with Boston Dynamics to provide telemedicine triage on an agile platform that could be navigated around a busy emergency department. Dr. Spot was built with a camera system to help an operator navigate it through an emergency department into a patient room where an on-board tablet would permit face-to-face triage and assessment of individuals. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, MD Anderson, Menopause, University of Pittsburgh, Weight Research / 04.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Samar El Khoudary, PhD, MPH, BPharm, FAHA Associate Professor of Epidemiology University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Research increasingly shows that it isn’t so important how much fat a woman is carrying, which doctors typically measure using weight and BMI, as it is where she is carrying that fat. To investigate this, we looked at 25 years of data on 362 women from Pittsburgh and Chicago who participated in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) Heart study. The women, who were an average age of 51, had their visceral adipose tissue—fat surrounding the abdominal organs—measured by CT scan and the thickness of the internal carotid artery lining in their neck measured by ultrasound, at a few points during the study. Carotid artery thickness is an early indicator of heart disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Vaccine Studies / 03.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Laura M. Bogart, PhD Senior Behavioral Scientist RAND Corporation Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Recent media polls continue to show that Black Americans are less likely to intend to get the COVID-19 vaccine than White Americans, and initial state data show a similar racial/ethnic disparity in vaccination rates. Initial uptake of the vaccine has been significantly affected by inequities in vaccine access and supply. In addition to these challenges, other factors contribute to hesitancy around vaccination, including self-perceived risk of infection, trust in the vaccine itself, trust in healthcare systems, healthcare providers, and policymakers who support the vaccine, and trust in the pharmaceutical industry and clinical research. In this study, we conducted a survey of a nationally representative sample of 207 Black Americans in late 2020, after initial COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and safety data were released to the public. We also did in-depth interviews with a subsample of those surveyed who said that they would not get vaccinated. In addition, we engaged with a stakeholder advisory committee comprised of individuals who represent different subgroups and organizations in Black communities in the U.S., in order to discuss the results and make recommendations for policies to increase COVID-19 vaccination among Black Americans. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, UCSD / 03.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Steven L. Wagner PhD University of California, San Diego Department of Neurosciences Professor in Residence School of Medicine, Medical Teaching Facility Room 150 La Jolla, California 92093-0624  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: Amyloid plaques are pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD)—clumps of misfolded proteins that accumulate in the brain, disrupting and killing neurons and resulting in the progressive cognitive impairment that is characteristic of the widespread neurological disorder.  Amyloid plaques are composed of small protein fragments called amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides. These peptides are generated by enzymes called β-secretase and γ-secretase, which sequentially cleave a protein called amyloid precursor protein on the surfaces of neurons to release Aβ fragments of varying lengths. Some of these fragments, such as Aβ42, are particularly prone to forming plaques, and their production is elevated in patients with mutations predisposing them to early-onset AD. Several attempts have been made to treat or prevent AD using drugs that inhibit either β-secretase or γ-secretase, but many of these drugs have proved to be highly toxic or unsafe in humans, likely because β-secretase and γ-secretase are required to cleave additional proteins in the brain and other organs. Instead, Wagner and colleagues investigated the therapeutic potential of drugs known as γ-secretase modulators or GSMs, which instead of inhibiting the γ-secretase enzyme, slightly alter its activity so that it produces fewer Aβ peptides that are prone to form plaques while continuing to duties cleaving other protein targets. “GSMs offer the ability to mitigate mechanism-based toxicities associated with γ-secretase inhibitors,” said Wagner.  (more…)
Cancer Research / 01.03.2021

liver-metastases-cancer-chemoebolization.jpegOne of the main dangers of cancer is metastasizing. This process can affect any organ in the human body. The most frequent causes of liver metastases are tumors of the gastrointestinal tract, mammary glands, lungs, and pancreas. One of the modern methods of liver metastases treatment today is chemoembolization procedure. Its use allows doctors to fight cancer liver metastases with minimal harm to the patient. Statistics shows that this method is 30% more effective than traditional treatment of metastases with systemic chemotherapy. Symptoms As a rule, secondary liver cancer has no symptoms for a long time. This makes it difficult to diagnose this type of oncology. However, with regular medical check-ups, you can avoid this. To know when you should see a doctor, you need to know the symptoms of liver metastases that are most commonly seen:
  • Abdominal bloating
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Constipation or diarrhea
  • Decreased appetite
  • Severe weight loss
  • Persistent low-grade increase in body temperature
  • General weakness and fatigue
If you have one or more of these symptoms, it is better to see your doctor. This will allow the tumor to be diagnosed at an early stage, so you can improve your prognosis for treatment and also make it less harmful to your health. (more…)
Author Interviews, BMJ, Circadian Rhythm, JAMA, Occupational Health / 27.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Tapio Räihä Center for Life Course Health Research University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? sleep-work-occupational-chronotypeResponse: In ageing societies, understanding risk factors for pre-term disability pensions and poor work ability is an important research priority. We studied whether individual-level chronotype could contribute to these.  Previous research has shown that evening chronotypes (E-types) have poorer health compared with morning chronotypes (M-types), and that E-types may have difficulties to function during standard morning working hours. This study was the first population-level study with register linkage to find out whether eveningness would be associated with poor work ability and disability pensions, too. We surveyed chronotype (with the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire) among 5831 non-retired Finns born in 1966 when they were at age 46 years, and compared it with their current perceived work ability. We then followed the emergence of new registered disability pensions during the next 4 years. Multivariate logistic and Cox regression analyses of the associations between chronotype and the outcomes were separately adjusted for sleep, health and behaviours, sociodemographic and economic factors, or working times  (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Heart Disease, Nature, Statins / 27.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Aakriti Gupta MD MS Fellow, Interventional Cardiology Columbia University Irving Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: While taking care of patients with COVID-19 last spring and summer at the height of the pandemic, we observed that patients who got very sick and required hospitalization had high rates of hyperinflammation with elevated CRP levels, and thromboembolic phenomena. As cardiologists who frequently prescribe statins for hyperlipidemia, they were a class of drugs that came naturally to mind for their anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant and immunomodulatory properties in addition to their cholesterol lowering properties. As such, we decided to look at the association of statin use with in-hospital mortality in patients who are hospitalized with COVID-19. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research / 25.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: group-picture Catharina Svanborg M.D., Ph.D. Professor at Lund University Department of Laboratory Medicine, Division of Microbiology, Immunology and Glycobiology Founder/Chairman of the Board at HAMLET Pharma MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? HAMLET PharmaResponse: Like many unexpected scientific developments, this finding was serendipitous. In our search for the molecular basis of host susceptibility to infection, we discovered that infection directly affects MYC levels. Gene expression analysis revealed that MYC itself was inhibited and that genes regulated by MYC were affected in children with acute kidney infection. Rapid reductions in MYC levels was further confirmed by infecting human kidney cells with the pathogenic E. coli bacteria isolated from patients with acute pyelonephritis, allowing us to formulate the hypothesis that bacteria regulate host MYC levels during acute infection and to investigate the mechanism leading to this inhibition. This work was conducted by the Laboratory Medicine group at Lund University in Sweden led by Professor Catharina Svanborg. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Hepatitis - Liver Disease, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 25.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Andrea D. Branch PhD Professor of Medicine Division of Liver Diseases Associate Professor of Surgery Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Liver cancer is a deadly condition with a high mortality rate. About 90% of people who develop liver cancer have cirrhosis (advanced liver scarring) due to a chronic underlying liver disease. Patients with cirrhosis are advised to undergo liver cancer surveillance. Early detection improves survival, but diagnosis requires more than a blood test, which makes surveillance complex and expensive. Black individuals are more likely to develop liver cancer than white individuals and are more likely to die from it. Black patients also have more advanced liver cancer at the time of diagnosis than Whites. We aimed to identify additional factors that distinguish liver cancer in African Americans, focusing on patients with hepatitis C virus infection, the most common chronic liver disease in people who die from liver cancer in the United States. (more…)
Author Interviews, Microbiome, UCSD / 24.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Richard Gallo, MD, PhD Ima Gigli Distinguished Professor of Dermatology Chair of the Department of Dermatology UC San Diego School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly explain what is meant by atopic dermatitis/eczema? How common is it and what are the symptoms. Response: Atopic Dermatitis is a common inflammatory disease of the skin that appears in up to 20% of children and 3% of the adult population. People suffering from atopic dermatitis have red, itchy skin. In many cases this rash will disrupt sleeping and severely impact quality of life. Also, people with atopic dermatitis are more susceptible to infections of the skin and are more likely to have other allergies and asthma. (more…)
Allergies, Author Interviews / 24.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:  Authors: Mike Kulis, Johanna Smeekens, Edwin Kim, Vladimir Zarnitsyn, Samirkumar Patel MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Peanut allergy is an IgE-mediated disease affecting approximately 2% of young children in the United States. Over the past decade, various forms of immunotherapy have been investigated with the goal of repeated daily allergen exposure leading to a desensitized state. One of these therapies, oral immunotherapy, or OIT, received FDA approval for treating peanut allergy in January 2020 with Aimmune’s Palforzia drug. While OIT effectively induces desensitization in a majority of patients, there is a substantial burden related to side effects, with an ever-present risk of systemic anaphylaxis. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Sugar, Weight Research / 24.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eric Crosbie, PhD, MA Assistant Professor School of Community Health Sciences Ozmen Institute for Global Studies University of Nevada Reno MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: My colleague Dr. Laura Schmidt and I established a framework for studying preemption (when a higher level of government limits the authority of lower levels to enact laws) by studying the history of state preemption of local tobacco control policies in the U.S., which we published last year (2020) in AJPH. We noticed the same strategies that the tobacco industry employed were now being used by the beverage industry to suppress local taxation policies on sugar sweetened beverages (e.g. soda, coffee drinks, energy drinks, etc). We used this preemption framework to publish a new study this year in AJPH that analyzed state preemption of local sugar sweetened beverage taxes in the U.S.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Kidney Disease / 24.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. FotiKathryn Foti, PhD, MPH Postdoctoral fellow Department of Epidemiology Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) 2021 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Blood Pressure (BP) in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) provides recommendations for the management of BP in individuals with nondialysis CKD, incorporating new evidence since the publication of its previous guideline in 2012. The 2021 KDIGO guideline recommends a target systolic BP <120 mmHg based on standardized office BP measurement. This BP goal is largely informed by the findings of the SPRINT trial which found targeting SBP <120 mmHg compared with <140 mmHg reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease by 25% and all-cause mortality by 27%. The benefits were similar for participants with and without CKD. In our study, we sought to examine the potential implications of the 2021 KDIGO guideline for BP lowering among US adults with CKD compared to the 2012 KDIGO guideline (target BP ≤130/80 mmHg in adults with albuminuria or ≤140/90 mmHg or under without albuminuria) and the 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (target BP <130/80 mmHg) guideline. Additionally, we determined implications of the 2021 KDIGO guideline for angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEi) or angiotensin II-receptor blocker (ARB) use for those with albuminuria (recommended at systolic BP ≥120 mmHg) compared to the 2012 KDIGO guideline (recommended at BP >130/80 mmHg).  (more…)
Education, Mental Health Research / 23.02.2021

Perhaps you are considering a career change or want to take the next steps in your counseling career journey. A masters in mental health counseling online could be the perfect way to help you achieve these goals. Becoming a mental health counselor is a very rewarding yet demanding job, and you will need many different skills, both technical and personal, in order to succeed. If you love working with and helping people, becoming a mental health counselor may be the perfect career choice for you. Here are a couple of basics about studying online for a masters in mental health counseling. What is a masters in mental health counseling online degree? Undertaking a masters in mental health counseling online can help you on your journey to becoming a fully licensed mental health counselor. It is a masters degree that is taught through a mixture of in-person fieldwork and online course work. A masters in mental health counseling online prepares you for the various licensing exams you will need to take in order to progress into the next stage of your career. The majority of positions and jobs within mental health counseling require a masters as a minimum, so a masters in mental health counseling online is a great first step in pursuing this career path. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Education, JAMA, UCLA / 22.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Frederick Zimmerman, PhD Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management Fielding School of Public Health UCLA   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The science on school transmissions of COVID is becoming clearer all the time in its conclusion that there is little to no transmission in school environments as long as reasonable precautions are taken.  Yet one recent study got a lot of attention for claiming that states that allowed their schools to remain open in the early days of the pandemic saw more cases.  That study did not control for several important factors that might explain this association, so our study aimed to correct that work. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brain Cancer - Brain Tumors, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy, Pharmaceutical Companies / 22.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: https://www.inovio.com/Jeffrey Skolnik, MD Senior Vice President, Clinical Development INOVIO MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this technology? Would you tell us a little about the brain tumor, Glioblastoma Multiforme? How common is it, whom does it primarily affect?  Response: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant brain tumor, affecting more than 10 thousand people each year in the United States. Most people diagnosed with GBM are above the age of 60 years, although GBM can be diagnosed at any age, including in children and young adults. Despite decades of research, GBM remains almost universally fatal. GBM is a tumor of the glial cells of the brain, and current therapies are directed at removing tumor with surgery and killing residual tumor cells with radiation and chemotherapy. More recently, with the introduction of immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) for the treatment of cancer, clinical studies have tried to add this promising technology to the treatment of GBM. Unfortunately, despite success in other types of cancer, ICIs have not demonstrated any clinical benefit in treating GBM. Newer clinical studies aim at introducing a combination of newer therapies together to try to tackle this terrible disease, and INOVIO’s GBM-001 study is one such example of an innovative approach to treating GBM.    (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Nature, Pediatrics / 19.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Melanie Neeland PhD Research Fellow Murdoch Children's Research Institute Royal Children's Hospital Flemington Road, Parkville Victoria Australia  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Children generally have mild COVID-19 disease compared to adults, however the immune mechanisms underpinning this response are unclear. Understanding the underlying age-related differences in the severity of COVID-19 will provide important insights and opportunities for prevention and treatment of COVID-19. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Cancer Research, Science / 18.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Muhammed Murtaza M.B.B.S. (M.D.), Ph.D. Translational Genomics Research Institute Phoenix, AZ MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Liquid biopsies and cell-free DNA analysis using blood samples have transformed cancer diagnostics in recent years. We started this project wondering whether cell-free DNA in urine is a viable alternative to blood, since urine could be collected completed non-invasively. Our very first experiment showed the lengths of DNA fragments in urine very similar across healthy individuals, leading us to wonder whether urine was actually as randomly degraded as we had previously thought. (more…)