Tuesday, August 09, 2022
New Study Confirms Typhoid Vaccine Safety, Immune Response in Children
A new study, published in The Lancet Global Health, finds typhoid conjugate vaccine, Typbar TCV®, provides immunity for up to 3 years in children as young as 9 months old in Malawi. The research – conducted by the Blantyre Malaria Project, Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust, and researchers at the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) – found that the TCV vaccine is safe and well tolerated. Importantly, the vaccine can be given to 9-month-old infants at the same time as routine measles-rubella vaccinations without reducing the immune response to either vaccine.
Monday, August 08, 2022
New Study Finds Rapid Decline in Vaccine-Boosted Neutralizing Antibodies Against Omicron Subvariant BA.5
A study led in part by investigators at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health found that although COVID-19 booster vaccinations in adults elicit high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, those antibody levels decrease substantially within three months. Kirsten E. Lyke, MD, Professor of Medicine at UMSOM and scientist at CVD, is Co-Chair and site Principal Investigator for the study, and Meagan Deming, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the UMSOM, also a scientist at CVD, is Vice-Chair of the study, which is a collaboration between investigators at the UMSOM’s CVD and the Institute of Human Virology (IHV).
Monday, August 08, 2022
26th Annual White Coat Ceremony Welcomes Class of 2026
On August 5, 2022, the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Class of 2026 donned their white coats for the first time, while faculty, family and friends were able to celebrate the great tradition of the White Coat Ceremony with them in person for the first time since 2019. It was a day of firsts, as new UMSOM Dean Mark T. Gladwin, MD addressed the Class for his first White Coat Ceremony in his first week on the job as Dean.
Tuesday, August 02, 2022
Gene Mutations from Patients with Debilitating Seizure and Movement Disorder Created in Mice
Three genetic alterations associated with a rare seizure and a movement disorder primarily found in children were successfully mirrored in mice and their symptoms treated, in a new study from a University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researcher, Andrea Meredith, PhD, Professor of Physiology and her collaborators.
Friday, July 29, 2022
Children Who Lack Sleep May Experience Detrimental Impact on Brain and Cognitive Development That Persists Over Time, UM School of Medicine Study Finds
Elementary school-age children who get less than nine hours of sleep per night have significant differences in certain brain regions responsible for memory, intelligence, and well-being compared to those who get the recommended 9-12 hours of sleep per night, according to a new study led by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers. Such differences correlated with greater mental health problems like depression, anxiety, and impulsive behaviors in those who lacked sleep. Inadequate sleep was also linked to cognitive difficulties with memory, problem solving and decision making. The findings were published today in the journal Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.
Friday, July 29, 2022
New Study Provides Insight for How Congenital Heart Defects Manifest
About one percent of the world population is born with a congenital heart defect, which affects about 40,000 U.S. births each year, but how these particular birth defects come about is largely unknown.
Friday, July 29, 2022
Why Breast-Fed Premature Infants Have A Healthier Gut Than Formula-Fed Ones
Human breastmilk has long been considered “liquid gold” among clinicians treating premature infants in a newborn intensive care unit (NICU). Breastmilk-fed “preemies” are healthier, on average, than those fed formula. Why is that true, however, has remained a mystery.
Thursday, July 28, 2022
Researchers Discover One of the Largest Known Bacteria-to-Animal Gene Transfer Inside a Fruit Fly
A fruit fly genome is not a just made up of fruit fly DNA – at least for one fruit fly species. New research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) shows that one fruit fly species contains whole genomes of a kind of bacteria, making this finding the largest bacteria-to-animal transfer of genetic material ever discovered. The new research also sheds light on how this happens.
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Longstanding Brain Scientist and Neurosurgeon, J. Marc Simard, MD, PhD, Named Interim Chair of UM School of Medicine’s Department of Physiology
University of Maryland School of Medicine Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, announced that leading Physician-Scientist and Neurosurgeon, J. Marc Simard, MD, PhD, the Dr. Bizhan Aarabi Professor in Neurotrauma, and Professor of Neurosurgery, Pathology, and Physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, has been appointed to serve as Interim Chair of the Department of Physiology.
Monday, July 25, 2022
Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Supports First-of-Its-Kind Conference to Evaluate the Public Health Magnitude of Long COVID And Define A Global R
The conference, hosted at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, reviewed the wealth of cohort data on long COVID, constructed a framework to characterize and define the conditions, and identified the most critical and urgent areas of research needed to better understand, diagnose, and treat this developing public health crisis.