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Tuesday, September 28, 2021
UM School of Medicine Radiation Oncologist, Dr. Mark Mishra, Receives Prestigious Team Leadership Award from National Cancer Institute to Promote Collaborative Clinical Research
Mark Mishra, MD, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology and Director of Clinical Research for the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), has been named a 2021 recipient of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award (CCITLA). Dr. Mishra’s clinical trial work at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC) led the center’s director, Kevin Cullen, MD, to nominate him for the award. Dr. Mishra, who focuses on treating patients with tumors of the central nervous system and genitourinary tract, also oversees all radiation oncology clinical trial activities at UMGCC and at affiliated practices across the state of Maryland. He also serves as vice-chair of the UMGCCC Clinical Research Committee.
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Dr. Deanna Kelly Appointed New Chair of Institutional Review Board for the Maryland Department of Health
Deanna Kelly, PharmD, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), has been appointed to lead the prestigious committee of experts who review and approve all proposed research projects involving human participants for the Maryland Department of Health (MDH). She will chair the MDH Institutional Review Board (IRB) for the next four years, a position she started in July.
Monday, September 20, 2021
UM School of Medicine Receives $7.5 Million Grant to Create Complex Model of Female Reproductive Tract to Study Infections
Researchers at the Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have received a $7.5 million federal grant to create a complex model of the female reproductive system in order to study sexually transmitted infections (STIs). They plan to create a realistic 3D model that integrates vaginal and cervical epithelial cells and the bacteria that colonize these cells, called a microbiome. They aim to use this model to identity factors that play a role in chlamydia and gonorrhea infections experienced by a growing number of women in the U.S. and worldwide.
Friday, September 17, 2021
UM School of Medicine Researchers Awarded $3 Million National Cancer Institute Grant for Personalized Imaging to Improve Radiation Treatment
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have received more than $3 million in federal funding from the National Cancer Institute to conduct a study to develop a new precision-based medicine approach to treat lung cancer patients with radiation therapy. The R01 grant was awarded in July 2021 to Rao P. Gullapalli, PhD, MBA, Professor and Associate Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, and Amit Sawant, PhD, Professor and recently appointed Vice Chair for Medical Physics in the Department of Radiation Oncology. They will serve as co-principal investigators on the 5-year project, which involves an academic–industrial partnership with Robin Medical, Inc., based in Baltimore, MD.
Thursday, September 16, 2021
First Efficacy Results from Africa find Typhoid Vaccine to offer 84 Percent Protection against Typhoid Fever
A new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, finds a single dose of typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) – the only typhoid vaccine licensed for children as young as 6 months – is safe and 84 percent effective in protecting against typhoid in Blantyre, Malawi. These are the first efficacy results from Africa and part of a five-year, multi-country project to accelerate introduction of TCV.
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Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Probiotic-Containing Yogurt Protects Against Microbiome Changes That Lead to Antibiotic-Induced Diarrhea, Study Finds
Eating yogurt containing a particular strain of a well-studied probiotic appears to protect against harmful changes in the gut microbiome that are associated with antibiotic administration. That is the finding from a new randomized clinical trial, led by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Maryland (UMSOM), the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP), and Georgetown University Medical Center, which was recently published in the journal Nutrients.
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
University of Maryland Medicine Partners with Vibrent Health to Embark on Landmark Precision Health Research Study
University of Maryland Medicine announced a new partnership today with Vibrent Health, a health technology company based in Fairfax, Virginia, to create the All of Maryland Precision Health Initiative, a statewide digital platform for studies examining how genes and other factors affect health. The mission of All of Maryland -- a study that will be led by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers -- is to discover better ways to individualize healthcare. The goal is to enable individuals to benefit from treatments tailored to their own health profiles.
Friday, September 10, 2021
UM School of Medicine Study Finds Social Isolation Increases Risk of Death in Seniors Following Critical Illness
Older adults who are socially isolated before spending time in an intensive care unit (ICU) are more likely to experience worsened disability or die when they return home after their hospitalization. That is the finding of a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine.
Thursday, September 09, 2021
UM School of Medicine Researchers Find Mothers’ Diabetes May Induce Premature Aging of Neural Tissue in Early Development of Fetuses, Leading to Birth Defects
More than 3 million women of birthing age in the U.S. and 60 million in the world have diabetes—a disease that occurs when blood sugar is too high. Even when controlled with insulin, and blood sugar levels are kept mostly in check, maternal diabetes can cause permanent damage to the fetus. About 300,000 to 400,000 fetuses per year from mothers with diabetes develop neural tube defects—when the tissue that eventually forms the brain and spinal cord fails to form properly—which can lead to miscarriage or profound disability.
Wednesday, September 08, 2021
UM School of Medicine Reaching Underserved Communities Through Grass Roots Efforts to Increase COVID-19 Vaccination Rates
In an effort to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates among children and families, and ultimately help bring the pandemic under control, the Department of Family & Community Medicine (DFCM) and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) are partnering with key community and faith-based groups in Baltimore city to reach the most vulnerable and underserved communities. This partnership will also extend across Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and West Virginia.