Epidemiology

Oncorus, Inc., an oncolytic virus company focused on driving innovation to transform outcomes for cancer patients, announced recently the completion of an oversubscribed $79.5 million Series B financing.  Oncorus is a University of Pittsburgh spin-out company based on the pioneering research of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Joseph Glorioso III, PhD, Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine with a secondary appointment in the Department of Human Genetics, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.  Dr. Glorioso is a co-founder of Oncorus and heads its Scientific Advisory Board.

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More than 30 million Americans suffer from diabetes and must inject themselves with insulin two to four times daily. Researchers have been looking for ways to administer the drug orally, and researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have now shown such a feat is possible.

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Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Hillman Cancer Center—including McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Simon Watkins, PhD, founder and director of the Center for Biologic Imaging at the University of Pittsburgh, a member of the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and a distinguished professor and vice chairman within the Department of Cell Biology—provide the first concrete evidence for the long-held belief that sick mitochondria pollute the cells they’re supposed to be supplying with power.

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McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member David Vorp, PhD, associate dean for research at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering and the John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering, and his team are using Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources to improve the diagnosis and treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms, the 13th-leading cause of death in western countries. New machine learning technologies and advances in computing power, like those offered by Amazon SageMaker and Amazon EC2, are making it possible to rapidly translate insights discovered in the lab into treatments and services that could dramatically improve human health.

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One out of four sepsis patients who survive their hospital stay have elevated levels of inflammation a year after discharge, and they are at higher risk for major health problems and death, according to a study led by physician-scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members who are authors on this study include:

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By Dr. George V. Mazariegos, Opinion Contributor, The Hill

“Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future,” President John F. Kennedy told the U.S. Committee for UNICEF in 1963. That same year, Dr. Thomas Starzl, my mentor, performed the world’s first pediatric liver transplant.

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Living-donor liver transplant offers numerous advantages over deceased-donor transplant, including better three-year survival rates for patients and lower costs, according to new research from the UPMC Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

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Death rates from sepsis fell faster in New York than expected—and faster than in peer states—following the introduction of the nation’s first state-mandated sepsis regulation, according to an analysis led by University of Pittsburgh researchers and published in JAMA. The policy requires all New York hospitals to quickly implement certain protocols when the deadly condition is suspected.

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McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Mangesh Kulkarni, PhD, assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, was awarded $17,793 in funding from the Central Research Development Fund (CRDF) to support research for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

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The McGowan Institute has formed an alliance with the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory to develop and demonstrate how microgravity can improve regenerative medicine-based therapies. The ISS provides a unique platform to conduct studies in a microgravity environment.

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Erica Comber, a PhD student in Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU’s) Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), and her colleagues in Carnegie Mellon University’s Bioengineered Organs Initiative, are working to help people with lung disease by making them new ones.

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Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV), which is carried in the blood of infected people. According to various estimates, anywhere from 3 to 10 million people in the United States are carriers of the virus. One reason for this is because the virus wasn’t even diagnosed until the late 1980s. In fact, a majority of carriers are still unaware of their HCV status.

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People who receive opioids for the first time while hospitalized have double the risk of continuing to receive opioids for months after discharge compared with their hospitalized peers who are not given opioids, according to research led by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

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With Alex Trebek’s recent announcement that his pancreatic cancer is in remission, many people have wondered if this difficult cancer is now easier to treat. Pancreatic cancer remains a major cancer killer, but advances are happening.

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A team of specialists at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh have performed UPMC’s first in-utero surgery to close an open neural tube defect in a baby months before her birth.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Stephen Emery, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Reproductive Sciences, Maternal Fetal Medicine, and the Director of the Center for Innovative Fetal Intervention at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC, was a member of the surgical team.

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The faster fluid is removed using continuous dialysis from patients with failing kidneys, the higher the likelihood they will die in the next several months, according to a study published today in JAMA Network Open by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members Gilles Clermont, MD, and John Kellum, MD, are co-authors of the study.

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Reversibly paralyzing and heavily sedating hospitalized patients with severe breathing problems do not improve outcomes in most cases, according to a National Institutes of Health-funded clinical trial conducted at dozens of North American hospitals and led by clinician-scientists at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Colorado schools of medicine.

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Much like cancer, sepsis isn’t simply one condition but rather many conditions that could benefit from different treatments, according to the results of a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study involving more than 60,000 patients. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members who are co-authors on the study include:

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A major milestone on its strategic mission to lead in sepsis diagnostics, Beckman Coulter recently announced that its Early Sepsis Indicator has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Sepsis is a global healthcare crisis that affects more than 30 million people worldwide. The Early Sepsis Indicator is a first-of-its-kind, hematology-based cellular biomarker that is designed to help emergency department physicians identify patients with sepsis or at increased risk of developing sepsis.

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In the years following bariatric surgery, a person’s overall eating behaviors and the amount of time spent watching television, playing video games and using a computer for recreation are a better indication of long-term weight loss success than specific weight control practices like counting calories.

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New research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center sheds light on how tumors use the body’s regulators of immunity for their own benefit. Published in Nature Immunology, the findings could be used to develop the next generation of immune therapies to fight various cancers.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member James Luketich, MD—Henry T. Bahnson Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, the Chairman, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, the Chief, Division of Thoracic and Foregut Surgery, the Director, Thoracic Surgical Oncology, the Co-Director, Lung Cancer Center, the Associate Director of Surgical Affairs, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and the Director, Mark Ravitch/Leon C. Hirsh Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery—is a co-author on the paper.

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Total pancreatectomy with islet autotransplantation (TPIAT) is a surgical procedure used to treat severe complications of chronic pancreatitis (CP) or very high risk of pancreatic cancer while reducing the risk of severe diabetes mellitus.

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Pancreatic cancer is a grim diagnosis, with a five-year survival rate of less than 9 percent. To improve those odds, researchers at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine sought genetic signatures in the largest study of its kind that could be used to better match drugs to patients and for early detection.

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If you follow transplant news, you probably know the grim facts: Worldwide, there is an enormous and widening gap between the number of people who need transplant organs and the number of donor organs available. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), 20 people die every day waiting for a transplant. While UNOS and other organizations work to increase awareness and recruit more donors, researchers and doctors are working hard to find medical solutions that can help close that gap.

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Pioneered at UPMC at the Center for Innovative Fetal Intervention at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital which is directed by McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Stephen Emery, MD, a new technique using microcoil embolization shows early promise in treating inoperable placental tumors.

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Nine patients at Penn Medicine have been cured of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) following lifesaving heart transplants from deceased donors who were infected with the disease, according to a study published in the American Journal of Transplantation. The results highlight the potential for expanding the use of HCV-infected organs, including hearts, to broaden the donor pool for the more than 100,000 Americans currently on a transplant waitlist.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Christian Bermudez, MD, Director of Thoracic Transplantation at the University of Pennsylvania and Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, was a team member on the study.

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The Peripartum Cardiomyopathy Network (PCN) is a network of physicians and nurses at clinical sites across the United States and Canada dedicated to both clinical care and investigation of peripartum cardiomyopathy. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Dennis McNamara, MD, Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh and the Director of the Heart Failure/Transplantation Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, is a co-director of PCN.

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McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Abhinav Humar, MD, Clinical Director of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, Chief, Division of Transplantation in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and a Staff Physician at the Pittsburgh VA Medical Healthcare System, is the principal investigator of the clinical trial entitled, “Safety and Preliminary Efficacy of Donor-derived Regulatory Dendritic Cell (DCreg) Infusion and Immunosuppression Withdrawal in Living Donor Liver Transplantation” (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03164265).

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The Department of Defense Office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) announced that the FY18 Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program Discovery Award application submission from the laboratory of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Prashant Kumta, PhD, Edward R. Weidlein Chair and Professor at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering and School of Dental Medicine, was recommended for funding.

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Inborn errors of metabolism, or inherited disorders caused by a single gene, affect two or three out of every 1,000 babies. Most of these disorders are extremely complex, but they are medically and nutritionally manageable with early diagnosis and highly tailored treatment. Because they are complex and require specialized approaches, inborn errors of metabolism comprise a broad class of diseases with hundreds of variants; treatment protocols are myriad.

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McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Steven Belle, PhD, MScHyg, Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh and a Co-Director in the Epidemiology Data Center in the Graduate School of Public Health, was part of a team of researchers analyzing data from more than 2,400 obese patients who underwent bariatric weight-loss surgery. The researchers identified at least four different patient subgroups that diverge significantly in eating behaviors and rate of diabetes, as well as weight loss in three years after surgery.

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Mary Kekatos Health Reporter for the Dailymail.com and the Dailymail.com Reporter, recently detailed in her article that statins could prevent the spread of breast cancer, per a new study.  Researchers say the drugs, which combat high cholesterol, do not prevent the cancer from occurring but stop it from spreading to other organs.  Experiments performed in human cells and laboratory mice found that the pills prevent tumors from migrating to the lungs and liver.

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For millions of Americans struggling with obesity and considering surgical procedures to achieve weight loss and alleviate obesity-related health complications, a new study adds weight to the health benefits attributed to bariatric surgery.

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For a few years now, trendy IV (intravenous) spas have been popping up in non-medical facilities promising their clients hydration, more energy, and recovery from hangovers, jet lag, and symptoms of the flu.  But are IV treatments for these reasons safe?

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Genetic testing is a powerful diagnostic tool that is increasingly being used for the diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy, a disease in which the heart becomes enlarged, making it difficult to pump blood. Cardiomyopathy affects more than 3.5 million people in the United States. African Americans are at especially high risk but have been underrepresented in genetic studies, often due to socioeconomic barriers and other health disparities.

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More than one in 10 children hospitalized with sepsis die, but when a series of clinical treatments and tests is completed within an hour of its detection, the chances of survival increase considerably, according to a new analysis led by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and co-authored by McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Derek Angus, MD, MPH. Dr. Angus is Chair of the Department of Critical Care Medicine of both the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the UPMC Healthcare System.

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Stress hormones can save lives or take them. Released during an emergency or in pressure situations, stress hormones can gang up with white blood cells to fight infections or lead to heart attacks.

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In his opinion piece for STAT, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Derek Angus, MD, MPH, Chair of the Department of Critical Care Medicine of both the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the UPMC Healthcare System, states:

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When it comes to diagnosing suspected endometrial cancer and several other endometrial pathologies in post-menopausal women, physicians in the U.S. have two choices: Pipelle biopsy, a minimally invasive procedure that has a 60 to 80 percent chance of success, or a more expensive, riskier procedure that works nearly every time called dilation and curettage (D&C).

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McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Steven Belle, PhD, MScHyg, co-director of the Epidemiology Data Center at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, has been named a Fellow of the Society for Clinical Trials, a prestigious honor that only a few scientists achieve each year.

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