Fighting cancer and chronic disease is tiring work for the immune system. When T cells are engaged in this kind of lengthy battle, they can become exhausted, or unable to function properly. One immunotherapy that revitalizes these cells by blocking an immune checkpoint protein called LAG3 was recently approved by federal regulators. But exactly how LAG3 works has remained a mystery — until now.
Researchers are investigating the use of artificial intelligence to forecast therapeutic effectiveness and outcomes for patients with sepsis, a syndrome that claims one in five lives around the world and has until now been a black box for rapid diagnosis and treatment.
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member and Carnegie Mellon University Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Assistant Professor, Elizabeth Wayne, PhD, has been awarded an NIH R35 grant, otherwise known as the Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA), providing her with $1.7 million in funding over five years.
Small vesicles secreted by bacterial cells play a role in recruiting immune cells but surprisingly also might help to protect the pathogens, according to a new study from Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh researchers published in mBio. The study is one of the first studies to look at the role of extracellular vesicles released by the pathogen pneumococcus in vivo and may provide a new avenue for vaccine development.
Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a relatively rare but serious complication of pregnancy in which the heart muscle weakens. The source of the condition is unknown, but researchers believe it impacts at least one in 2,000 live births in the US. Greater risk for the disease is associated with preeclampsia, twin or multiple births, older maternal age, some genetic mutations, and ethnicity. Sarah Yahr Tucker reported on PPCM for Popular Science.
It was a nagging mystery: A rare-disease expert at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh had found a successful treatment for two of the deadliest symptoms of one of the more common classes of rare diseases diagnosed by newborn screenings, but one symptom—painful episodes of muscle breakdown that land victims in intensive care—persisted.
Today, the only cure for end-stage liver disease is an organ transplant – an expensive treatment, the demand for which outweighs the supply. Nearly 12,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for a liver as of July 2021.
There is no long-term benefit to surgically placing tympanostomy tubes in a young child’s ears to reduce the rate of recurrent ear infections during the ensuing two years compared with giving oral antibiotics to treat ear infections, a randomized trial led by UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh pediatrician-scientists determined. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Joseph Dohar, MD—Co-Director of the Wound Healing Program at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, the Research Director of Children’s Aerodigestive Center, the Medical Director of its Voice, Resonance, and Swallowing Center, a Professor of Otolaryngology in the School of Medicine, a Professor of Communication Science and Disorders in the School of Health and Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh, and a Staff Otolaryngologist at both UPMC Presbyterian Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC—is a co-author on the study.
The first large-scale, multi-hospital evaluation of an “all or none” federal policy intended to improve outcomes in sepsis patients finds that the guidelines are a wash—on average they neither helped nor hurt despite significant investments in their implementation, according to an analysis by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (UPMC) clinician-scientists of nearly a dozen hospitals in one academic health system. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Derek Angus, MD, MPH, Executive Vice President, and Chief Healthcare Innovation Officer, UPMC; Associate Vice Chancellor for Healthcare Innovation, University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences; Distinguished Professor and Mitchell P. Fink Endowed Chair, Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh and UPMC; Senior editor, JAMA, is a co-author on the study.
A University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine-led survey of dozens of surge capacity managers at hospitals nationwide captures the U.S. health care system’s pandemic preparedness status in the months before the first COVID-19 cases were identified in China. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Derek Angus, MD, MPH, Executive Vice President, and Chief Healthcare Innovation Officer, UPMC; Associate Vice Chancellor for Healthcare Innovation, University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences; Distinguished Professor and Mitchell P. Fink Endowed Chair, Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh and UPMC; Senior editor, JAMA, is a co-author of the study published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
The mechanism by which acute viral respiratory infections promote secondary bacterial growth and infection in the airways depends on iron-carrying extracellular sacs secreted by the cells lining the host’s airways, report researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in a paper published in Cell Reports. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Donna Stolz, PhD, associate director of the Center for Biologic Imaging, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and an associate professor in the Departments of Cell Biology and Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, is a co-author on the paper.
As reported by Heather McKenzie from BioSpace, when our backs were against the wall, the biotech/biopharma community came together to create not one, but two COVID-19 vaccines currently approved for emergency use in the U.S. The lessons learned from the global pandemic are expected to translate to existing and emerging therapeutic areas – particularly, oncology; more efficient regulatory-industry relationships; mRNA is a word we will continue to hear a lot about; and home health care is here to stay. These are just a few of the insights Ms. McKenzie discovered when she recently spoke with 12 executives from the biotech/biopharma space.
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation announced $1.7 million in new research funding to drive progress on its Path to a Cure. The awards, to seven academic institutions and two companies, will support focused research into key scientific challenges associated with developing therapies to address the underlying cause of disease for all people with CF, regardless of their underlying mutation.
A treatment that may improve the 10-year survival rate for ovarian cancer patients should be a consideration, according to a recent study led by McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Faina Linkov, PhD, MPH, chair of Duquesne University’s Health Administration and Public Health program in the Rangos School of Health Sciences.
Students from the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering and the School of Pharmacy designed and prepared experiments that will be conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
In a recent issue of the Annals of Surgery, epidemiologists from the University of Pittsburgh published an analysis that could help guide clinicians and policymakers in counseling bariatric surgery patients to improve their quality of life for many years to come. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Steven Belle, PhD, MScHyg, professor in the Department of Epidemiology and a co-director in the Epidemiology Data Center in the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, is a co-author on the study.
UPMC and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine physician-scientists—including McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Derek Angus, MD, MPH, UPMC chief healthcare innovation officer, chair of the UPP Department of Critical Care Medicine and physician director of the UPMC ICU Service Center, University of Pittsburgh’s inaugural associate vice chancellor for health care innovation, and Distinguished Professor and the Mitchell P. Fink Endowed Chair in Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine—contributed to a national study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reporting findings that “do not support” the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
A recent study has validated a new patient-reported outcome measure that assesses fatigue in patients receiving long-term dialysis treatments. The results appear in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Mary Amanda Dew, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, Epidemiology, Nursing, and Biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh and also a Professor at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, is a co-author on this study.
In a tremendous demonstration of global collaboration, an international team led by clinician-scientists at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have pooled data from 121 hospitals in eight countries to find that inexpensive, widely available steroids improve the odds that very sick COVID-19 patients will survive the illness.
Especially in settings where personal protective equipment, or PPE, is in short supply, intubation — inserting a breathing tube down a patient’s throat — poses a major risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure for doctors and nurses as viral particles are released into the air.
The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at the University of Pittsburgh has awarded $900,000 to 17 research projects to address different aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members Alan Wells, MD, DMSc, and Louis Falo, MD, PhD, will serve as co-principal investigators on two of the funded projects. Their projects and funding are:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has awarded the Hillman Center for Pediatric Transplantation at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh with one of the first six grants from the COVID-19 Telehealth Program Fund — and the first to a children’s hospital.
Launched recently at UPMC is a novel clinical trial developed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine to address one of the most important debates during the COVID-19 pandemic: How should doctors decide between quickly adopting new therapies, such as the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, and waiting until they are tested in longer clinical trials?
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists announced a potential vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. When tested in mice, the vaccine, delivered through a fingertip-sized patch, produces antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 at quantities thought to be sufficient for neutralizing the virus.
As reported by David Templeton for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, UPMC researchers are close to completing a blood test to determine immunity against the virus that causes COVID-19. Such a test could certify little or no risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and identify the so-called “super” people who could serve in the health-care battle against COIVD-19 with little risk to themselves.
Pairing chemotherapy nanodrugs with a nutritional supplement can lessen devastating side-effects while reducing the amount of the expensive drugs needed to treat cancer according to a study from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Taiwan’s National Health Research Institutes (NHRI). In addition, pretreatment with the supplement promotes the production of tumor-killing macrophages, making it a promising complement and supplement to existing chemotherapies.
Auto-brewery syndrome is a rare medical condition in which intoxicating quantities of ethanol are produced by specific types of yeast or bacteria through endogenous fermentation in the digestive system. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Kenichi Tamama, MD, PhD, FCAP, Associate Professor of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Director of the Toxicology Laboratory, and colleagues have reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine the first known case of a woman who urinates alcohol after a never-before-seen condition effectively turned her bladder into a microbrewery.
Although 1 in 7 adults smoke cigarettes the year prior to undergoing weight-loss surgery, nearly all successfully quit at least a month before their operation. However, smoking prevalence steadily climbs to pre-surgery levels within seven years, according to new research led by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Steven Belle, PhD, MScHyg, Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and a Co-Director in the Epidemiology Data Center, Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, is a co-author on this work.
Mucus is a protective, slimy secretion produced by goblet cells and which lines organs of the respiratory, digestive, and reproductive systems. Slime production is essential to health, and an imbalance can be life-threatening. Patients with diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and ulcerative colitis produce too much mucus, often after growing too many goblet cells. Loss of goblet cells can be equally devastating – for instance during cancer, after infection, or injury. The balance of slime creation, amount, and transport is critical, so doctors and medical researchers have long sought the origins of goblet cells and have been eager to control processes that regenerate them and maintain balanced populations.
Sometimes, in order to understand the big picture, you need to start by assessing the smallest of details. It’s a truth that engineers know well — selecting the right materials can mean the success or failure of a given application.
Overweight and obese vitamin D-deficient children who took a relatively high dose of vitamin D every day for six months had lower blood pressure and improved insulin sensitivity than their peers who took a lower dose, according to the results of a UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh clinical trial reported in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Abbe de Vallejo, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Immunology in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, is a co-author on the study.
Twice as many people as previously believed are dying of sepsis worldwide, according to an analysis published in The Lancet and announced at the Critical Care Reviews annual meeting in Belfast. Among them are a disproportionately high number of children in poor areas.
As a healthy heart ages, it becomes more susceptible to cardiovascular diseases. Though researchers have discovered that relaxin, an insulin-like hormone, suppresses atrial fibrillation (AF), inflammation, and fibrosis in aged rats, the underlying mechanisms of these benefits are still unknown. In a recent Scientific Reports paper, a University of Pittsburgh research team discusses how relaxin interacts with the body’s signaling processes to produce a fundamental mechanism that may have great therapeutic potential.
Artur Dubrawski, PhD, is not a critical care physician, but his best friend is. Dr. Dubrawski, a research professor in Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, loves talking about disease symptoms with McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Michael Pinsky, MD, a professor of critical care medicine, cardiovascular disease, bioengineering and more at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. They also love talking about data and, more important, what the data means.
Cardiol Therapeutics Inc., a leader in the production of pharmaceutical cannabidiol (CBD) products and in the development of innovative cannabidiol medicines for heart disease, announced the formation of the Clinical Steering Committee (CSC) for a Phase 2 international trial in acute myocarditis using its CardiolRx™100 cannabidiol formulation.
The University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine is the first in the nation to establish opioid-free pain management guidelines for the vast majority of procedures performed in all of its clinics.
Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) has received $112,500 in funding from A Glimmer of Hope Foundation (GOH) to further research of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and to enhance patient support services at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital.
Surgery can mend congenital heart defects shortly after birth, but those babies will carry a higher risk of heart failure throughout the rest of their lives. Yet, according to a Science Translational Medicine study published by UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh researchers, β-blockers could supplement surgery to regenerate infant heart muscle and mitigate the lasting effects of congenital heart disease.
Jenny Blair, writer for PittMed, reports in her article that in April 2019, Pitt began enrolling patients in one of the world’s first trials that combines the electronic health record with a new, efficient, safety-focused randomization process. The system is powered by software created by the Texas-based Berry Consultants. The approach, called REMAP (randomized, embedded, multi-factorial, adaptive platform), may transform the way doctors learn from patients—and how they care for them.
Primary investigators Gwendolyn Sowa, MD, PhD, of Pitt’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the UPMC Rehabilitation Institute, and McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Nam Vo, PhD, of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, were awarded $21.5 million to establish the Low Back Pain: Biological, Biomechanical, Behavioral Phenotypes Mechanistic Research Center (LB3P MRC), a multidisciplinary research center dedicated to categorizing patients into chronic low back pain subgroups with the goal of targeting treatments specific to individual patients’ pain and reducing the use of opioids.
