Hear how UTMB labs helped beat swine flu
Galveston County Daily News, March 10, 2010
UTMB is offering a free public demonstration on Wednesday, March 24, of the way in which it prepared for and responded to the swine flu outbreak. During the presentations, James LeDuc, deputy director of Galveston National Laboratory, and associate professor Rick Pyles, director of the medical branch’s molecular epidemiology laboratory, will discuss “Emergency Preparedness: Response to the H1N1 Pandemic — Challenges and Opportunities.” Although there is no charge to attend, reservations are required by Friday.

Nobel Prizes — 2009
KUHF-FM (88.7, Houston), March 6, 2010
UTMB’s Norbert Herzog and David Niesel report on last year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in this week’s installment of Medical Discovery News. The honors went to a trio of Americans who answered a fundamental biological question: How do cells reliably divide and reproduce? Their work was on something called telomeres and the protein that creates them called telomerase. What the trio discovered is that telomeres are integral to the cell’s ability to faithfully divide and reproduce. By understanding telomeres and telomerase, it’s possible we could delay aging and discover new ways to fight cancer. This discovery has profoundly transformed our understanding of biology and medicine. MDN airs locally at 10 a.m. Saturday on KUHF.

Breast cancer signaling
KUHF-FM (88.7, Houston), Feb. 27, 2010
Every year more than 450,000 women die from breast cancer. Fortunately, physicians have an arsenal of treatment options against this disease and a new one may have just been developed, report Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in this week’s installment of UTMB’s Medical Discovery News. A group of Canadian researchers doing basic studies on breast cancer cells found a way to determine whether a patient’s breast cancer is likely to be aggressive. What they’ve found is that biochemical signaling among cancer cell proteins can be different in each woman. Remarkably, the researchers could associate the type of signaling with the outcome of the disease. Here’s another example of basic research that on the surface appears esoteric but delivers a powerful new approach to diagnosing disease. MDN airs locally at 10 a.m. Saturday on KUHF.

Diabetes — Islet cell transplantation
KUHF-FM (88.7, Houston), Feb. 20, 2010
UTMB is among several universities looking to find better treatments for diabetes, report Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in this week’s installment of UTMB’s Medical Discovery News. One innovative approach involves islet cell transplantation. Islet cells make insulin in the pancreas, which regulates the breakdown of glucose. The procedure isolates the islet cells from a patient’s removed pancreas, which are then transplanted back inside the patient’s body. What’s remarkable is that this “transplantation” does not require a scalpel. The islet cells are injected, and then they set up shop in the liver so that the body is able to make and regulate insulin again. MDN airs locally at 10 a.m. Saturday on KUHF.

CRWAD recognizes research, researchers
Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association, March 1 (cover date)
The American Association of Veterinary Immunologists presented the Distinguished Veterinary Immunologist Award to UTMB’s D. Mark Estes. Estes is an internationally recognized veterinary immunologist focusing on immunoregulatory mechanisms in infection and cancer.

Heart muscle regeneration
KUHF-FM (88.7, Houston), Feb. 13, 2010
The conventional wisdom has always been that the heart cannot generate new muscle cells so you die with the same heart you were born with, report Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in this week’s installment of UTMB’s Medical Discovery News. However, new research suggests that about half of your heart’s muscle cells are normally replaced over a lifetime. The excitement around these findings is the suggestion that science might be able to develop methods or drugs to accelerate or induce heart muscle regeneration. If scientists actually found a way to regrow muscle cells in the damaged areas, many lives could be saved. MDN airs locally at 10 a.m. Saturday on KUHF.

Anosomia – or what smell
KUHF-FM (88.7, Houston), Feb. 6, 2010
The sense of smell is important not only because of its effect on food but because it provides environmental cues, such as detecting smoke or avoiding spoiled or decaying food. The complete loss of smell is called anosomia. Recently, the Food and Drug Administration recommended that consumers stop using a product called Zicam, a nasal spray containing zinc. The FDA found that zinc could damage receptors in the nose, reducing or eliminating the ability to smell, report Norbert Herzog and David Niesel of UTMB’s Medical Discovery News.

‘Broad spectrum’ antiviral fights multitude of viruses
Science Daily, Feb. 2, 2010
Researchers from UTMB have teamed up with three other universities and the U.S. Army to develop and test a broad-spectrum antiviral compound capable of stopping dangerous viruses including Ebola, HIV, hepatitis C, West Nile, Rift Valley fever and yellow fever. The study is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings are receiving widespread coverage and appear in R&D Magazine as well as the Galveston County Daily News.

UTMB performs life-changing cell transplantation (Link unavailable.)
Medical Journal – Houston, January 2010
A Harlingen woman suffering for two years with complications from pancreatitis found a cure at UTMB. Drs. Taylor Riall and Cristiana Rastellini performed a procedure called auto pancreatic islet transplantation that restored Marissa Garcia’s health. Her surgery was completed in the Texas Transplant Center’s newly constructed islet isolation facility — one of approximately 20 in the nation. "With the new islet facility, UTMB will be able to offer pancreatitis and diabetes patients across the country a much better quality of life than doctors could have imagined only a few years ago," said Rastellini.

Hey Dave, hope for hair loss
KUHF-FM (88.7, Houston), Jan. 23, 2010
In this week’s installment of UTMB’s Medical Discovery News, Norbert Herzog and David Niesel report that Japanese scientists recently discovered that when a gene called Sox21 is inhibited in mice, the rodents start losing hair two weeks after birth and are completely naked a week later. Turns out we humans also have the Sox21 gene. It’s found in human scalp tissue and in the outer layer of the hair. Though the study does not yet prove this gene is involved in human balding, it does increase knowledge of hair growth and retention and may help in developing treatments in the future. MDN airs locally at 10 a.m. Saturday on KUHF.

Medicinal wines from 5,000 years ago
KUHF-FM (88.7, Houston), Jan. 16, 2010
Ancient wine, mixed with a variety of herbs, was used to treat ailments in Egypt 5,000 years ago, report Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in this week’s installment of UTMB’s Medical Discovery News. Researchers investigating jars found in the tomb of Pharaoh Scorpion I believe "the concoctions were used to treat everything from upset stomachs to herpes virus infections. Dissolving herbs and resin in wine or beer can be particularly effective in extracting the medicinal components of the plants." MDN airs locally at 10 a.m. Saturday on KUHF.

Mussels in the surgical suite
KUHF-FM (88.7, Houston), Jan. 9, 2010
Recent research shows that the adhesive mussels produce to attach to a rock can be used to close wounds or knit bones together, report Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in this week’s installment of UTMB’s Medical Discovery News. One of its adhesive proteins can bond to plastic, wood, concrete and Teflon. Now scientists are trying to fabricate a biomimetic version of the mussel adhesive protein, which is known as MAPS. MDN airs locally at 10 a.m. Saturday on KUHF.

So what is so good about olive oil?
KUHF-FM (88.7, Houston), Jan. 2, 2010
In this week’s installment of UTMB’s Medical Discovery News, Norbert Herzog and David Niesel extol the virtues of olive oil, which can lower the risk of heart disease by reducing LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol levels. The FDA recommends two tablespoons a day, and Herzog and Niesel go a step further by recommending extra-virgin or virgin olive oils because they are the least processed of the various olive oil types. MDN airs locally at 10 a.m. Saturday on KUHF.