Latest News

• share
• favorite_border

The Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, a Global Virus Network (GVN) Center of Excellence, in collaboration with scientists from Campus Biomedico in Rome and Ulisse Biomed and University of Trieste, in Trieste, Italy announced today the results of studies showing an inverse correlation between average high daily temperatures and COVID-19 related death rates in different geographical areas.

• share
• favorite_border

Fentanyl is not typically part of hospital tests for illicit drug use, however, a new University of Maryland study found after expanding testing that fentanyl, linked to most fatal overdoses in Maryland, tops the list of drugs detected in overdose patients at two Baltimore hospital ERs. The researchers suggest addition of fentanyl to routine drug tests.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have identified how certain gene mutations cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The finding could offer potential new approaches for treating this devastating condition.

• share
• favorite_border

The Center for International Health, Education and Biosecurity (Ciheb) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute of Human Virology was awarded $4 million from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response activities in Botswana, Nigeria, Malawi, and Mozambique.

• share
• favorite_border

A new landmark study by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) found that patients with a vascular condition, called abdominal aortic aneurysm, received no benefits from taking a common antibiotic drug to reduce inflammation.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from the Center for Precision Disease Modeling at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have uncovered a mechanism that appears to explain how certain genetic mutations give rise to a rare genetic kidney disorder called nephrotic syndrome. Using a drosophila (fruit fly) model, they found mutations in genes that code for certain proteins lead to a disruption of the recycling of the cell membrane.

• share
• favorite_border

Prolonged fear and anxiety brought on by major stressors, like the coronavirus pandemic, can not only take a toll on a person’s mental health, but may also have a lasting impact on a man’s sperm composition that could affect his future offspring. That is the finding of a provocative new study published in the journal Nature Communications by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute of Human Virology (IHV), which is part of the Global Virus Network (GVN), predict that COVID-19 will follow a seasonal pattern similar to other respiratory viruses like seasonal flu. They base this on weather modeling data in countries where the virus has taken hold and spread within the community.

• share
• favorite_border

Using a combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to target and sample suspicious prostate tissue, along with a standard prostate biopsy, is significantly more likely to detect the most aggressive prostate cancers than standard biopsy alone. This finding, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, could allow a higher percentage of prostate cancer patients to avoid unnecessary treatment for slow-growing prostate cancers that are not likely to spread.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) found that targeting overactive immune cells in the brain with an experimental drug could limit brain cell loss and reverse cognitive and motor difficulties caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI).

• share
• favorite_border

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, announced today that the UMSOM”s Shock, Trauma and Anesthesiology Research (STAR) Center will begin the next phase of its history with new leadership.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Patients with acutely life-threatening health conditions who were treated in the innovative Critical Care Resuscitation Unit had better health outcomes, including a 36 percent lower risk of dying, than those who were transferred from a hospital’s emergency department then evaluated and treated in a traditional intensive care unit.

• share
• favorite_border

– Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and their colleagues have identified the structure of the most lethal toxin produced by certain strains of Clostridium difficile bacteria, a potentially deadly infection associated with the use of antibiotics. The researchers mapped out the delivery and binding components of the toxin, which could pave the way for new drugs to neutralize it.

• share
• favorite_border

Using innovative RNA sequencing techniques, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) identified a promising novel treatment for lymphatic filariasis, a disabling parasitic disease that is difficult to treat.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers found that lung transplant recipients with early signs of organ rejection could increase their chance of survival and improve lung function by inhaling a liposomal form of the immunosuppression drug cyclosporine through an investigational nebulizer.

• share
• favorite_border

First- and second-year medical students at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have a new requirement this year in order to earn their medical degree: culinary medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have demonstrated in a new study, published earlier this week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, how diabetes contributes to mortality from MERS-CoV infections, and the finding could shed light on why other respiratory illnesses like the flu or pneumonia might strike those with diabetes more severely.

• share
• favorite_border

A University of Maryland School of Medicine study using a preclinical animal model suggests that prenatal exposure to THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis, makes the brain’s dopamine neurons (an integral component of the reward system) hyperactive and increases sensitivity to the behavioral effects of THC during pre-adolescence.

• share
• favorite_border

In continuing efforts to find novel ways to kill cancer cells, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have identified a new pathway that leads to the destruction of cancer cells. The new finding, published this week in the journal PNAS, could pave the way for the broader use of a class of anticancer drugs already on the market.

• share
• favorite_border

A new experimental growth factor therapy appears to prevent a worsening of osteoarthritis by increasing the thickness of cartilage in the knee joint and preventing further loss, according to results from an early clinical trial that were published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

• share
• favorite_border

The CDC issued new guidance in July on the use of personal protective equipment (masks, gowns) by healthcare providers to protect patients in nursing home facilities from acquiring and spreading antibiotic-resistant germs to others. UMSOM researchers will be testing the new guidelines with $1.1 million CDC grant.

• share
• favorite_border

Pediatricians routinely advise parents of children who snore regularly and have sleepiness, fatigue or other symptoms consistent with sleep disordered breathing, to get a sleep study, but a new finding suggests that the pediatric sleep study -- used to both diagnose pediatric sleep apnea and to measure improvement after surgery - may be an unreliable predictor of who will benefit from having an adenotonsillectomy.

• share
• favorite_border

When young children grow up in homes with limited access to nutritious foods, known as food insecurity, they are more likely to experience poor overall health, hospitalizations, and developmental problems, but they do not have a specific higher risk of obesity, a new University of Maryland School of Medicine study finds.

• share
• favorite_border

Median survival after lung transplant is less than six years. To see what might help lung transplant recipients live longer, University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers analyzed US lung transplant data, focused on immunosuppression regimes, and found a drug combination that appears to significantly extend patient survival.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean, E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, announced today that Rodney J. Taylor, MD, MPH, Professor and Interim Chair in the UMSOM Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery (HNS), a distinguished physician-scientist and head and neck surgeon, will become the next Chair of the Department, effective September 1, 2019. In addition, he will also serve as the Chief of Otorhinolaryngology for the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC).

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A majority of radiation biology studies have serious flaws in how their irradiation methodology is described, which makes them very difficult to replicate, according to a new finding from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM).

• share
• favorite_border

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean, E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, today announced that Christine Lau, MD, MBA, the George Minor Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the University of Virginia (UVA), will become the next Chair of the Department of Surgery at UMSOM, and the Chief of Surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC).

• share
• favorite_border

A new primate study finds evidence that growth factor plays a key role in maintaining healthy pregnancy by promoting artery remodeling.

• share
• favorite_border

A University of Maryland School of Medicine study suggests that a novel machine learning model developed at the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), called the Baltimore score (B score), may help hospitals better predict which discharged patients are likely to be readmitted.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers analyzed biomarkers secreted from transplanted human stem cells in the recipient blood of a rodent model of heart attack. Analysis of the blood test showed responding cells had changed their gene expression, behavior and secretions, suggesting this liquid biopsy could provide a window into stem cell activity and effectiveness.

• share
• favorite_border

In a first-ever advancement in human medicine and aviation technology, a University of Maryland unmanned aircraft has delivered a donor kidney to surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore for successful transplantation into a patient with kidney failure. This successful demonstration illustrates the potential of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for providing organ deliveries that, in many cases, could be faster, safer, and more widely available than traditional transport methods. The momentous flight was a collaboration between transplant physicians and researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore; aviation and engineering experts at the University of Maryland; the University of Maryland Medical Center; and collaborators at the Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland.

• share
• favorite_border

A University of Maryland Medicine team performed a rare bilateral lung-heart transplant on a 12-year-old girl. The surgery was done at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) surgeons have identified a group of lymph nodes in the chest that appear highly significant in predicting the prognosis for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma – a deadly cancer of the chest lining that is usually caused by asbestos. The researchers found that the presence of cancer in these lymph nodes increased the risk of recurrence or death more than two-fold in patients undergoing surgery for mesothelioma, according to new research presented recently week at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) annual meeting in San Diego, Calif.

• share
• favorite_border

Radiation oncologists at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC) are now treating patients with the GammaPod™, a new FDA-cleared radiation therapy for early-stage breast cancer. The UMGCCC is the first site to treat patients with this first-of-its-kind system, which was invented by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) scientists and physicians. This is the only external-beam radiation delivery system specifically designed to treat breast cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

University of Maryland physician-scientists have treated the first patient in the United States with MRI-guided focused ultrasound for neuropathic leg pain as part of a pilot clinical trial.

• share
• favorite_border

The Maryland Proton Treatment Center (MPTC) is now offering deep-tissue external thermal therapy in combination with high-precision proton-beam radiotherapy as a potential way to boost survival chances for certain cancer patients. MPTC is the only center in the world to offer these two treatments at the same facility, an advantage to patients because these therapies are typically given within an hour of each other.

• share
• favorite_border

The pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) team at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital (UMCH) is offering a new way for families to interact with their child and the medical team when they can’t be there in person. PICU Connect is a mobile cart fashioned with a computer, speaker and 180-degree camera. It allows family members who cannot be at their child’s hospital bedside to feel like they are in the room. The technology uses high-quality, real-time video and audio, and links up through a person’s phone, tablet or computer. The family member can clearly see, listen and talk with the child and care team, so they aren’t missing important discussions about the child’s care plan. It is HIPAA-compliant, which means it meets federal patient privacy law requirements. The video sessions cannot be recorded or intercepted, and disappear once they are over.

• share
• favorite_border

The Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Program at the University of Maryland Heart & Vascular Center (UMHVC) has been recognized as a Center of Excellence by the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association (HCMA) – one of about 30 Centers of Excellence nationwide and the only HCMA-recognized center in Maryland.

• share
• favorite_border

At a time when drug overdoses are becoming more prevalent and lethal, a new report provides a snapshot of regional illicit drug use and, for the first time, highlights the complexity of detecting and treating patients at hospital emergency departments for a severe drug-related event.

• share
• favorite_border

In the first such clinical trial in the United States, physician-scientists with the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) are investigating the use of MRI-guided focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier. The trial will be conducted with patients undergoing brain cancer surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC).

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC) joins with 69 other National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers to urge increased vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV) and screening to eliminate HPV-related cancers.

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC) is now certified to offer a groundbreaking treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in which a patient’s own immune cells are genetically engineered to recognize and attack the cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) and the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM)) are leading a phase 3 study to test the safety and efficacy of using MRI-guided focused ultrasound on the brain in order to treat Parkinson’s disease. The pivotal study is the final step before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will consider approving the new technology for widespread use as a nonsurgical treatment option to eliminate key motor symptoms of this common neurological condition.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have uncovered genetic mutations that may explain why people with high levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the “good cholesterol,” have a reduced risk of coronary heart disease.

• share
• favorite_border

The GammaPod ™ – a first-of-its kind stereotactic radiotherapy system to treat early stage breast cancer – has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), paving the way for the manufacturer to bring the system to market for the treatment of breast cancer patients.

• share
• favorite_border

A clinical trial using genetic testing to match acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with new therapies is now open at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC). The center is one of seven cancer centers nationwide participating in the Beat AML® Master Trial, sponsored by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).

• share
• favorite_border

A research team led by Mohit N. Gilotra, MD, assistant professor of orthopaedics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), will receive the prestigious 2018 Charles S. Neer Award from the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) for a clinical study that demonstrated an effective method to potentially reduce the risk of serious infection following shoulder surgery.