Focus: Hidden - Michigan

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With the decline of the development of new antibiotics due to the complexity and expense of discovering them, there has been a rapid growth of antibiotic resistant pathogens that is one of the leading causes of death. With the help of a nearly $4.9 million, 5-year grant from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, Wayne State University School of Medicine researchers are leading a landmark multi-center, international study that will provide essential information to clinicians for use of polymoxin B in critically ill patients where no other treatments will work.

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A new University of Michigan study finds that teens using marijuana for medical reasons are 10 times more likely to say they are hooked on marijuana than youth who get marijuana illegally.

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Like a collection of ragtag villagers fighting off an invading army, the mix of bacteria that live in our guts may band together to keep dangerous infections from taking hold, new research suggests. But some “villages” may succeed better than others at holding off the invasion, because of key differences in the kinds of bacteria that make up their feisty population.

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Getting access to health insurance, and getting access to a doctor, are two very different things. But a new study suggests that the two have gone hand-in-hand in Michigan, despite a rapid influx of newly insured people under the state’s expansion of Medicaid. In fact, the availability of primary care appointments actually improved in the first months.

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The Washington, D.C.-based educational and policy studies organization The Aspen Institute has selected Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Patrick Hines, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Physiology and an assistant professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, one of only 20 health care leaders in the country for the inaugural class of its Health Innovators Fellowship. Hines practices at the Detroit Medical Center’s Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

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Popular new blood thinners may be behind a surge in doctor visits to treat an irregular heartbeat, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center. The heavily advertised medicines make managing atrial fibrillation simpler than older therapies like Warfarin. Among the new players, the most prescribed direct oral anticoagulant is Xarelto.

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It’s a tale of two tests: one for early signs of cervical cancer, the other for the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia. But a change in the recommended schedule for one may have dramatically lowered the chances that young women would get the other, a new study finds.

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The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA) will host its 4th Annual Washington, D.C. Metro Walk to raise awareness and funding for critical research on Saturday, August 1, at McLean Central Park (1468 Dolley Madison Boulevard) in McLean, Va.

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Noah Gochanour, 8, of Michigan, recently started complaining about pain that wouldn’t go away. Beaumont Children’s Hospital doctors evaluated Noah and discovered the reason for his pain and discomfort: Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare cancerous tumor in his shoulder.

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A research team out of Michigan Tech has found a way to solve one of the biggest challenges of making metamaterials. Their optical work is a big step towards creating a "perfect lens".

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Peter Lichtenberg, Ph.D., director of the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University, won the Judge Edward Sosnick Courage to Lead Award for his extensive work to create ways of identifying older adults at risk of financial exploitation. The award is presented annually by the Oakland County SAVE (Serving Adults who are Vulnerable and/or Elderly) Task Force.

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Wayne State University received a $1.9 grant from NIH that aims to provide valuable information and potential therapeutic targets for enhancing endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs)-based cell therapy for certain vascular diseases, as well as advance the field of chemokine receptor biology.

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If you have a chronic disease or a child born with a medical problem, it may sometimes feel like the diagnosis owns you. But now you can turn the tables and own _it_. How? By buying unique art that’s made by scientists who study everything from diabetes to digestive disorders to genetic diseases.

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A team of researchers led by Pramod Khosla, Ph.D., associate professor of nutrition and food science in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wayne State University, will study the effects of a daily supplement of a Tocotrienol-rich fraction from palm oil to see if it improves dyslipidemia, a disorder of lipoprotein metabolism that may be manifested by a decrease in the “good” high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in patients with end stage renal disease who are on hemodialysis.

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Few people today would dare call President Richard Nixon a radical liberal. But 44 years ago, he proposed a health plan that went far beyond what today’s Affordable Care Act includes. After the first plan failed, he did it again three years later. A new paper compares the reality – and rhetoric – of both Nixon’s plans and the current law.

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A Wayne State University School of Medicine professor, in collaboration with researchers at CReAte Fertility Center, University of Toronto, Harvard University and Georgia Reagents University, has developed the first diagnostic test for sperm RNA based on next-generation sequencing. For couples with unexplained infertility, the test may help determine the best infertility treatment for couples having difficulty conceiving.

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Former 800-pound woman overcomes fall that strands her alone on apartment floor for three weeks with support of hospital staff and weight loss surgery.

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University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues predict that the 2015 western Lake Erie harmful algal bloom season will be among the most severe in recent years and could become the second-most severe behind the record-setting 2011 bloom.

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Researchers have developed the first-ever 3D complete computer model to help study treatment for pelvic organ prolapse.

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A Euro-free Greece looks more likely to be quickly engulfed by a vicious spiral of a rapidly depreciating new-drachma, hyper-inflation, shrinking real wages and demand, and unemployment; drachma depreciation and hyper-inflation would certainly benefit Greek debtors (in so far as the Greek government unilaterally converted its Euro liabilities in the new drachma at convenient terms): debasing the currency to wipe out debts is after all one of the oldest tricks in a government's sleeves.

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– Sascha Drewlo, Ph.D., assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology for the Wayne State University School of Medicine, has secured a $1.25 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to study the role of approved drugs to improve placental function.

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A stroke happens in an instant. And many who survive one report that their brain never works like it once did. But new research shows that these problems with memory and thinking ability keep getting worse for years afterward – and happen faster than normal brain aging.

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Actress Haley Ramm and the cast of ABC Family's "Chasing Life" accept the pajama challenge for the Autoimmune Disease Association and autoimmune disease awareness.

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The Stroke and Neurovascular Disease Center at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes Henry Ford’s commitment and success in ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

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Over the same time period that multiple outbreaks of measles and whooping cough made headlines around the country, parents’ views on vaccines became more favorable.

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The Wayne State University School of Medicine and Detroit Receiving Hospital of the Detroit Medical Center will serve as a site for a national study that will develop new guidelines for patients released from the emergency room after treatment for suspected acute heart failure symptoms.

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When it comes to communicating with each other, some cells may be more "old school" than was previously thought.

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The National Multiple Sclerosis Society has awarded a grant to a Wayne State University School of Medicine professor to explore a new model of MS pathology.

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A University of Michigan Health System study reveals enzyme CD39 is capable of clearing the atherosclerotic plaque that leads to so many heart attacks and strokes.

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A study of nearly 1,000 teens found that obese adolescents were significantly less likely to use contraception than normal weight peers, putting them at higher risk of unintended pregnancy.

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Living in Egypt, Nassef Matoshaleh and his wife Wafaa explored hospitals around the world—the U.K., Germany, France, Canada and the U.S.—to perform surgery on Nassef’s heart. The family prayed the trip to an Ann Arbor, Mich. hospital would bring him home healthy. And it did.

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Taking a nap may be an effective strategy to counteract impulsive behavior and to boost tolerance for frustration, according to a University of Michigan study.

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In the human body, small wounds are easily treated by the body itself, requiring no further care. For bigger wounds to be healed, the body may need outside assistance. Concrete is like a living body, in that it can self-heal its own small wounds (cracks) as an intrinsic characteristic.

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While the number of graduates from family or adult nurse practitioner programs continues to rise, student applications to pediatric and neonatal nurse practitioner programs are falling.

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A new map of emergency stroke care in America shows just how much of a patchwork system we still have for delivering the most effective stroke treatment. And thousands of people a year may end up unnecessarily disabled as a result.

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Michigan Tech researchers are making better heat exchangers for industrial use using the same plastic as in garbage bags.

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The relentless flow of a glacier may seem unstoppable, but a team of researchers from the United Kingdom and the U.S. has shown that during some calving events—when an iceberg breaks off into the ocean—the glacier moves rapidly backward and downward, causing the characteristic glacial earthquakes which until now have been poorly understood.

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Lamont R Jones, M.D., vice chair of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Henry Ford Hospital, received the 2015 Research Scholar Award from the Educational and Research Foundation for the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) to continue his efforts to study the pathogenesis of keloids and improve understanding of how keloid scars develop.

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A team of researchers led by Wayne State University has recently launched an initiative to determine the prevalence of contaminants in urban agriculture soil in Detroit, establish linkages among the contaminants and identify the agricultural risk factors for the contamination. The team was recently awarded more than $293,000 from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture for the project, “An integrated approach to ensuring food safety and sustainability in urban agriculture in the greater Detroit area.”

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Sixty-seven patients from the Hermelin Brain Tumor Center at Henry Ford Hospital and their families made important contributions to a national cancer study that proposes a change in how some brain tumors are classified – and ultimately treated. Published in the July 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the study reveals that a tumor’s DNA is key to determining if a lower-grade malignant brain tumor (glioma) may rapidly progress to glioblastoma.

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physician-scientist whose work has improved quality of life for tens of thousands of Parkinson’s disease patients is the recipient of the 2015 Taubman Prize for Excellence in Translational Medical Science, from the University of Michigan’s A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute.

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A University of Michigan researcher and his colleagues are forecasting a slightly below-average but still significant "dead zone" this summer in the Chesapeake Bay, the nation's largest estuary.

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A clinical research award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s (PCORI) Pipeline to Proposal program may help Henry Ford Hospital otolaryngologist Steven Chang, M.D., answer this question: “What's the SCOOP?” The “SCOOP” is squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx – and the real question is focused on learning from long-term survivors how to improve both treatment options and post-treatment rehabilitation of this cancer to advance quality-of-life outcomes for patients.

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A months-long literature search that involved tracking down century-old scientific papers and translating others from Czech and French helped University of Michigan ecologist Meghan Duffy answer a question she'd wondered about for years.

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Public health officials stand poised to eliminate polio from the planet. But a new study shows that the job won't be over when the last case of the horrible paralytic disease is recorded.

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