The Cedars-Sinai Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine was named the 2014 Lab of the Year by the prominent magazine Medical Laboratory Observer for its commitment to quality patient care — from new technologies to creative opportunities that better serve the local community.
Cedars-Sinai has partnered with the U.S. military to design the “operating room of the future” that will enable emergency medical teams to respond more quickly and effectively to patients with life-threatening injuries.
New research suggests that gut microorganisms do not merely influence immune cell function, but also support the production of immune cells that form the first line of defense against infection. By understanding the mechanisms responsible for maintaining and replacing immune cells, researchers hope to one day develop targeted therapies to support and boost immune function in humans.
Prominent proteomic and cardiac scientist Jennifer Van Eyk, PhD, has been named the inaugural director of Cedars-Sinai’s Advanced Clinical Biosystems Research Institute. Van Eyk also will lead basic research at Cedars-Sinai’s Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center aimed at unlocking the mysteries of gender differences in heart disease.
Investigators at the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute have discovered eye abnormalities that may help reveal features of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Using a novel laboratory rat model of Alzheimer’s disease and high-resolution imaging techniques, researchers correlated variations of the eye structure, to identify initial indicators of the disease.
The Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute has set a new standard for U.S. heart transplantation by completing 117 adult heart transplants and two adult heart-lung transplants, for a total of 119 adult heart transplants in a single year. The previous number set in 2005, was 98 adult heart transplants performed in one year.
Researchers at the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute have found that emotional stressors – such as those provoking anger – may cause changes in the nervous system that controls heart rate and trigger a type of coronary artery dysfunction that occurs more frequently in women than men. They will describe their findings at the American Psychosomatic Society’s annual meeting on March 13 in San Francisco.
Researchers in the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute eradicated solid tumors in laboratory mice using a novel combination of two targeted agents. These two synergistic therapies stimulate an immune response, ultimately allowing solid tumors to act as their own cancer-fighting vaccine.
A team of researchers from the National Institutes of Health, Emory University and Cedars-Sinai – specialists in identifying and treating very rare diseases – used three innovative tools to detect a previously unknown gene mutation, test potential therapies in the lab, and initiate personalized drug treatment for a boy with a lifelong history of uncontrollable seizures that caused significant impact on his cognitive and social development.
High school students may compete for essay awards and attend a free educational program on stem cells sponsored by the Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurosurgery. Deadline for essay entries is March 3.
Seventh- and eighth-grade students attending the March 10 “Brainworks” at Cedars-Sinai will see how a new, experimental device makes brain tumors glow – using a special camera, a laser, an imaging agent called Tumor Paint BLZ-100 and a synthetic version of a small protein found in the venom of the deathstalker scorpion.
Unable to walk or even sit up for more than a month, this Santa Fe NM woman is back on her feet after a Cedars-Sinai neurosurgeon was able to successfully repair her cerebrospinal fluid leak.
In light of today's White House announcement on healthy lunch programs in schools, here's a great story idea about Cedars-Sinai's HEALTHY HABITS program which is offered in 16 L.A. elementary schools. Kids from low income neighborhood learn about healthy eating habits and exercise.
Researchers at Cedars-Sinai have developed a unique, compact, relatively inexpensive imaging device to “light up” malignant brain tumors and other cancers. The experimental system consists of a special camera designed and developed at Cedars-Sinai and a new, targeted imaging agent based on a synthetic version of a small protein – a peptide – found in the venom of the deathstalker scorpion.
Kidney cancer immunotherapy, MS and depression, ACE and Alzheimer's, air pollution and brain tumors, and more are story ideas detailed in the Feb. tipsheet from Cedars-Sinai.
The Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute has opened a novel Phase III, vaccine-based clinical trial aimed at providing kidney cancer patients long-term control of their disease.
Researchers at the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai will conduct a study to determine if several potentially toxic compounds that exist in polluted air are capable of entering the brain from the bloodstream and causing brain cancer. The research, funded by a $1 million grant from the Brain & Lung Tumor and Air Pollution Foundation for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, will be done in laboratory mice.
A Cedars-Sinai research team led by Paul W. Noble, MD, has been awarded $628,816 by California’s stem cell agency to develop a treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a deadly disease that destroys the lungs and damages other vital organs.
EMBARGOED ALZHEIMERS RESEARCH - Many people with high blood pressure are familiar with ACE inhibitors, drugs that widen blood vessels by limiting activity of ACE – angiotensin-converting enzyme – a naturally occurring protein found in tissues throughout the body. But high activity of the enzyme – in the right context, place and time – may be a good thing. A study conducted by Cedars-Sinai scientists found that genetically targeting certain immune blood cells to overproduce the enzyme broke down defective proteins in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease and prevented cognitive decline in laboratory mice bred to model the disease.
Researchers in the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute discovered in pre-clinical models that dormant prostate cancer cells found in bone tissue can be reawakened, causing metastasis to other parts of the body. Understanding this mechanism of action may allow researchers to intervene prior to disease progression.
A multicenter research team led by Cedars-Sinai neurologist Nancy Sicotte, MD, an expert in multiple sclerosis and state-of-the-art imaging techniques, used a new, automated technique to identify shrinkage of a mood-regulating brain structure in a large sample of women with MS who also have a certain type of depression.
Cedars-Sinai will present a one-day conference for patients and families affected by Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, the most common inherited neurological disorder, which damages nerves controlling muscles, primarily in the legs and feet. The disorder typically causes high arches, clumsiness and progressive foot and leg deformity but often is overlooked or poorly understood by families and doctors.
The Cedars-Sinai Heart Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion, has been awarded LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification, established by the U.S. Green Building Council, for its highly sustainable, energy-efficient design, construction and operation.
An early-phase clinical trial of an experimental vaccine that targets cancer stem cells in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and aggressive malignant brain tumor, has been launched by researchers at Cedars-Sinai’s Department of Neurosurgery, Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Brain Tumor Center and Department of Neurology.
Atrial fibrillation as a growing global health concern, the link between breast cancer and fatigue, and targeting cancer stem cells in malignant brain tumors are just a few of the story ideas included in the January tipsheet from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Two Cedars-Sinai physician-researchers have been awarded grants totaling $4 million from the National Institutes of Health to study how the environment — both in the womb and in the hospital where the baby is born — can affect the newborn and the mother.
Ueli Rutishauser, PhD, assistant professor of neurosurgery and director of human neurophysiology research in the Department of Neurosurgery and the Department of Neurology at Cedars-Sinai, will receive a 2014 Troland Research Award at the National Academy of Sciences annual meeting April 27.
Investigators at the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute have identified new molecular abnormalities in the diabetic cornea that could contribute to eye problems in affected patients. With this new knowledge, investigators aim to accelerate the process of healing and repair in damaged corneas to ultimately reverse the effects of diabetes-induced eye complications.
Research for Her™, a Cedars-Sinai online medical research database aimed at increasing women’s participation in clinical studies, received the 2013 Award for Excellence from the Health Improvement Institute for its user-friendly electronic consent form. The Research for Her registry allows women to register for potential participation in clinical trials through an online, verified consent process that is just two pages long and written in nontechnical, easy-to-understand language.
Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute researchers have found that six proteins – five more than previously thought – are responsible for cell-to-cell communication that regulates the heart and plays a role in limiting the size of heart attacks and strokes. The smallest of these proteins directs the largest in performing its role of coordinating billions of heart cells during each heartbeat. Together, the proteins synchronize the beating heart, the researchers determined.
Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and Department of Neurosurgery identified immune system targets on cancer stem cells – cells from which malignant brain tumors are believed to originate and regenerate – and created an experimental vaccine to attack them.
Terie Cota, an elementary school administrator from Santa Maria, Calif., describes herself as an “average 56-year-old woman.” She has been married 34 years, is the mother of four sons and grandmother of two little girls. But there is nothing average about Terie Cota because she chose to do something few others would think to do: She donated one of her healthy kidneys to a total stranger. Because of that extraordinary gift, Cota will represent Cedars-Sinai's Comprehensive Transplant Center by walking alongside the 2014 Donate Life Rose Parade Float.
Physicians in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the Maxine Dunitz Children’s Health Center launched a pilot study in which mothers’ breast milk is analyzed to determine whether premature infants are receiving the correct amounts of nutrients they need to thrive. The study could lead to a new innovation in personalized medicine: Individually optimized nutrition for the smallest patients.
Although the prevalence and impact of cancer-related fatigue has been well established, very little is known about its predictors, mechanisms for development, and persistence post-treatment. A new research study at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, in partnership with UCLA, is aimed at identifying breast cancer patients most susceptible to post-treatment fatigue by measuring biological, behavioral and social risk factors.
Atrial fibrillation, long considered the most common condition leading to an irregular heartbeat, is a growing and serious global health problem, according to the first study ever to estimate the condition’s worldwide prevalence, death rates and societal costs. The World Health Organization data analysis shows that 33.5 million people worldwide – or .5% of the world’s population – have the condition.
New stem cell treatments for corneal diseases, a new rehab hospital, nursing excellence, and ovarian cancer research are all highlighted in the Dec. tipsheet from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Researchers in the Women’s Cancer Program at Cedars-Sinai’s Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute have identified a series of 10 genes that may signify a trifecta of benefits for women diagnosed with ovarian cancer and ultimately reflect improved survival outcomes. The research found that the 10-gene biomarker panel may identify the aggressiveness of a patient’s disease, help predict survival outcomes and result in novel therapeutic strategies tailored to patients with the most adverse survival outcomes.
For the fourth time in a row, the American Nurses Credentialing Center has granted Cedars-Sinai the Magnet® recognition, the most prestigious designation a healthcare organization can receive for excellence in nursing and patient outcomes.
As cancer research continues to evolve, scientists rely on specimen samples, such as tissue, blood or urine, from generous patients to advance discoveries and personalize care. Tucked away in freezers chilled to minus 80 degrees Celsius are blood and tissue samples from Cedars-Sinai patients. The freezers that hold these samples also contain the hopes of investigators determined to uncover new treatments for cancer patients across the globe. Biobanks, like the state-of-the-art biobank at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, allow patients to make invaluable contributions to medical research and treatment advances that may ultimately be the solution to their own diagnosis or disease down the road.
Researchers in the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute have designed and tested a novel, minute-long procedure to prepare human amniotic membrane for use as a scaffold for specialized stem cells that may be used to treat some corneal diseases. This membrane serves as a foundation that supports the growth of stem cells in order to graft them onto the cornea. This new method, explained in a paper published this month in the journal PLOS ONE, may accelerate research and clinical applications for stem cell corneal transplantation.
Story ideas for this month include Alzheimer's disease, brain cancer research, ALS, mitral valve repair, Autism research and more.
Eight of 16 patients participating in a study of an experimental immune system therapy directed against the most aggressive malignant brain tumors – glioblastoma multiforme – survived longer than five years after diagnosis, according to Cedars-Sinai researchers, who presented findings Nov. 23 at the Fourth Quadrennial Meeting of the World Federation of Neuro-Oncology.
Alzheimer’s disease has joined cancer at the top of the list of feared diagnoses, and although Alzheimer’s does have the potential to devastate millions of patients and families, there are reasons for hope – and possibly opportunities to reduce risk or alter the course of disease progression, according to Keith Black, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai.
Certain neurons in the brain’s “face-recognition center” perform differently in patients who have autism. In what are believed to be the first studies of their kind, Cedars-Sinai researchers recording the real-time firing of individual nerve cells in the brain found that a specific type of neuron in a structure called the amygdala performed differently in people who suffer from autism spectrum disorder than in those who do not.
Many patients diagnosed with prostate cancer have indolent, slow-growing forms of the disease that are not life-threatening. However, more than 30,000 American men will die from aggressive prostate cancer this year alone. This sharp contrast between low-risk and aggressive disease presents a challenge for many researchers and physicians as they diagnose patients and also determine the prognosis of the men with the most aggressive forms of prostate cancer. Investigators in the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute have made extensive progress in understanding the molecular mechanisms of disease progression. These results may help scientists better understand the prognosis of patients diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. The study, published in the journal Cell Cycle, may ultimately lead to the development of new biomarkers for not only prognosis, but also a patient’s potential response to therapy.
Small cell lung cancer, which includes oat cell carcinoma, is a more aggressive disease than other types of lung cancer and often is more advanced at the time of diagnosis. Despite the severity of the disease, the standard-of-care treatment remains the same today as it was nearly 30 years ago. A new Cedars-Sinai Phase I-II clinical trial may improve treatment approaches and combat disease recurrence.
A Cedars-Sinai physician and colon cancer expert is available to comment on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention report that too few patients, age 50 to 75, are screened by colonoscopy or less invasive test options.
Pearl Segal, a Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute patient, became the first in the nation to undergo a newly approved non-surgical procedure to fix her leaky – and life-threatening -- heart valve condition. Segal was diagnosed two years ago with mitral valve regurgitation, a backward flow of blood in the heart caused by a leaky heart valve.
Just days ago, Adam Drooks participated in New York’s inaugural Run for Her® New York Friendship Walk to support ovarian cancer research and awareness. But his passion to find a cure for the disease far exceeds one fundraising event. That’s why he will lace up his running shoes again on Sunday, Nov. 10, and participate in the ninth annual Los Angeles Run for Her. Drooks’ drive to participate in both events comes from his mother, Donna Gold, who lost her battle with ovarian cancer when Drooks was 18.
Ten million people in the U.S. are affected by a medical condition called essential tremor – rhythmic trembling of the hands, head, voice, legs or trunk. The disorder is eight times more common than Parkinson’s disease, but many people fail to seek treatment, either because they have not been diagnosed or they erroneously believe no help is available.
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