Rutgers Expert Available to Discuss New US COVID-19 Vaccination Goal, Its Impact on Herd Immunity
Rutgers University-New Brunswick
When Melodee Lasky joined Rutgers University 19 years ago, behavioral and mental health services were scattered across the individual colleges with little coordination. Psychiatry and the Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program were part of student health, but counseling services were separated and college-affiliated. Lasky, a physician who recognized the connection between physical and emotional wellness, recommended that mental and behavioral health be integrated within the framework of student health. That led to the creation of CAPS – Counseling, Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program & Psychiatric Services – a program that helps about 4,500 students each year.
Volunteer firefighters — who comprise more than 65 percent of the U.S. fire service — have higher levels of “forever chemicals,” per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), in their bodies than the general public, according to a Rutgers study. It is the first study to evaluate volunteer firefighters’ exposure to PFAS.
Martin J. Blaser, MD, has been awarded the 2020 Prize Medal by the Microbiology Society of Great Britain in recognition of his study of the microbiome and its interactions within the human body that provide protection against and lead to disease. Dr. Blaser, the Henry Rutgers Chair of the Human Microbiome and professor of medicine and microbiology at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, joins a storied list of scientists, including Nobel Prize recipients, who also have been recognized with the Prize Medal due to the impact their work has had on medicine and the care of patients worldwide.
Joan W. Bennett, a Distinguished Professor of plant biology and pathology at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She joins neurosurgeon and CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center atmospheric scientist Ann Thompson and media entrepreneur and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey.
States with stricter firearms laws reported lower suicide and homicide rates, according to a Rutgers study.
Cisgender sexual minority men and transgender women are aware of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a daily pill for HIV-negative people to prevent HIV infection, but few are currently taking it, according to researchers at Rutgers. The study, published in the journal AIDS and Behavior, surveyed 202 young sexual minority men and transgender women – two high-priority populations for HIV prevention – to better understand why some were more likely than others to be taking PrEP.