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A new report from the American College of Physicians’ High Value Care Task Force issues advice for physicians on how to detect and evaluate blood found in the urine, which is known as hematuria. The report, which was first-authored by a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member, also raises questions about the potential harms associated with diagnostic tests that are commonly employed to evaluate this condition.

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A new study evaluated the relationship between common genetic variants implicated in schizophrenia and those associated with subcortical brain volumes, and found no evidence of genetic overlap between schizophrenia risk and subcortical volume measures.

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– A first-of-its-kind national registry to improve treatment for women with uterine fibroids is being implemented across the U.S., including in the Triangle-area. Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous tumors that nearly 80 percent of American women will get in their lifetimes.

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A single injection. That’s all someone with a factor VII deficiency would need for a life-long cure, thanks to a new gene therapy treatment developed in a collaboration of researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

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CHAPEL HILL, NC– An interdisciplinary team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been approved for a Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to define unmet patient-centered health care needs in what is known as the “fourth trimester,” the three months after a mother gives birth.

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A UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center-led study published in PLOS ONE found that the diabetes drug metformin failed to show any benefit against pancreatic cancer, despite excitement about the drug for its potential anti-cancer benefits. Researchers believe the study underscores the importance of testing new therapies in preclinical animal models that incorporate actual tumor tissue to predict patient response.

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New research findings from the UNC School of Medicine add further clarity to a question that has polarized the cystic fibrosis research community.

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In a study published in the journal Annals of Surgery, researchers report that breast cancer patients surveyed about their knowledge of breast reconstruction were only moderately informed about the procedure, and their knowledge of complications was low.

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In the journal Cancer Cell, UNC Lineberger researchers report findings of a promising strategy to treat KRAS-mutant pancreatic cancers. Preclinical studies showed promise for using a type of investigational drug that works by inhibiting the protein ERK, the last of a series of signals of a signaling pathway that drives drive abnormal growth of cells with KRAS mutations.

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In the journal Cell Reports, UNC Lineberger researchers report that when they removed Dicer from preclinical models of medulloblastoma, a common type of brain cancer in children, they found high levels of DNA damage in the cancer cells, leading to the cells’ death. The tumor cells were smaller, and also more sensitive to chemotherapy.

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Researchers announced the first-ever evidence-based description of the neuronal protein clumps thought to be important in ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a fatal neurodegenerative condition. This could be a crucial step toward developing drugs to stem the progression of the disease.

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When we get cold sores, the reason is likely related to stress. For the first time, researchers discovered a cellular mechanism that allows the herpes simplex virus to reactivate. They also found how brain cells are duped into allowing this to happen so that the virus can cause disease.

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Two UNC physicians join experts in gynecology from across the country in asking the FDA to rescind or revise a warning it issued severely restricting use of a device commonly employed in minimally invasive procedures to treat uterine fibroids.

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Oral chemotherapy drugs are so expensive that they will be out of the financial reach of most Medicare patients even when the Part D doughnut hole closes in 2020, according to new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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An Internet-based system for symptom collection benefited patients while giving them a clearer voice in their own care.

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Women with a history of a false-positive mammogram result may be at increased risk of developing breast cancer for up to 10 years after the false-positive result, according to a study led by a researcher with the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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UNC Lineberger researchers say the findings of a new study indicate that activity trackers could be a useful tool for tracking symptoms and physical function

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Schizophrenia is notoriously difficult to diagnose and treat, in large part because it manifests differently in different people. A new study helps explain why. Researchers at UNC have created a map that shows how specific schizophrenia symptoms are linked to distinct brain circuits.

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University of North Carolina School of Medicine collaborators uncovered an epigenetic mechanism that could be the cause of painful chronic ear infections that plague people with chromosomal and genetic conditions.

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Imagine you have a bone injury but you heal slowly. Instead of forming bone, you could form fat. UNC researchers may have found a way to tip the scale in favor of bone. They used cytochalasin D, a naturally occurring substance, to alter gene expression in stem cells to force them to become bone.

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A UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center-led study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology identified a group of women with HER-2 positive breast cancer who could benefit from less intensive targeted treatment.

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Scientists at the University of North Carolina and UC-San Francisco created a general tool to probe the activity of orphan receptors, illuminating their roles in behavior and making them accessible for drug discovery for the first time.

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An evaluation of a statewide shaken baby prevention effort found that the number of calls to a nurse advice line from North Carolina parents who called because of a crying baby were reduced in the first 2 years after the intervention was implemented in 2007. However, the study did not find a statistically significant reduction in the number of abusive head trauma (AHT) or “shaken baby” cases in North Carolina during the same period.

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A study led by a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher found that lower doses of chemotherapy and radiation produced complete pathologic responses in 86 percent of a group of HPV-positive patients.

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A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that vitamin D and calcium supplements do not reduce the risk of colorectal adenomas, which are benign tumors that can evolve into colorectal cancer.

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“Organs-on-a-chip” have become vital for biomedical research, as researchers seek alternatives to animal models for drug discovery and testing. The new grant will fund a technology that represents a major step forward for the field, overcoming limitations that have mired other efforts.

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The Cancer Genome Atlas Network of researchers analyzed hundreds of breast cancer samples to reveal genetic drivers of invasive lobular carcinoma, the second most commonly diagnosed invasive form of breast cancer.

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A new analysis led by researchers at the UNC School of Medicine identified “illogical thoughts” as most predictive of schizophrenia risk. Surprisingly, perceptual disturbances – the forerunners of hallucinations – are not predictive.

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Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine found that people with anorexia nervosa have very different microbial communities inside their guts compared to healthy individuals and that this bacterial imbalance is associated with some of the psychological symptoms related to the eating disorder.

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A UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher and his partners describe the design and engineering of the new bioluminescent imaging tool called the “LumiFluor” in a study published in the journal Cancer Research.

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A UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher is a co-investigator with Sunnyvale, Calif.,-based InSilixa Inc. for the development of a rapid oral HPV test.

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A new study led by researchers in the UNC Department of Pediatrics finds a direct correlation between more severe forms of obesity in children and related risk factors for developing heart disease and diabetes—particularly in boys.

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If you have two faulty copies of the CFTR gene, you will have cystic fibrosis. But the severity of your disease will depend partly on many other genes. Now, researchers report that five regions of the human genome are home to the genetic variations that play major roles in disease severity.

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A new study has shown that for certain cancer drugs, participants in clinical trials are often not representative of the patients that ultimately take the drugs, raising questions about the direct applicability of trial data.

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The UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center’s application for renewal of a major five-year, federal grant earned an "exceptional" rating from the National Cancer Institute. The rating is the highest that a cancer center can earn for the application.

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Inside our bones there is fat. Diabetes increases the amount of this marrow fat. And now a study from the UNC School of Medicine shows how some diabetes drugs substantially increase bone fat and thus the risk of bone fractures.

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The study, published in Nature Genetics, paves the way for potential personalized medicine approaches for the deadly cancer type.

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Metformin was introduced as a type-2 diabetes treatment decades ago, but researchers still debate how the drug works. A new study shows that metformin’s primary effect occurs in the gut, not the bloodstream. And a new version of the drug could help more people control their diabetes.

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James Bear, PhD, uncovers the intricate mechanisms that allow certain cells to move, discoveries with implications for cancer metastasis.

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In an article published in JAMA Oncology, a study led by a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher and colleagues shows that a system they developed accurately and reliably captures the patient experience with cancer drug side effects.

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Charlotte charity Taylor’s Tale helped inspire a law designed to stimulate the creation of new treatments for rare diseases and spur economic development in North Carolina. House Bill 823, signed into law by Governor McCrory on August 6, will establish an Advisory Council on Rare Diseases within the School of Medicine of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).

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Last December, researchers identified more than 1,000 gene mutations in individuals with autism, but how these mutations increased risk for autism was unclear. Now, UNC researchers are the first to show how one of these mutations disables a molecular switch in one of these genes to cause autism.

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Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center found that a rare type of stem cell is immune to radiation damage thanks to high levels of a gene called Sox9.

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The Histone Antibody Specificity Database (www.histoneantibodies.com), is a newly launched online portal that lets scientists find the right antibodies for their research with a much higher degree of confidence than ever before.

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A new review article, published in the July 23, 2015 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, analyzes the pros and cons of five different interventional approaches to gallbladder disease.

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College women who are more emotionally invested in Facebook and have lots of Facebook friends are less concerned with body size and shape and less likely to engage in risky dieting behaviors. But that’s only if they aren’t using Facebook to compare their bodies to their friends’ bodies, according to the authors of a surprising new study at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

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Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine created a first-of-its-kind animal model to pinpoint two biomarkers that are elevated in the most severe form of coronary disease.

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In a study published in Nature Medicine, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers report their findings of just how a certain tumor-suppressing protein helps prevent colon cancer. With this discovery, researchers believe they’ve found a possible drug target for colon cancer patients who lack the tumor suppressor.

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A panel of experts has developed recommendations for developing patient-focused assessments of health care performance. Their findings were published in the journal Value in Health.

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University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine researchers have developed an innovative, experimental gene transfer-based treatment for children with giant axonal neuropathy (GAN).