Focus: Hidden - Ohio

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As the promise of using regenerative stem cell therapies draws closer, a consortium of biomedical scientists reports about 30 percent of induced pluripotent stem cells they analyzed from 10 research institutions were genetically unstable and not safe for clinical use. In a study published June 9 by the journal Stem Cell Reports, the multi-institutional research team reports on the comprehensive characterization of a large set of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

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Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine have found that putting liver cancer patients on a medication regimen prior to undergoing a certain treatment could lead to shorter hospital stays and less chance for readmission due to complications.

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Among elite athletes, practice accounts for a scant 1 percent of the difference in their performances—and starting sports at an early age does not necessarily provide athletes an upper hand—according to new research.

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Students who struggled using their imaginations before practicing playing at school saw marked improvement in their creative problem-solving abilities—considered essential to navigate the adult world.

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Researchers discovered serial rapists are far more common than previous research suggested—a finding that could change how sexual assaults, including so-called acquaintance rapes, are investigated. They are also learning more about how rapists operate and their victims.

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A promising new compound appears to impede a process that fuels breast cancer in mice, a discovery that could have implications in the treatment of a host of cancers.

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A child feels nauseated all the time, but no medical test can find what is wrong. Or a child vomits regularly, but there’s no illness or eating disorder to explain it. These, and other stomach and bowel-related problems with no obvious causes, are called functional gastrointestinal disorders. International guidelines about the disorders, developed with leadership from Nationwide Children’s Hospital, aim to make diagnosis and treatment easier.

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Female atrial fibrillation patients are less likely than their male counterparts to receive blood thinning therapies to prevent stroke, say University of Cincinnati College of Medicine researchers.

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Simply telling people that their opinions are based on morality will make them stronger and more resistant to counterarguments, a new study suggests.

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A neurosurgeon who specializes in deep brain stimulation (DBS) is seeking a target in the brains of bi-polar disorder patients for possible DBS implantation to provide help to them.

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In the 1960’s, when matchmakers paired writers with receptive readers overseas, so-called “World Literature” was born

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Shoulder and arm pain come with the territory for some athletes and certain occupations like hair stylists, mechanics, even office workers. However, experts at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center say the pain and tingling could stem from a more serious condition called thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS).

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A study led by Achala Vagal, MD, associate professor at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine and a UC Health radiologist, looked at a group of untreated acute stroke patients and found that there was no evidence of time dependence on damage outcomes for the penumbra (tissue that is at risk of progressing to dead tissue but is still salvageable if blood flow is returned) but rather an association with collateral flow—or rerouting of blood through clear vessels.

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A team led by Achala Vagal, MD, associate professor at University of Cincinnati College of Medicine researchers wanted to see whether differences in race, sex and/or age mattered when it came to neuroimaging use, and these findings, which showed a difference for young patients, men and African-Americans, will be presented at the American Society of Neuroradiology’s annual meeting May 25 in Washington, DC.

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The polymer science program at Case Western Reserve University, already historic as the first of its kind in the country when launched 53 years ago, has reached another milestone: the start of an innovative PhD dual-degree with four leading Brazilian universities. The first group of 12 Brazilian PhD students began the Case School of Engineering program this month part of the university’s agreement with Brazil’s Ministry of Education.

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A study shows which psychological characteristics of some new mothers may affect how they use Facebook to show off their baby.

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Feeding at the breast may be healthier than feeding pumped milk from a bottle for reducing the risk of ear infection, and feeding breast milk compared with formula may reduce the risk of diarrhea, according to a recent study.

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English ivy’s natural glue might hold the key to new approaches to wound healing, stronger armor for the military and maybe even cosmetics with better staying power.

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Case Western Reserve University will open a new center designed to develop evaluation technology and set standards for testing and improving engineered cartilage that could one day replace a variety of prosthetic devices. Biology Professor Arnold Caplan and colleagues have received a 5-year, $6.7 million grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to open and direct the Center for Multimodal Evaluation of Engineered Cartilage.

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Nationwide Children’s Hospital has recruited world-renowned researchers Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D. and Elaine R. Mardis, Ph.D. marking a transformational milestone for its genomics research program. At the same time, the Nationwide Foundation has announced a new $10 million gift to the Nationwide Foundation Pediatric Innovation Fund, which is helping to make the ground-breaking research and this recruitment possible. Dr. Wilson and Dr. Mardis will bring their cutting-edge research team from Washington University to Nationwide Children’s Hospital this fall.

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An experimental model uses genetics-guided biomechanics and patient-derived stem cells to predict what type of inherited heart defect a child will develop, according to authors of a new study in the journal Cell. A multi-institutional team developing the technology – and led by the Cincinnati Children’s Heart Institute – reports May 19 it would let doctors intervene earlier to help patients manage their conditions and help inform future pharmacologic treatment options.

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Announcement of the appointment of a new vice president and chief medical officer at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The medical center is at the core of University Hospitals' $4 billion health system and is ranked among America’s best hospitals by U.S. News & World Report.

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If you’re a rattlesnake, you want to bring the right weapon to a squirrel fight. And that venomous weapon varies from place to place, evolutionarily calibrated to overpower the local squirrels’ defenses, according to new research from The Ohio State University.

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Three-year-old Karma Taylor's mom, Joyce Kelso, felt like she was chasing after her daughter’s asthma rather than staying ahead of it. After the family’s pediatrician referred them to Nationwide Children’s Hospital to see an asthma specialist, Joyce downloaded AsthmaCare, a mobile app developed by experts at Nationwide Children’s designed to help patients and their families better manage their asthma. Because of this resource, Karma has improved significantly.

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Nearly everybody thinks that presidential candidates routinely dodge hard-hitting questions, providing evasive answers to simple questions.But a new study that analyzed the full transcripts of 14 U.S. presidential debates from 1996 to 2012 provides some surprising insights that might temper that belief.

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Researchers have identified a potential marker of disease activity for a severe and often painful food allergic disease called eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) – possibly sparing children with EoE the discomfort and risk of endoscopic procedures to assess whether their disease is active. Their study is published May 16 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, researchers at the Cincinnati Center for Eosinophilic Disorders (CCED) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center led the study.

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A new $1.7 million National Institutes of Health grant will help University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers continue their investigation of the protein Human Antigen R (HuR) and its possible role in cardiovascular disease, with the ultimate goal of translating this research to improve human health.

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The Gordie Howe Initiative has been formed to fund a clinical trial to help validate the safety and efficacy of the use of stem cells in the treatment of TBI.

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Physician-researchers in the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati have developed a computerized decision support tool that uses a combination of patient information and characteristics to assist physicians and patients with decisions about blood thinning treatment to prevent strokes in individuals with atrial fibrillation.

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The Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence at Case Western Reserve University has selected Peter Eigen, founder of Transparency International and pioneer of the global fight against corruption, for the 2016 Inamori Ethics Prize.

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One year after they graduate, women with Ph.D.s in science and engineering fields earn 31 percent less than do men, according to a new study using previously unavailable data.

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When you take acetaminophen to reduce your pain, you may also be decreasing your empathy for both the physical and social aches that other people experience, a new study suggests.

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Researchers report in the journal Cancer Cell an experimental therapy that in laboratory tests on human cells and mouse models stops aggressive, treatment-resistant and deadly brain cancers called glioblastoma and high-grade gliomas. A multi-institutional team led by researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center tested a multi-step therapeutic strategy to shut down a gene long-implicated in the formation of high-grade gliomas called Olig2 and made brain tumors sensitive to targeted treatment.

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Kevin Cobb of Texas was born with a serious heart condition. For most of his 44 years, he has dreamed of completing a marathon, and it finally became a reality after recently receiving a heart transplant. This week, Cobb completed the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati in just over six hours.

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Bioethicists from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and The Hastings Center, working with a research administrator at The Rockefeller University, are proposing a reexamination of an internationally recognized rule limiting in vitro research on human embryos to 14 days post-fertilization. Under the rule, such research is permitted before the cut-off date at 14 days and prohibited thereafter.

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A new study has found that children with autism are capable of learning new words the same way any child would—by following someone’s gaze as they name an object. They just take longer to pick up the skill.

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Clinical-scientists at Nationwide Children’s Hospital have been approved for a $2.9 million funding award by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) for a multi-institutional trial of non-operative management of appendicitis.

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The lady salamander that shuns male companionship may reap important benefits. For instance, when a predator snaps off her tail. New research from The Ohio State University compared an all-female population of mole salamanders to a related heterosexual species and found they grew their tails back 36 percent faster. The unisexual salamanders (part of the Ambystoma genus) contain DNA of up to five species and reproduce primarily by cloning themselves.

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Getting more nutritious meals on the tables of low-income Americans could depend on the hours the stores in their neighborhoods keep. Stores likely to sell fresh produce aren’t open as long in areas with more socioeconomic struggles, and that problem is more pronounced in neighborhoods where many African Americans live, new research from The Ohio State University has found.

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While the Fontan procedure has improved the short- and mid-term outcomes for patients born with single ventricle anatomy, long-term complications of Fontan circulation include heart failure. These complications are thought to be secondary to elevated central venous pressure, chronic venous congestion and low cardiac output.

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University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center physicians have started the world’s first clinical trial using a new form of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) to deliver radiation to a specific area of the prostate invaded with cancer – instead of the entire gland.

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Longer lifespans, due to advances in medicine and public health, also means people are living longer with multiple chronic conditions. To help people avoid long, slow declines in health, the national health-care system should promote disease prevention earlier in life instead of emphasizing short-term care, as it does now, suggests a nurse scientist with the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University.

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Scientists are teaching computers to figure out why people accept or decline invitations to participate in clinical trials. Recruiting sufficient numbers of participants is a current challenge in medical research that can compromise results or stop some studies altogether. Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center report April 27 in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association they are using so-called “machine learning” technologies to predict whether patients will participate.

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A study in The Journal of Pediatrics, led by physicians and researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, shows just how frequently some acid suppression medications have been prescribed for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and to help with other conditions diagnosed in neonatal intensive care units in newborns at 43 children’s hospitals across the country.

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Cancer researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have found a particular signaling route in microRNA (miR-22) that could lead to targets for acute myeloid leukemia, the most common type of fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow.

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A new study published in Nature Chemical Biology reports the first small molecule targeted therapy for progressive hearing loss in a mouse model of USH3, an USH classified by progressive loss of hearing and vision starting in the first few decades of life along with variable balance disorder.

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As the threat of the Zika virus rips through the Americas and news headlines, another more deadly tropical disease is also on the move: Leishmaniasis is a parasitic infection that currently endangers an estimated 350 million people around the world. By combining two decades of research, ancient tribal medicine and the latest in gene editing technology – a team of scientists is creating what could be the first ever live-attenuated vaccine to prevent Leishmaniasis both here and abroad.

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Behaviors that enable bullying—a significant public health problem for adolescents—were reduced among students who completed a new online anti-bullying program, according to a new study.