Efforts to boost OR efficiency are starting to pay off

Steps under way to improve OR efficiency

Disaster drill

Profile: Andrew Newman (scuba diver/pulmonologist)

Completion of cancer center expected in late fall 2003

Device tested at Stanford may improve breast cancer diagnosis and treatment

Below are selected highlights of recent medical research
conducted at Stanford Medical Center.
Detailed news releases are available on the Internet at
http://www-mednews.stanford.edu

EMOTIONAL BROADBAND. Healthy artists tend to be more similar in personality to individuals with manic depression than to healthy people in the general population, according to Stanford researchers Connie Strong and Terence Ketter, associate professor of psychiatry. Though the findings are preliminary, they provide a roadmap for psychiatric researchers looking to solve the genius/madness paradox. Strong presented results of the research in May during a poster session at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Philadelphia.

LIVER CANCER. Scientists at Stanford have identified genes that are needed by cancerous liver cells but are ignored or used at different levels by normal liver cells. By comparing the pattern of fluorescent spots created by normal and abnormal samples, the researchers determined which genes were being used at either high or low levels in the tumor samples. The findings, reported by Samuel So and colleagues in the June issue of Molecular Biology of the Cell, could lead to more effective treatments and screening for liver cancer.

PARALYSIS RESEARCH. A team of researchers at Stanford identified the mechanism and some key cells that appear to be involved in controlling neuron regeneration. The findings may offer scientists a new avenue to explore in the quest for treatments for brain damage and paralysis. The researchers found that the signal that tells nerve cells to slow down during development comes from an outside source, not from the neurons themselves. The study results were published in the June 7 issue of Science by lead author Jeffrey Goldberg, a senior graduate student working in the lab of Ben Barres, professor of neurobiology.