First endoscopic neck surgery deemed a success

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Medical staff offers care, assurances for Walker's patients

Researchers warm to new technique for cooling heart-attack patients

E-Pelvis helps build student expertise in learning to give pelvic exams

A. Jess Shenson, longtime donor, dies at 80

Brainy students helping brainy students

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GD-TEX - Stanford researchers led by senior author Leonard Herzenberg, genetics professor emeritus, reported in the Feb. 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that low doses of motexafin gadolinium (Gd-Tex), which is now being tested in humans as a cancer treatment, selectively kills HIV-infected T cells in vitro. Graduate student Omar Perez, primary author of the study, treated HIV-infected blood samples with Gd-Tex and found that high levels of the drug were toxic to all T cells but lower levels were fatal only to HIV-infected CD4+T cells. The effectiveness of Gd-Tex as a possible HIV treatment remains an open question, and researchers plan further testing.

MICROARRAY TECHNOLOGY - New antigen microarrays can provide a glimpse of which molecules (antigens) come under attack in an autoimmune disease, thus enabling physicians to pinpoint diseases and treatment options, according to an article in the March issue of Nature Medicine. Senior author P.J. Utz, assistant professor of immunology and rheumatology, and lead author William Robinson, a postdoctoral fellow, say they eventually hope to uncover the tell-tale patterns of all autoimmune diseases using the antigen microarrays, which were developed in collaboration with Lawrence Steinman, professor of neurology and neurological sciences.