The accomplishments of your colleagues and associates are making a significant impact. Detailed news releases and/or source material are available at the News Bureau of the Stanford University Medical Center Office of Communications, 701 Welch Road, Suite 2207, Palo Alto, CA 94304-1701; phone (650) 725-5376 or 723-6911; and on the Web |
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GENES - Guri Giaever, a research assistant in the laboratory of biochemistry professor Ron Davis, and colleagues reported in the March issue of Nature Genetics that the group has developed a research method that allows scientists to look for drug-sensitive genes without knowing anything about what the genes do. By growing a strain of baker's yeast with a single gene deleted in the presence of a drug, researchers could identify potential drug targets by seeing what strains grew poorly. GENETIC OBESITY - A mutation in mice that interferes with both metabolism and feeding behavior may have brought scientists one step closer to developing therapies to regulate the genetic factors that play a role in obesity, according to a study published March 11 in the journal Nature by Gregory Barsh, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and associate professor of genetics and of pediatrics. The researchers found that mice lacking the newly discovered mahogany gene eat more, as well as exercise more frequently than normal mice. BLOCKED ARTERIES - Stanford researchers have devised a novel approach for delivering a clot-busting gene, tPA, to blocked leg arteries in rabbits, reported radiology resident Michael Kuo at a meeting of the Society of Cardiovascular & Interventional Radiology, March 22 in Orlando, Fla. The vein was used as a bypass for an adjacent artery that had been constricted by a blood clot - successfully reducing clotting by 75 percent and effectively restoring normal blood flow in the legs of treated rabbits. PLAQUE BUILDUP - A light-activated drug can partially dissolve the fatty deposits that clog arteries, assistant professor of radiology Mahmood Razavi reported at the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology's annual scientific meeting in Orlando on March 23. The radiologist worked with assistant professor of medicine Stanley Rockson and Pharmacylics, Inc., to investigate the drug, called lutetium texaphyrin, which kills cells that have absorbed it - but only when they are exposed to high-intensity red light. ETHNIC HEALTH RISKS - A study of more than 7,600 children and young adults shows that ethnic differences in cardiovascular disease risk factors are apparent in grade-school children and persist into adulthood. Marilyn Winkleby, a senior research scientist at the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention, stressed in her article published in the March 17 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association that interventions should begin as early as kindergarten. |
COLUMNS President of the Medical Staff NEWS UCSF Stanford Announces $170 Million Reduction Plan to Balance its Budget Physicians Essential in Driving Cost and Quality Decisions Publication Highlights Clinical Labs |