Research News
Parr, Senior Author of Study That Shows Plasmodium Falciparum Evolving to Escape Malaria Rapid Diagnostics in Africa
A major tool against malaria in Africa has been the use of rapid diagnostic tests, which have been part of the “test-treat-track” strategy in Ethiopia, the second most-populated country in Africa. But researchers studying blood samples from more than 12,000 individuals in Ethiopia now estimate these tests missed nearly 10% of malaria cases caused by … Read more
Chemotherapy Plus Immunotherapy Before Surgery is Beneficial For Invasive Bladder Cancer Outcomes
A new study is the first to report the beneficial use of chemotherapy plus immunotherapy before surgical removal of the bladder in muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). Researchers at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center led the study, reporting that the regimen reduced the invasiveness of the cancer in 56 percent of patients in a phase … Read more
Novel CRISPR-Based Malaria Diagnostic Capable of Plasmodium Detection, Species Differentiation, and Drug-Resistance Genotyping
CRISPR-based diagnostics are a new class of highly sensitive and specific assays with multiple applications in infectious disease diagnosis. SHERLOCK, or Specific High-Sensitivity Enzymatic Reporter UnLOCKing, is one such CRISPR-based diagnostic that combines recombinase polymerase pre-amplification, CRISPR-RNA base-pairing, and LwCas13a activity for nucleic acid detection. Researchers from the division of infectious diseases recently developed SHERLOCK assays … Read more
Ascertaining Framingham Heart Failure Phenotype From Inpatient Electronic Health Record Data Using Natural Language Processing: a Multicentre Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Validation Study
Carlton Moore, MD, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases, is first author of a retrospective observational study design of patients hospitalized in 2015 from four hospitals participating in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. Using free-text clinical notes and reports from hospitalized patients, the study team wanted to determine the performance … Read more
Evaluation and Management of Heart Block After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement
UNC Cardiology Fellow Anthony Mazzella, MD, is first author of a paper published in Cardiac Failure Review. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has developed substantially since its inception. Improvements in valve design, valve deployment technologies, preprocedural imaging and increased operator experience have led to a gradual decline in length of hospitalization after TAVR. Despite these advances, … Read more
Emerging Therapies For AML With Myelodysplasia-Related Changes: Slowly But Surely Moving the Needle
Patients with acute myeloid leukemia with myelodysplasia-related changes (AML-MRC) have historically poor outcomes with conventional chemotherapy regimens. Davis Phillips, MD, internal medicine resident, and Josh Zeidner, MD, associate professor of medicine in the division of hematology, published an article that reviews the data for existing therapeutic options for patients with AML-MRC and the emerging therapies undergoing … Read more
Study Finds Bamlanivimab Reduces Risk of COVID in Skilled Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Facilities
Myron Cohen, MD, is the lead investigator of a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that shows bamlanivimab monotherapy reduced the incidence of infection in skilled nursing homes and assisted living facilities with high risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure. The randomized phase 3 clinical trial included 966 residents and staff … Read more
What’s Best for Diabetes After Metformin?
Results of the five-year GRADE trial, designed to understand the best second-line agent for patients with type 2 diabetes already taking metformin, were reported at the virtual American Diabetes Association (ADA) 81st Scientific Sessions and published in Medscape Medical News. Researchers found the injectable drugs Lantus (glargine) and Victoza (liraglutide) outperformed the pills Amaryl (glimepiride) and … Read more
Trial Results Show Two Medications Most Effective in Lowering Blood Glucose Levels in Type 2 Diabetes Patients
Two medications, liraglutide and insulin, were better at keeping A1C (a measurement of average blood glucose) levels less than 7% in recent GRADE study. The UNC Diabetes Care Center, lead by site principal investigator Sue Kirkman, MD, professor of medicine, in the division of endocrinology and metabolism, was one of the 37 sites to be … Read more
Donaldson, Goralski Research Highlighted By MRM
Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (MRM) recently highlighted research by Scott Donaldson, MD, professor of medicine, and Jennifer Goralski, MD, assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics, from the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine. Their paper “Comparison of single breath hyperpolarized 129Xe MRI with dynamic 19F MRI in cystic fibrosis lung disease” was highlighted for … Read more
Two Medicine Scholars Named to Physician-Scientist Training Program
Klara Klein, MD, PhD, a fellow in the division of endocrinology and metabolism, and Shetal Patel, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine in the division of oncology, have received physician-scientist awards to cultivate their careers as translational clinician scientists. As part of the Forward Together Strategic Plan, the UNC School of Medicine Physician Scientist Training Program (PSTP) … Read more
‘Nanodecoy’ Therapy Binds and Neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 Virus
NC State researchers led by Ke Cheng, PhD, created a therapeutic approach that mimics the receptor that the virus binds to and then traps the virus before it infect cells. The Department of Medicine’s Jason Lobo, MD, the Kimberly H. Tsamoutales Distinguished Term Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine, is a co-author … Read more