Breakthroughs

How are habits – both good and bad – formed in the brain, and what role do habits play in diseases of the brain? These are some of the questions neuroscientist, Talia Lerner, PhD, is investigating in her lab. Her recent study, published in Cell Reports, may change the overall understanding of how habits are formed and could be broken.

Uniting scientists and harnessing the power of the immune system to fight disease is at the heart of the new Center for Human Immunobiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Stephanie Eisenbarth, MD, PhD is leading the new center, she is also the new chief of Allergy and Immunology in the Department of Medicine.   She discusses the variety of immunology research taking place within the new center and its goal of bringing a community of immunologists together to discover and translate innovative science into cures for immune-related diseases. 

In recent years, Feinberg has launched several initiatives to augment human expertise with computational methods and advance the science of human health. Theresa Walunas, PhD, explains how she is using big data from electronic medical records in a variety of projects at Feinberg, from improving quality of care to identifying patients who could develop debilitating autoimmune diseases. 

A celebrated molecular neuroscientist, Jeremy Nathans, MD, PhD, is responsible for landmark discoveries that have changed our understanding of how humans see the world. He is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one cause of death globally, and nearly half of all U.S. adults are currently at risk for heart attack and stroke. Hossein Ardehali, MD, PhD, is working to understand the role of iron and metabolic processes in cardiovascular disease and develop new therapies that target iron accumulation in people with CVD and many other chronic diseases.

Alfred George, Jr., MD, is a pioneer in understanding the mechanisms by which ion channel mutations cause a variety of inherited disorders, such as genetic epilepsy. He discusses his recent breakthroughs in the field and his optimism for future RNA therapeutics to treat rare genetic diseases. 

Cell and Developmental Biology is a field that's integral to finding new therapies for a wide variety of diseases. At Feinberg, Lusia Iruela-Arispe, PhD, a vascular biologist, leads the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology as chair. In this episode, talks about her research and the future of cell-based treatments for diseases.  

Providing evidence-based medical care to transgender and gender nonconforming youth has been a challenge in the past, as trans-related healthcare has long been understudied. Robert Garofalo, MD, MPH, discusses how gender-affirming care can improve the overall health and well-being of transgender and gender diverse children and adolescents. He also discusses his research on the short-term and long-term outcomes of gender-affirming medical treatments.

The past two years have been a crucial time for the study of infectious diseases. Richard D’Aquila, MD, professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern and director of NUCATS, discusses how HIV/AIDS research is running parallel to ongoing COVID-19 research with interesting crossover and lessons learned.  

Nearly half of all patients with heart failure have preserved ejection fraction, or HFpEF, yet there is much that is unknown about HFpEF and how to best prevent it and treat it. Northwestern Medicine cardiologist, Sanjiv Shah, MD, leads the world's first clinical program dedicated to the study of heart failure with HFpEF. He discusses latest discoveries on the mechanisms of HFpEF and identifying therapeutic targets for it.  

Music-based medical interventions can have remarkable therapeutic benefits for patients diagnosed with cognitive impairments such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and Aphasia. Cognitive Behavioral Neurologist Borna Bonakdarpour, MD, explains how he is using and studying these clinical interventions through the new Northwestern Music and Medicine Program. 

A novel gene therapy promoted transfusion independence in more than 90 percent of adult and pediatric patients with transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia. Study co-author Jennifer Schneiderman, MD, discusses results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Man's best friend is helping scientists find new treatments for brain tumors. Amy Heimberger, MD, is a board-certified neurosurgeon with extensive training and experience in the field of immunology. She is part of a promising new study in canine glioblastoma that could lead to more effective human glioblastoma clinical trials.

Sachin Patel, MD, PhD, is the new chair and Lizzie Gilman Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Feinberg and psychiatrist-in-chief at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Norman and Ida Stone Institute of Psychiatry. In this episode, he talks about the current mental health crisis in this country, his research and vision for the department. 

According to the CDC, more Americans died of gun-related injuries in 2020 than in any other year on record. Judith Moskowitz, a social psychologist and professor of Medical Social Sciences at Feinberg, talks about how her NIH-funded research and intervention programs will be used to address stress and burnout in Chicago’s front-line violence prevention workers through the READI Chicago program.

David Gate, PhD, assistant professor of The Ken & Ruth Davee Department of Neurology, discusses his study on the detrimental role the immune system plays in Lewy body dementias. Gate’s new research published in Science suggests pathways toward unprecedented treatment therapies for this devastating disease.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. and according to a new Northwestern Medicine study published in the journal Circulation, about sixty percent of women in the U.S. have poor heart health before becoming pregnant. Study authors Sadiya Khan, MD and Natalie Cameron, MD, explain the results of the study and what needs to be done to reverse this alarming trend.

In response to the first successful animal heart transplant into a human patient, internationally renowned transplant surgeon Satish Nadig, MD, PhD, reviews some of the scientific developments that have culminated in this moment, and stresses the ongoing need for other experimental strategies. Dr. Nadig is also the new director of Feinberg's Comprehensive Transplant Center. 

Gregory Smith, professor of Microbiology-Immunology at Feinberg, has been investigating a path to long-needed vaccine development for herpes virus. He recently published findings in the journal Nature that bring the possibility of a preventive vaccine a step closer. 

Since coming to Northwestern in 2013, Deborah Smith Clements, MD, chair of Family & Community Medicine, has established three thriving family medicine residency programs and has been an advocate for improving the residency match process, health policy and social justice. She talks about her work, leading her department through COVID-19 and her recent Distinguished Service Award from Illinois Academy of Family Physicians.