Health and Medicine

From text messages to making appointments online to the mysterious avatar alter egos in Second Life, Nancy Smyth would like to see social workers comfortable with all the tools in cyberspace in order to do their real work -- making a difference in people's lives -- in a digital age.

University at Buffalo career counselor Holly Justice is hosting a workshop Nov. 10 to help student veterans translate their military experience into resumes that will catch the attention of civilian companies. While veterans completing enlistments come home with valuable skills, finding work can be difficult if employers don't understand how responsibilities in Iraq and Afghanistan apply to civilian jobs, Justice says.

Kenneth E. Leonard, PhD, research scientist, has been named director of the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) UB Interim Provost Harvey G. Stenger Jr. announced today.

Buffalo Niagara and Canadian tech firm Ladybug Teknologies has launched a pilot program for the SipSmart Network, a breathalyzer kiosk that enables bar patrons to stay safe by checking their level of intoxication before they drive.

Although the passion and widespread sympathy for bullying victims is natural and admirable, those who want to stop bullying abuse need to act in ways that reflect good science and proven research if they want to contribute to a culture that does not condone this behavior, according to the director of the University at Buffalo's anti-bullying center. See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5nUZOUbFHk

Exenatide, a drug commonly prescribed to help patients with type 2 diabetes improve blood sugar control, also has a powerful and rapid anti-inflammatory effect, a University at Buffalo study has shown. The study of the drug, marketed under the trade name Byetta, was published recently in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Families in Western New York and southern Ontario who are affected by Alzheimer's disease and related disorders now have a comprehensive new resource: the University at Buffalo's Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders Center, the first in the region.

A new University at Buffalo program, supported by more than $900,000 in federal funds, will help translate medical research on alcoholism and other addictions into the best treatments for addicted patients.

In a recent study conducted by scientists at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions involving 154 heavy-drinking college students whose sexual behavior put them at risk for HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), there were two expected findings and one surprise.

Kathleen A. Parks, senior research scientist at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions, who studies women's substance use and associated victimization, recently received a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to continue her research on women's risks for sexual assault associated with heterosexual drinking situations.