Health and Medicine

An immune system component that is a primary cause of bone destruction and inflammation in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis actually protects bone in the oral cavity from infectious pathogens that play a major role in periodontal disease in humans, research at the University at Buffalo has shown.

When Buffalo Sabres center Tim Connolly took the ice for the start of the NHL playoffs after being sidelined for 11 months with post-concussion syndrome, his return in large part was due to a new treatment program developed by University at Buffalo researchers.

A formerly unknown action of the acetylcholine receptor channel, a protein that regulates the electrical activity of nerve and muscle cells, is described by biophysicists at the University at Buffalo in the April 19 issue of the journal Nature.

Have you shown up late for work, disappointed family members or discovered you couldn't remember what happened the night before because you had too much to drink? Are you concerned that you might have a problem with alcohol? One in every 13 adults suffers from alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence. In an effort to help people recognize the signs of an alcohol problem and, in turn, seek help, the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) will offer free, anonymous screenings for alcohol use disorders on National Alcohol Screening Day (NASD) on April 5.

Coronary revascularization with stenting or balloon angioplasty combined with optimal medical therapy is no more effective in preventing a heart attack, other major cardiovascular events or death in patients with stable heart disease, than optimal medical therapy alone, results of a new study conducted in 50 hospitals in the U.S. and Canada has shown.

Students in most dental schools are taught to refer tobacco-using patients they encounter in their clinical training to call a "quit line." The University at Buffalo's School of Dental Medicine is taking a different tack. In one of the few such programs in the nation, third- and fourth-year UB dental students are using non-judgmental tobacco counseling to encourage their patients to quit.

Patients admitted to a hospital's intensive care unit already are seriously ill, so the last thing they need is a new infection. Unfortunately, statistics show that as many as 25 percent of all patients admitted to the ICU and placed on ventilators develop pneumonia, which can be fatal. Ironically, it turns out that the patient's own dental plaque is a major source of germs that cause ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Anne E. Meyer of Eggertsville, research associate professor in the Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences in the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine, and director of the UB site of the National Science Foundation-designated Industry/University Center for Biosurfaces, was elected chair of the Council of Societies of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) during the group's annual meeting held recently in Washington, D.C.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo have described a novel pathway by which estradiol, the primary estrogen in humans, aids in maintaining bone density, a function critical to avoiding osteoporosis.

Medcotek, Inc., a North Carolina medical-technology company, is relocating to the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences as the result of a strategic partnership between local companies Buffalo BioSciences and E-Capital Financing.