Health and Medicine

The mental impairment and problems with walking experienced by patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) are linked to damage in the brain's gray matter, with MRI findings suggesting the damage is due to toxic deposits of iron, researchers from the University at Buffalo have shown for the first time.

Men who smoke marijuana frequently have significantly less seminal fluid, a lower total sperm count and their sperm behave abnormally, all of which may affect fertility adversely, a new study in reproductive physiology at the University at Buffalo has shown.

The Region II Rehabilitation Continuing Education Program (RRCEP) in the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education has received a $2.5 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE).

The relationship between drinking and HIV/AIDS in women will be the focus of studies to be conducted under two grants totaling $3.1 million awarded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to researchers at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Additions.

More people die from sudden cardiac death (SCD) each year than from AIDS, breast cancer and lung cancer combined. Yet, because there are few warning signs or symptoms to identify people at risk, scientists know little about the underlying causes. Researchers at the new Center for Research in Cardiovascular Medicine at the University at Buffalo are poised to change that scenario. Aided by a $1.5 million grant from the John R. Oishei Foundation, the university has assembled a cadre of specialists in several fields who are investigating SCD from the single-cell-level up.

The University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions has named its dean's suite in honor of J. Warren Perry, founding dean of the former UB School of Health Related Professions.

Responding to a national and regional problem that has reached epidemic proportions, the Community Health Network of Western New York and the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University at Buffalo are partnering to present a conference on obesity from 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. on Oct. 3 in Michael's Banquet Facility, 4885 Southwestern Blvd., Hamburg.

Linking computer scientists with life scientists to develop computational tools that will help draw a far more complete picture of the causes behind complex diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis and coronary artery disease is the goal of researchers at the University at Buffalo working under two major federal grants totaling $2.8 million.

Yvonne Scherer, Ed.D., associate professor in the School of Nursing at the University at Buffalo, has received a $1 million, three-year grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to support new academic programs aimed at alleviating the chronic shortage of skilled nurses and nursing faculty.

A new software package under development by Virmatics, LLC., a spin-off company formed by researchers at the University at Buffalo and the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, will provide molecular biologists with the tools they need to design successful experiments, potentially boosting the pace of new drug discoveries.