Health and Medicine

Working with Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes the severe diarrheal disease of cholera, microbiologists at the University at Buffalo have revealed new information on a cellular signaling system that ultimately will help scientists understand how cholera toxin and virulent proteins of other pathogenic bacteria migrate through their cellular membranes to cause disease.

Insulin may interfere with the cascade of reactions that promote clot formation and platelet aggregation in heart-attack patients and may help prevent clot formation and plaque development in persons at risk of heart attack and stroke, new research by University at Buffalo endocrinologists has shown.

Frank Fincham, UB professor of psychology, will discuss the findings of 30 years of psychological research on marriage and family issues, as well as expose some of the prevalent myths currently held by the public, during a lecture at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 17, in the Screening Room in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.

Pediatric surgeon Philip Glick, M.D., is on a crusade to convince the medical community worldwide that minimally invasive surgery -- which can lessen pain, hospitalization and recovery time for young patients, as well as lower health costs -- should be the new surgical standard for treating conditions in children and adolescents. One way he is spreading his message is through a 21st-century version of show-and-tell: the surgical equivalent of teleconferencing. Glick operates in Buffalo while an audience gathered at a distant site watches in real-time through the technology of fiberoptics

Treating gum infections with an antibiotic decreases two markers of inflammation throughout the body, further supporting the connection between oral health and general health, including heart disease, researchers from the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine have shown.

Studies conducted in two Native American populations with a high prevalence of both Type 2 diabetes and gum disease have underscored the importance of oral health in controlling adult diabetes. One of the studies showed that reducing gum infections with antibiotics also improves diabetes control.

The beautiful patterns on butterfly wings are emerging as exceptional model systems that may reveal much about how the shapes, sizes and colors of specific organisms have evolved, a type of study called morphological evolution, according a paper featured on the cover of the March issue of Trends in Ecology and Evolution that is co-authored by Antonia Monteiro, Ph.D., University at Buffalo assistant professor of biological sciences.

A study by dental researchers from the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine offers a preliminary answer to the question of whether breathing in mists spun off by dental drills causes respiratory illness.

A novel peptide derived from a molecule found in human saliva may be effective in treating a fungal infection, researchers in the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine have found. The peptide, labeled MUC7 16-mer, has shown the capacity to kill strains of fungi in vitro that are resistant to most current antifungal treatments, making it a potential candidate for a new fungicide.

In response to concerns that the American health-care system offers almost no palliative care for terminally ill children, psychologist James Donnelly, Ph.D., of the University at Buffalo, is conducting an assessment of the palliative-care needs of terminally ill children and their parents. The needs assessment will be conducted, in part, through brainstorming sessions over the World Wide Web between palliative-care workers, medical personnel and patients' families.