Health and Medicine

A cardiac condition called atrial fibrillation, the most common cardiac arrhythmia, can increase your risk of stroke by 500 percent. That's why Anne B. Curtis, MD, Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and Chair of the University at Buffalo Department of Medicine, is helping to raise public awareness of the condition during September through the Heart Rhythm Society's AF Awareness Month.

The first transgenic mouse model of a rare and severe type of autism called Timothy Syndrome is improving the scientific understanding of autism spectrum disorder in general and may help researchers design more targeted interventions and treatments. The research is described in a paper published last week by scientists at the University at Buffalo and Stanford University in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

An easy-to-use device developed by a local biomedical company, with UB's help, is providing relief to Buffalo-area patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

Understanding the line between harmless teasing and abusive bullying can mean the difference between interfering parents and those who help their children overcome painful child abuse, according to the newly appointed director of the University at Buffalo's Dr. Jean Alberti Center for the Prevention of Bullying Abuse and School Violence.

The research of University at Buffalo faculty members Douglas H. Clements, PhD, and Julie Sarama, PhD, is featured in a special section of Science magazine focused on the value of educational programs for the earliest of childhood learners -- children 2, 3 and 4 years old.

When Mary Brennan-Taylor lost her mother to a series of preventable medical errors, she wasn't interested in suing the hospital where the mistakes had been made. "I wasn't interested in a lawsuit because that wouldn't help anyone," she says, "I was interested in culture change." Now, Brennan-Taylor is bringing that culture change directly to students at the University at Buffalo.

Cultural scholar Cynthia Wu has spent years studying Chang and Eng Bunker, a pair of Asian-born, co-joined, entrepreneurial, self-promoting "human marvels." "The Bunker twins," she says, "have served for more than 100 years as metaphors for the paradox that while 'individualism' is what makes Americans stand apart from Europeans, unity is equally valued."

The University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences will celebrate a century and a quarter of research, teaching and learning as part of "125 Years of Discovery, Change and Progression," a series of educational and social events to be held Sept. 14-18.

Four new studies by researchers at the University at Buffalo have found that when a woman's goal is to be romantically desirable, she distances herself from academic majors and activities related to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

The University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine has received a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant for $500,000 to replace its 14-year-old Mobile Dental Unit (MDU) -- the van that gives the children of Chautauqua County access to oral care.