Health and Medicine

Persons with multiple sclerosis who smoke risk increasing the amount of brain tissue shrinkage, a consequence of MS, and the subsequent severity of their disease, new research conducted at the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC) at the University at Buffalo has shown.

Magnetic resonance images (MRI) of a large group of patients with multiple sclerosis has provided the first evidence that those with a history of MS in their families show more severe brain damage than patients who have no close relatives with the disease.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo who study tinnitus have received a $2.9 million five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the brain signals responsible for creating the phantom sounds, using the animal models, and to test potential therapies to quiet the noise.

An expanded Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center, an internationally renowned research center of the University at Buffalo that works with clinicians and researchers around the world to advance the understanding of diseases of the brain, spinal cord and optic nerve, was unveiled today in Buffalo General Hospital.

Lynn T. Kozlowski, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Health Behavior in the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions, has been named interim dean of the school effective Sept. 24.

Three new studies -- funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling $7.3 million -- have been received by the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA).

Along with memorizing body parts and learning to diagnose and treat diseases, medical students in the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences are being introduced this fall to a new set of courses incorporating spirituality into their training to become physicians.

The University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions is presenting a fall seminar series on addictions-related topics featuring national experts beginning on Oct. 5. The four-part series is free and open to the public.

"We are the bouncers, the bodyguards, the 'shotgun' riders, the overseers, the maitre d's, the stewards, the organizers, the managers and leaders for the patient . . . Often we are the only thing between them and a sentinel event. See us, hear us, feel us." Welcome to the nurse's world, through the words of those who live there.

Microorganisms may soon be efficiently and inexpensively producing novel pharmaceutical compounds, such as flavonoids, that fight aging, cancer or obesity, as well as high-value chemicals, as the result of research being conducted by University at Buffalo researchers.