Health and Medicine

The nanomedicine program of the University at Buffalo's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics is moving beyond the benchtop, thanks to a $925,000 grant to the institute from the John R. Oishei Foundation.

A new study counters the prevailing belief that children and adolescents who are extra short have social adjustment problems and fewer friends than children of average height, challenging one rationale for intervening at an early age with human growth-hormone treatment.

Anyone who knows children, knows that you can't "make" them do something they don't want to do, and that holds true when it comes to reading, although reading itself is a requirement for academic, economic, social and future parental success. Parents can, however, help make reading a palatable, pleasurable activity, one that children ultimately will pursue on their own, to their own tremendous benefit, says a faculty member in the University at Buffalo School of Informatics.

Because of the Labor Day holiday, the embargo on the study by University at Buffalo researchers on social adjustment in children of short stature that will be reported in the September issue of Pediatrics has been moved to 12:01 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2004.

Teachers nationwide say about five percent of children in their classrooms have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and they estimate another 5 percent have ADHD but are undiagnosed, according to a survey conducted by University at Buffalo researchers.

The University at Buffalo and the Global Bio Pharma Conference Group is sponsoring "Global Bio Pharma Conference -- 2004," a gathering of biopharmaceutical industry leaders, academicians, scientists, entrepreneurs and representatives from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to discuss "emerging issues, challenges and opportunities in the new millennium for biologicals, pharmaceuticals, clinical trials and diagnostics."

Scientists from the U.S., Europe, South America, Asia and Australia will convene in Buffalo on Sept. 10-12 to discuss the latest research on the relationship between periodontal disease and many chronic systemic diseases in a symposium honoring Robert J. Genco, D.D.S., Ph.D., an international leader in the field of dental research.

An intervention that may reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired pneumonia in ventilated patients in intensive-care units by up to 50 percent is being tested by researchers from the University at Buffalo, supported by a $1.69 million grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.

Applications for the professional pharmacy degree program in the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences for the upcoming academic year more than doubled over last year, reflecting a strong nationwide demand for pharmacists and the school's reputation as one of the country's top pharmacy schools.

Going to the dentist could be considerably more pleasant for patients, less time-consuming for dentists and less costly to the health-care system in the future if a new study being undertaken by oral biologists at the University at Buffalo goes as predicted.