News

  An abstract resulting from the joint collaboration between Surgical Sciences faculty member Gayathri Devi, PhD, and Kevin Williams, PhD, North Carolina Central University, was recently presented by Helen Oladapo, PhD, at the 10th Annual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved.

Investigational therapy directly kills tumor cells and unmasks them to the body’s defenses An investigational therapy using modified poliovirus to attack cancer tumors appears to unleash the body’s own capacity to fight malignancies by activating an inflammation process that counter’s the ability of cancer cells to evade the immune system.

The Duke Human Heart Repository has been a resource for cardiovascular research scientists at Duke University since 2004, and with a new grant, the facility will be able to expand its capabilities.

Gayathri Devi, PhD, Division of Surgical Sciences, has received the Duke AHEAD Supporting Health Professions Educators (DASHE) award. This award will support data management and dissemination of the translational sciences survey results from the Duke MERITS education

Study finds little survival benefit and high costs from the preventive procedure Mutations in the BRCA gene correspond to a higher lifetime risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers, and many women who carry these mutations consider undergoing mastectomy or removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes as preventive measures.

The Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) has elected Gayathri Devi, PhD, Associate Professor in Surgery, Division of Surgical Sciences, to its Board of Directors. ACTS supports the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program by advancing research, public policy, and education in clinical and translational science. ACTS members include leaders, investigators, and trainees from academic medical centers, government, industry, and philanthropy.

Photo: Cardiothoracic surgeons Dr. Jacob Klapper and Dr. Nnamdi Nwaejike perform a double lung transplant. Shawn Rocco/Duke Health Each day, tens of thousands of patients on waiting lists across the United States await a simple phone call: one that says a match has been found and an organ is available for transplant. Despite a growing demand for donors, organ shortages continue to hinder many patients’ chances in receiving their potentially life-saving call. 

For NASA astronauts traveling outside of Earth’s protection, cosmic radiation can create some out-of-this-world problems.

The National Cancer Institute has funded a four-year $2 million grant to support the Cancer Disparities Translational Research Partnership between Duke University and North Carolina Central University (NCCU). The grant funds two laboratory-based translational research projects that aim to understand molecular aspects in prostate and breast cancer health disparity in African Americans.  The Herald Sun recently featured the Duke-NCCU Partnership

Study is the first to identify how chemicals might encourage deadly cancer’s growth The chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, appears to aid the survival of inflammatory breast cancer cells, revealing a potential mechanism for how the disease grows according to a study led by researchers in the Department of Surgery at Duke University School of Medicine and the Duke Cancer Institute.