Medical & Health Sciences
The Cancer Research Institute
Founded in 1953, the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) is the world’s first non-profit organisation dedicated exclusively to harnessing the power of the immune system to defeat cancer. This important branch of research has led to a new class of cancer treatments known...
Professor Irva Hertz-Picciotto – The Conception Of Autism Spectrum Disorders
Professor Irva Hertz-Picciotto has been fascinated by early development since childhood. Her interest brought on a life long journey, studying the dangers lurking around the corner for the not yet born – now focusing on risks for autism spectrum disorders. Among your...
Dr David Stanford – Improving Our Healthcare System With Queueing Theory
Dr David Stanford’s research at the University of Western Ontario involves applying the mathematics of Queueing Theory to real-world problems in healthcare, such as emergency department wait times and organ donor priority lists. To begin with, what motivated you to...
Drs Sheila Murphy & Lourdes Baezconde- Garbanati – Transforming Health Promotion Through Narrative
Dr Sheila Murphy and her team including Dr Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, Dr Meghan Moran and Dr Lauren Frank are utilising the potency of narratives in order to change knowledge, attitudes and behaviour and reduce health disparities both in the United States and...
Professor Warren Foster – Searching For New Biomarkers Of Endometriosis
Professor Warren Foster and his collaborators at McMaster University are interested in finding biomarkers for endometriosis, a gynaecological disease that causes pelvic pain and infertility. They hope that the discovery of a strongly predictive and reliable biomarker...
Dr Hidetaka Hamasaki, Md, Phd – A Neat Way To Prevent And Fight Diabetes
Metabolic disease and in particular diabetes are the focus of Dr Hidetaka Hamasaki’s work at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Chiba, Japan. Dr Hamasaki and his team discovered a valuable lifestyle tweak that allows patients with reduced physical...
Professor Jim Koropatnick – Paving The Way For The Future Through Innovative Training And Research
Determined to have a commanding presence on the scientific global stage, Canada has developed crucial plans to generate high yield research opportunities. Two research training programmes known as Cancer Research and Technology Transfer (CaRTT) and Partners in...
Professor Amy Arnsten – Staying In Control: How The Prefrontal Cortex Helps Us Be Human
Professor Arnsten and her team at Yale University have pioneered new insights into the unique ways that the prefrontal cortex is regulated at the molecular level, altering our ability to remember, pay attention, and control our thoughts and actions when we feel...
Jeffry A. Simpson – Taking The Long View On Wellness
Nature vs. nurture is one of the oldest debates in biology. Are people’s lives determined by their genes, their upbringing, or both? Nearly 30 years ago at the onset of the human genome project, scientists believed that once all human genes were known, all of human...
Dr Frances M. Sladek – Turning The Tables On ‘Healthy’ Fats
Dr Frances Sladek is a world leader in molecular biology research. Here she talks to us about her latest research, how soybean oil affects health and what the molecular mechanisms that underlie these outcomes may be. What is your research background and what triggered...
Dr Shin-Siung Jung – Bringing Adhd Into Focus With Nonpharmaceutical Treatment
Dr Shin-Siung Jung, of the Everspring foundation in Taiwan, has pioneered the use of sensory-motor integration training in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as a non-pharmaceutical alternative treatment. The training comprises a series of...
Professor Ulrich Schnyder – Transcending Trauma: Understanding And Hope For Refugees
The present refugee crisis will likely be one of the defining features of the current era. By the end of 2015, worldwide refugee numbers exceeded 65 million and growing, surpassing displacement numbers seen at the end of World War II. At present, nearly one out of...
Professor Paul Dent – A Versatile Antiviral Drug With Potential From Ebola To Hiv
Professor Paul Dent, of Virginia Commonwealth University, has conducted extensive research into the potential of AR-12, a small molecule drug, to act as a versatile antiviral agent. The drug exploits clever targeting of ubiquitous chaperone proteins, leading to...
Dr David Greenberg – The Genetics Of Epilepsy
Searching for disease-causing genes is no simple task. Dr David Greenberg has been studying the genetic determinants of inherited epilepsy for 30 years and explains how the search can be hampered by deeply ingrained, but incorrect, assumptions within the field....
The American Society For Biochemistry And Molecular Biology
Representing over 12,000 members worldwide, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) has been advancing the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology for the last 100 years. Over the next few pages we have had the pleasure of speaking...
Professor Seamas Donnelly | Dr Ciaran O’reilly – Translational Medicine: Fundamental Research, Drug Discovery And More!
Professor Seamas Donnelly and Dr Ciaran O’Reilly are currently working together in a cross-disciplinary team, uncovering the role of macrophage migration inhibitory factor in inflammation and cancer, and investigating promising small molecule therapeutic approaches....
Dr Heiko Reutter – Studying Congenital Human Malformations Caused By Too Many Genes
Genetics researcher Dr Heiko Reutter and his colleagues at the Institute of Human Genetics of the University of Bonn, Germany, think that some congenital malformations of the uro-rectal area, oesophagus and trachea are caused by too many copies of genes that govern...
Professor Arlan Richardson – Growing Old Gracefully: The Science Behind Aging
Professor Arlan Richardson and his colleagues at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center investigate the biological mechanisms behind aging. Professor Richardson is specifically interested in the effects of aging and dietary restriction on gene expression,...
ECCO
Consisting of 24 Member Societies and representing over 80,000 professionals, ECCO is a not-for-profit organisation that exists to support the right of all European cancer patients to the best possible treatment and care. ECCO achieves this by connecting the European...
Dr Stephanie Watkins – Building Immunity Against Cancer
A growing body of evidence supports how harnessing the power of the immune system may be the ultimate way to fight cancer. Therefore, researchers such as Dr Stephanie Watkins at Loyola University Chicago have been striving to increase our understanding of cancer...
Dr Maria Stella Carro – Making Maps Of Shifting Sands
The malignancy of brain tumours such as glioblastomas are controlled by complex networks of interlocking genetic factors. Dr Maria Stella Carro’s ultimate aim is to unravel these complex puzzles and find new opportunities for novel glioblastoma therapeutics. There are...
THE ALLIANCE FOR AGING RESEARCH
The Alliance for Aging Research is a national non-profit organisation dedicated to accelerating the pace of scientific discoveries and their application in order to vastly improve the universal human experience of aging and health. Founded 30 years ago in 1986, the...
Professor Eli Glatstein – Photodynamic Therapy: An Illuminating Approach To Cancer Treatment
Professor Eli Glatstein and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania have applied photodynamic therapy for the treatment of a variety of types of cancer. Here, we illustrate the rationale behind this technique and discuss malignant pleural mesothelioma, a type...
Professor Christine Theoret – The Horse As A Model For The Study Of Human Wound Healing Disorders
Professor Christine Theoret at the University of Montreal studies dermal fibroproliferative disorders in horses with the aim of reducing financial and welfare impacts on the equine industry. The results of her work may also be carried over to the field of human...
Dr Donald J. Vander Griend – Uncovering Genetic Pathways to Prostate Cancer
Dr Donald Vander Griend and his research team at the University of Chicago have devoted the last few years to investigating novel gene pathways which underlie prostate cancer development and progression, as well as the factors leading to treatment resistance and...
Professor David M. Guidot – Exploring Alveolar Macrophages as HIV Reservoirs
Although pulmonary disorders remain the highest cause of mortality amongst individuals living with chronic infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), many of the mechanisms underlying their development remain unknown. Professor David Guidot and his team at...
Professor Iraldo Bello Rivero – A Synergistic Immunotherapy For Skin Cancer
Professor Iraldo Bello-Rivero, of the Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Havana, Cuba, has conducted several clinical trials to investigate the potential of a synergistic interferon combination therapy for the treatment of skin cancers. Skin cancer –...
Dr Peter Houghton – Novel Therapeutics For Childhood Solid Tumours
Dr Peter Houghton’s group implements preclinical trials to identify new drugs that may be effective and less toxic treatments against childhood cancers. From patient-derived xenografts in immunodeficient mice to utilising canine cancer patients as models, they have...
Professor Paul Dent – Developing Cancer Killing Combinations
Professor Paul Dent is committed to taking an idea from the bench to the bedside. He is doing just that by designing clinical trials that investigate how drugs can combine and synergise to kill tumour cells. Maximising the potential of cancer treatments Professor Paul...
Professor Susan Masino – Metabolism and Brain Health
Professor Susan Masino of Trinity College, Connecticut, studies the mechanisms that underlie the effectiveness of the ketogenic diet, an almost 100-year-old therapy for epilepsy, with a view to apply what she has learned to the treatment of other disorders, such as...
Dr Yoshiaki Minakata, MD, PhD – Breathing So You Can Move and Moving So You Can Breathe
Pulmonologist and medical researcher Dr Yoshiaki Minakata and his colleagues at the National Hospital Organization Wakayama Hospital in Wakayama, Japan, try to improve the outlook for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by examining the relationship...
The British Society For Research On Ageing
Founded sometime before 1939, The British Society for Research on Ageing (BSRA) is the oldest learned society in the world devoted to the study of the fundamental biology of the ageing process. The society’s mission is to increase our scientific knowledge of the...