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Research News
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Could a High-Fiber Diet Improve Cancer Immunotherapy Performance?
Thursday, December 14, 2023
Brendan Guercio, M.D., assitant professor of Hematology/Oncology and investigator at UR Medicine's Wilmot Cancer Institute, is at the forefront of investigating whether a high-fiber diet can boost the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies for patients with bladder or kidney cancer. Read the full story.
Study from Jennifer Anolik and Team: Building a 'Cellular Atlas' for Rheumatoid Arthritis
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
New research from Jennifer Anolik, MD, PhD, Javier Rangel-Moreno, PhD and Darren Tabechian, MD along with several URMC and national/international collaborators, recently published in the journal Nature, deconstructed more than 314,000 cells into six major subtypes. In building this comprehensive atlas, understanding cell types and pathways, researchers can now use this knowledge in precision medicine, developing specific, individualized therapies. This work was funded by an NIH Network grant awarded to Anolik and team in 2014 that informed a new $10 million NIH grant for the Accelerating Medicines Partnership®: Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Diseases (AMP AIM) program in 2022.
Ilan Goldenberg: Racial Disparities Discovered in Patients with Cardiac Devices
Monday, July 17, 2023
A study by the professor of Medicine published in the journal Circulation found that Black patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators have a higher burden of disease than white patients with the same devices. "The main implication of this study is that because we now know that Black patients who have heart failure are more likely to have more advanced arrhythmias, they should be considered earlier for an ICD defibrillator to protect them from sudden cardiac death," Goldenberg says.
Read the full story.
David Nagel Awarded Research Grant from CHEST Foundation
Friday, July 7, 2023
David Nagel, MD, PhD, assistant professor in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, received a CHEST Foundation Research Grant for his project "Elastin Remodeling Promotes Pulmonary Fibrosis."
Jonathan Friedberg is Senior Investigator on Lymphoma Study That Likely Will Change Standard of Care
Tuesday, June 6, 2023
The groundbreaking clinical trial, which for the first time in the modern era included both adolescents and adults with advanced Hodgkin Lymphoma, showed that 94 percent of the patients treated with an experimental immunotherapy plus chemotherapy were cancer-free or had no progression of disease after one year. The research by Jonathan Friedberg, MD, MMSc, director of the Wilmot Cancer Institute, and his colleagues, was prominently featured at the nation's largest oncology meeting. Read more about this research.
Yao Receives Grant for Cardiac mRNA Research
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Peng Yao, PhD, associate professor of Medicine and Biochemistry & Biophysics at the Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute and the RNA Center: From Genome to Therapeutics, has received a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for his research project “uORF-mediated Translational Control of Cardiac Transcription Factor Expression.”
His project is focused on studying messenger RNA (mRNA) in relation to heart disease, which is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the US and the world. mRNA is responsible for creating proteins in the human body. Disease happens when there is too much “bad” protein or too little “protective” protein. Yao and his lab will study a specific protein factor called GATA4 and its mRNA, which is often over-produced in heart disease.
Understanding protein synthesis in cardiac muscle cells in normal physiology compared to cardiac muscle enlargement due to heart disease will help researchers develop novel ideas for preventive and therapeutic interventions. Yao has already discovered that GATA4 can be made in two forms: big and small. The big form can cause heart muscle cells to enlarge, but the small form can counteract those effects. He has identified a part of the GATA4 mRNA that acts as a “switch” to determine which protein form it generates. Similar to the COVID mRNA vaccine, a potential GATA4 mRNA-targeting RNA drug could instruct cells to produce specific proteins to prevent or treat heart disease.
This research grant is funded at over $2 million through March 2027.
Dr. Jennifer Anolik Receives Lupus Research Alliance Grant
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
Jennifer Anolik, MD, PhD, has received funding through the Lupus Mechanisms and Targets Award from the Lupus Research Alliance. The award is granted to those who have proposed research projects that will explore new potential treatment approaches to prevent lupus from developing, or slow down disease progression. The project’s co-Principal Investigator is Javier Rangel-Moreno, PhD.
The Lupus Mechanisms and Targets Award is for research that focuses on investigating molecular pathways or targets leading to the development of new or improved therapies for patients with cutaneous and systemic lupus erythematosus. The award is for $600,000 over three years.
Anolik’s project will investigate if sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors—a class of drugs approved to treat type 2 diabetes and associated kidney disease—can improve outcomes in lupus nephritis, which is inflammation in the kidneys caused by lupus that affects 40 to 70 percent of lupus patients. Current treatment approaches target inflammation with little impact on fibrosis and injury. Anolik will study mice with lupus nephritis to see if SGLT2 inhibitors reduce kidney hypoxia, inflammatory CD8 T cells, and kidney injury. She will also begin to investigate the effects of treatment with SGLT2i on clinical outcomes and pathogenic CD8 T cells in the blood and urine of patients with lupus nephritis.
“Kidney failure is a major complication for lupus patients,” said Anolik. “We hope that SGLT2 inhibitors will eventually be a new strategy to help prevent this.”
One of Anolik’s lupus patients was in need of a new kidney, then learned she needed a new heart at the same time. This patient underwent a rare dual-organ transplant, and is now thriving thanks to a multi-departmental collaboration.
Kothari to Lead Landmark Study in Gastroenterology: SHARP Trial
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
URMC has been selected as a site for the NIH funded SHARP Trial: a first-of-its-kind study to evaluate the effects of an ERCP procedure on patients with pancreas divisum with recurrent pancreatitis. Only 20 other sites are involved in the program. Research at URMC will be led by Truptesh Kothari, MD, MS, associate professor of Medicine in Gastroenterology/Hepatology.
Pancreas divisum (PD) is a congenital birth anomaly. It is found in roughly 10 percent of the population, and of those who have PD, 10 percent have symptoms of acute pancreatitis.
The SpHincterotomy for Acute Recurrent Pancreatitis (SHARP) clinical trial will determine the benefits and effects of an Endoscopic Retrograde CholangioPancreatography (ERCP) procedure with minor papilla sphincterotomy (cutting of the opening of the pancreatic duct) for patients with PD.
“The SHARP trial will be a landmark study,” said Kothari, “and will place URMC on the global map in the field of pancreatico-biliary.”
Co-investigators are Shivangi Kothari, MD, and Vivek Kaul, MD. Soon, the team will begin enrolling patients for the study.
Stamm Receives Grant for Humanities Project: COVID-19 in Rochester’s Black Communities
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
Laura Stamm, PhD, is the director of DEI for the department of Medicine. She recently earned a $10,000 grant from the Humanities Project for an oral histories project she is leading, titled “Making Public History: Oral Histories of COVID-19 and Rochester’s Black Communities.”
This project will provide a collection of audio clips that captures the impact of COVID-19 on Rochester’s Black communities. Using community-based participatory research methods (CBPR), Stamm will listen to, record, and preserve the experiences of those made most vulnerable by the pandemic. Charles White from Neurology is the project Community Co-Lead, and Christine Zizzi, MPA, from the Center for Health & Technology is the Project Manager.
It is a widely accepted fact that COVID-19 disproportionately affects Black communities, but there is little research available on how COVID-19 and the impact of the disproportional burden differently affects Black communities. Moreover, most research on COVID-19 in marginalized communities is told from the perspective of scientific researchers, rather than by individuals who experience the everyday impact of the pandemic.
Scholarship on vaccine hesitancy in the Black community, for example, typically cites survey data and theorizes about why Black people might not trust medical institutions without hearing directly from Black community members about why their experiences and understandings of history cause them to distrust medicine.
The proposed project will provide a collection of stories about COVID-19 directly from voices of Rochester’s Black communities that centers their experiences and provides a new narrative of life and health during a global pandemic. Preserving these Black oral histories in an archival collection and digitized open access website affirms their historical importance and assures their existence for future generations.
When completed, the website will be part of the Black History and Culture Special Collection in the University’s Rush Rhees Library.
Clinical Trial Shows More Updated COVID Boosters Likely Needed
Thursday, April 20, 2023
The trial, led by Angela Branche, M.D., Co-Director, URMC Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit, demonstrated that current COVID boosters elicit weak immune responses to the newest COVID variants, suggesting a need to continue monitoring for new variants and possibly developing new boosters to better protect against them.
Read the full story
Race to RSV Vaccine Approval: URMC Researchers Leading the Way
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
URMC scientists are at the center of vaccine development for RSV in older adults, leading a phase 3 clinical trial of a vaccine that is detailed in a new study just released in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study, led by Edward Walsh, MD, professor of medicine, and co-authored by Ann Falsey, MD, professor of medicine and co-director of the UR Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit, covers phase 3 clinical trial results of the Pfizer RSV vaccine that showed promising results. This data has been presented to the FDA for review. Walsh and Falsey are involved in multiple trials for RSV vaccine development, positioning URMC as a research center of choice for companies like Pfizer.
Read the full story
Brian McGarry: Staff COVID Tests Protected Nursing Home Residents, Saved Lives
Thursday, March 23, 2023
The NEJM study by Brian McGarry, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine and Public Health Sciences, show that nursing homes that conducted more regular staff surveillance testing experienced significantly lower rates of COVID infections and deaths among residents. This was most pronounced prior to the availability of COVID vaccines, when high-testing facilities had about 30 percent lower resident cases and 25 percent fewer resident deaths.
Read the full story
Ann Falsey's Study Shows 80 Percent Effectiveness of RSV Vaccine for Older Adults
Thursday, February 16, 2023
Ann Falsey, M.D., professor of Medicine in infectious diseases and co-director of the URMC Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit, is lead author of a recent New England Journal of Medicine paper based on a phase 2b clinical trial of the Janssen adult RSV vaccine. Falsey's research is among the first breakthroughs toward a safe and effective vaccine. With these results, Janssen has initiated its phase 3 trials with Falsey in an advisory role.
Read the full article (subscription required).
Valerie Lang named Associate Chair for Medical Education Research & Scholarship
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
The department of Medicine has a strong dedication to medical education. The majority of faculty are clinician-educators, and the DOM has found great success in creating educational scholarship and presenting at the national level. Chair of Medicine, Ruth O’Regan, MD, recently announced the creation of the new position of associate chair for Medical Education Research & Scholarship, and named Valerie Lang, MD, MHPE as the inaugural associate chair.
Lang joined URMC in 2000, and is a professor of Medicine in the division of Hospital Medicine, and a professor of Clinical Nursing. She is already regarded as a superb educator for learners at all levels, and she has mentored students, residents, and junior faculty. She currently serves as director of the Hospital Medicine Faculty Development Program, and is the inaugural director of Meliora in Medicine. She has earned many awards, including the Harry L. Segal Prize for Third Year Teaching.
Brett Robbins, MD, vice chair for Education of the DOM, had a hand in the development of the new position. “Dr. Lang is the quintessential educational scholar,” says Robbins. “She has spent her career developing an amazing skillset. She has already become our most popular scholarly mentor for our educators. Her successes at the national level have garnered her a tenured professorship and a position on our department’s promotions committee.”
The new role gives educational scholarship a champion to focus and coordinate efforts at study design, grantsmanship, outcomes measurement, and dissemination. A major goal of the office is to expand the impact of DOM programs by supporting faculty and APPs who are conducting research and other forms of scholarship in medical education.
“I’m thrilled to launch this new role,” said Lang, “and grateful for the department’s support for our educators and educational scholars. Getting this office off the ground will mean learning more about what will enhance our faculty’s work. I’ll start by reaching out to each division to understand their specific needs. Our plans include the creation of a single point of entry where faculty at any stage of their scholarly work can reach out for support, whether they need a consultation or access to other resources. We also plan to expand our resources to support medical education scholars to design, conduct, and disseminate their work. I look forward to partnering with our medical educators, scholars, and leaders in research and DEI to move this work forward.”