By Raazia Syedda “The more you explore an area, the more questions you can see,” says Dr. Anne Moyer of Stony Brook’s Department of Psychology and Faculty Director of the Undergraduate College of Science and Society [1]. Dr. Moyer has had a long-held interest in cancer and studies the psychosocial issues that surround cancer and cancer risk, medical decision-making, gender and health, research methodology and … Continue reading Mind Power: A Potent Medicine
By David John Davani Introduction It is no secret that a large population of Stony Brook’s student body is on the track to enter a career in medicine. Not surprisingly, most of those students major in one form or another of the sciences. However, medical school admissions are becoming increasingly selective each year, seeking out well-rounded students with humanistic qualities. … Continue reading Can Music be the Secret to Making Our Future Physicians Even Better?
By Surya Chalil As of October 2013, Stony Brook Medicine has become the first site in Long Island and tenth in North America to clinically offer simultaneous whole-body PET/MRI scans. In this new Siemens Biograph mMR hybrid imaging system, molecular information from positron emission tomography is combined with soft-tissue contrasts from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This lowers the body’s exposure to radiation and further enhances … Continue reading Stony Brook Medicine is among the first in the nation to offer simultaneous PET/MRI
By Nujbat Meraji In the past year, it was estimated that 5.2 million Americans were suffering from the Alzheimer’s disease, a disease that causes memory, thinking and behavioral issues and currently has no cure. A research team at Stony Brook University, led by Helene Benveniste, M.D., Ph.D., Professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Radiology, are using imaging technique to study how brain waste can … Continue reading Brain-wide pathway for waste clearance captured by contrast-enhanced MRI
By Hillary Steinberg At the close of spring semester of 2013, Stony Brook University put out a press release detailing a new Center for Men and Masculinities, headed by resident sociology professor Dr. Michael Kimmel. Masculinities studies is a facet of gender studies, and was described by him as “international and interdisciplinary.” The center will be an offshoot of the sociology department, but the subject … Continue reading Emergence of Masculinities Headed to Stony Brook
By Marianna Catege Even as the world becomes more and more science-based, ghost stories are still told and believed by some. Today, researchers are finally using science to tackle the unexplained phenomenon of the feeling of a ghostly presence. Dr. Giulio Rognini, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), explains that this vivid sensation is common in people who experience extreme weather conditions, such … Continue reading Scientists Pinpointed the Part of the Brain that Generates the “Ghostly Presence”
By Eman Kazi At the Stony Brook Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Professor Dale Deutsch and his research team recently identified a group of Fatty Acid binding proteins (FABPs), which serve as intracellular transporters for two of the main active substances in marijuana, Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). This project also asserted that CBD may help reduce seizures and serve as a treatment … Continue reading The Intracellular Mechanics of Marijuana
By Anirudh Chandrashekar The role of Y-shaped antibodies to fight viruses, bacteria and different forms of cancers is a heavily researched field. For many years, researchers have sought to develop and optimize antibodies and other protein-based therapies to supplement and revitalize the host’s defense system. At the same time, these antibodies have multiple drawbacks; antibodies are generally extremely bulky and need to be administered intravenously. To … Continue reading A Pill that Mimics the Immune System
By Amanda Ng Through the last century or so, an emphasis on social equality has brought the plights of many minority groups to light. In the past, members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community have suffered from severe emotional distress because of the discrimination they face, and many still worry about gaining and keeping the acceptance of their peers and families. Though they … Continue reading Gender Identity in Transgender Children
By Gurkamal Kaur, Janki Patel, Tenging Lama, Helen Liu, Gregory Poterewicz
The growth of antibiotic resistance is quickly becoming a global public health concern. Infections caused by pathogenic bacteria are becoming increasingly difficult to treat due to the misuse, overuse and abuse of antibiotics. In addition, infections caused by some harmful strains of bacteria, particularly gram-negative bacteria, cannot easily be treated with antibiotics or other common forms of treatment. To combat this issue, E. coli were engineered to recognize the pathogenic bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa and produce the antimicrobial peptide melittin in response. In order to do so, nonpathogenic E. coli were transformed with plasmids that control the production of melittin and the reception of communication signals from cells of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
By Ashwin Kelkar The advent of the solar panel has allowed us to harness the energy of the sun, similar to plants. However, unlike plants, solar panels run into a predicament; though we can utilize some of the sun’s rays, most waves end up being reflected off the surface of solar panels. This massive amount of reflected sunlight demonstrates how inefficient solar panels are, even … Continue reading Researchers Create Antireflective Surface to Improve Solar Cells
By Surya Chalil Gondwanatheria is an extinct group of mammals that has only been known through a few isolated teeth and fragmented jaw pieces. As a result, their clade largely remained a mystery and their placement among the evolutionary tree was uncertain and debatable. However, Stony Brook University paleontologist, David Krause, Ph.D., led the research team that discovered an almost complete cranium of a new … Continue reading Groundbreaking Fossil Transforms Current Evolution Views
