Alexa, How’s My Heart Rate?

Aditi Kaveti ‘23 While heart conditions including high blood pressure and cardiac arrest are well-known, heart rhythm disorders, such as cardiac arrhythmia, are actually more common. The improper beating of the heart can lead to serious diseases like strokes but can be difficult to diagnose and identify because they do not present a periodic pattern in the data.  Shyam Gollakota, an associate professor in the … Continue reading Alexa, How’s My Heart Rate?

The Effects of Racial Discrimination in Health Care

Ayesha Azeem ‘23 Doctors take an oath to treat all patients, regardless of their identity, equally. Unfortunately, this oath is often broken. While this may not be intentional, it still affects a large number of people who put their faith in the healthcare system. Psychologists have attributed this phenomenon to implicit bias, or our subconscious beliefs about other people, which can affect the way healthcare … Continue reading The Effects of Racial Discrimination in Health Care

Maternal Transfer of Allergies to Offspring

Aditi Kaveti ’23 It is estimated that anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of the world’s population is affected by allergies, with thousands more learning to manage their new condition every week. These allergies occur when the immune system, in response to a foreign substance, produces antibodies that bind to cells, which release chemicals that trigger a reaction. Many infants experience allergic responses closely linked … Continue reading Maternal Transfer of Allergies to Offspring

Terahertz Spectroscopy to Improve Burn Injury Assessment

Aditi Kaveti ‘23 Burn injuries are painful, potentially life-threatening, and can often require long and complex treatment. Early and accurate assessment of burn injuries is important to determining the correct path of treatment. However, the severity of burns can be difficult to visually diagnose accurately, and clinical evaluations of burns only have about a 50 to 70 percent accuracy. This complexity allows for a significant … Continue reading Terahertz Spectroscopy to Improve Burn Injury Assessment

Diagnosis and management of Guillain–Barré syndrome in ten steps

Sabah Bari ’24 Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a rare autoimmune disease characterized by an overactive immune system that causes damage to peripheral nerves, leading to loss of sensorimotor function starting at the extremities and spreading to the torso. Some symptoms of GBS are potentially fatal, such as respiratory failure, cardiac arrhythmias, blood pressure instability, which are all directly involved with the autonomic nervous system. The … Continue reading Diagnosis and management of Guillain–Barré syndrome in ten steps

Dexamethasone as a Possible Treatment for Patients Diagnosed with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Simran Kaur ‘20 Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is characterized by the build-up of fluid in the alveoli of the lungs, the main sites of gaseous exchange, causing a lack of oxygen in the body. ARDS is caused by sudden trauma to the lungs, and there currently is no pharmacological treatment for the condition. Researchers in the study sought to determine the efficacy of dexamethasone, … Continue reading Dexamethasone as a Possible Treatment for Patients Diagnosed with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Breast Cancer Metastasis Hypothesized to be Affected by Type of Administered Anesthesia

Simran Kaur ‘20 Complete surgical resection of breast tissue, known as a mastectomy, is often suggested as the first-line treatment in patients diagnosed with breast cancer. Metastasis, the spread of cancer cells to other parts of the body, is a frequent occurrence after surgery and is the primary cause of cancer-related deaths. It was hypothesized by the researchers in this study that the type of … Continue reading Breast Cancer Metastasis Hypothesized to be Affected by Type of Administered Anesthesia

The Role of Gene Expression Variation in the Development of Mammalian Drug Resistance

Simran Kaur ‘20 Designing drugs is often challenging because identical cells within a specific network will exhibit varying genetic expression (noise), resulting in drug resistance. The source of this variation is most often stochastic, accumulations of random fluctuations occurring during transcription, translation, and post-translational regulation. Gene expression noise currently poses as the greatest barrier in finding a cure for cancer and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). … Continue reading The Role of Gene Expression Variation in the Development of Mammalian Drug Resistance

Chloroquine as a Promising Anti-Viral Drug in Immunocompromised Patients Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

Simran Kaur ‘20 SARS-CoV-2, a new type of coronavirus, is responsible for a global pandemic that currently has infected hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide. The virus belongs to the same family of viruses responsible for certain cases of the common cold, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, and Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The virus is incredibly contagious, spreading through respiratory droplets and exploiting commonly-found human … Continue reading Chloroquine as a Promising Anti-Viral Drug in Immunocompromised Patients Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dexamethasone as a Possible Treatment for Patients Diagnosed with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Simran Kaur ‘20 Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is characterized by the build-up of fluid in the alveoli of the lungs, the main sites of gaseous exchange, causing a lack of oxygen in the body. ARDS is caused by sudden trauma to the lungs, and there currently is no pharmacological treatment for the condition. Researchers in the study sought to determine the efficacy of dexamethasone, … Continue reading Dexamethasone as a Possible Treatment for Patients Diagnosed with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Disturbances in Circadian Clock Linked to Increased Susceptibility of Brain Tumors

Simran Kaur ‘20 All living organisms have circadian rhythms, an approximately twenty-four cycle that ensures the appropriate timing of important physiological functions such as digestion and sleep. Glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) that are involved in the formation of aggressive brain tumors are stimulated by altered circadian clocks. Clock genes are responsible for the oscillation of gene expression within the day and can behave as both … Continue reading Disturbances in Circadian Clock Linked to Increased Susceptibility of Brain Tumors

Engineered T-cells as a Target for Fibrosis in Myocardial Disease

Simran Kaur ‘20 Fibrosis, the excessive deposition of extracellular matrix by fibroblasts into cardiac tissue, is a significant process in the development of cardiac disease and subsequent cardiac failure, but there are not many clinical treatments that can effectively target it. Cardiac fibroblasts express an antigen that can be targeted by the transplantation of antigen-specific CD8+ T-cells because CD8+ T-cells are involved in the inflammatory … Continue reading Engineered T-cells as a Target for Fibrosis in Myocardial Disease