West Nile Virus takes a bite out of Pittsburgh
By Sid Lingala, Staff Writer
November 14, 2018
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
This deadly virus carried in mosquitoes decided to land in Pittsburgh this fall.
Clean air policies go up in smoke
By Erica Guthrie, Staff Writer
November 12, 2018
Filed under City, Health, News, Top Stories
Pittsburgh isn’t a newcomer to low rankings in air quality. The city is ranked the eighth worst city in the country for particle pollution by the American Lung Association and received straight-F grades for particle pollution and ozone levels.
Don’t miss your shot to avoid the flu
By Nina Kneuer, For the Pitt News
November 1, 2018
Filed under 2. Featured, Health, News
It’s not too late to get your flu shot. Pitt makes it easy — and free — to protect yourself from contracting the disease. Whether or not to get a flu shot — it’s a point of contention. But Dr. Simon Barrett-Boyes discusses the many benefits of getting the vaccination.
From branch to bottle: all of DeLallo’s olives
By Elizabeth Martinson, For The Pitt News
October 24, 2018
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Jeff Latimer likes to give his olives the Jacuzzi treatment. The director of operations at DeLallo’s olive production facility doesn’t exactly run his plant like a spa, but the olives begin processing with a plunge into a basin of swirling salty brine, with air jets shooting a sea of tiny green dots in...
Oakland community speaks out against UPMC building
By Dylan Giacobbe, For The Pitt News
October 17, 2018
Filed under 2. Featured, Health, News
Innovative health treatments could be coming to Oakland as soon as 2023 — but some Oakland residents disapprove of the buildings coming with it.
Not a mirage: Oakland no longer food desert
By Hannah Schneider, Assistant News Editor
September 24, 2018
Filed under 2. Featured, Campus, Health, News
The Grocery Pop-Up opened yesterday in the old New Balance storefront on Forbes Avenue, marking the end of a drought on campus since the closing of the IGA.
Uncle Sam’s Subs cited for multiple health-code violations
By Sarah Shearer, Assistant News Editor
September 6, 2018
Uncle Sam's Subs in Oakland received multiple health code violations in an inspection report Sept. 4.
PennEnvironment hosts rally for clean air
By Sarah Shearer, Assistant News Editor
September 4, 2018
Filed under City, Health, News
Citizens assemble at the Allegheny County Courthouse, waving signs condemning dirty air, as they meet for another Friday with Fitzgerald.
Therapy dogs bring contentment and comfort to campus
By Kieran Mclean, Staff Writer
August 20, 2018
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Welcome Back 2018
Marsha Robbins' therapy dog program has been bringing calming canines to Pitt for years.
Pitt unveils statue of Dr. Thomas Starzl, transplant pioneer
By Samuel Weber | Staff Writer
June 27, 2018
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
Friends, family, university staff and members of the media gathered outside the Cathedral of Learning in full business attire Saturday to honor the memory of the late Dr. Thomas Starzl with a new bronze statue. Dr. Starzl passed away March 4, 2017, at age 90. Often referred to as “the father of t...
Panelists question separation of medicine and faith
By Cassidy Power | Staff Writer
April 17, 2018
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Although in Western tradition medicine and faith are considered separate entities, a Monday afternoon panel sponsored by the School of Nursing called Can Science Measure the Culture of Health? questioned why the two aren’t integrated. Speakers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Sai...
Coloring out cancer: Students run for research
By Theresa Dickerson | For The Pitt News
April 15, 2018
Filed under City, Health, News, Top Stories
Colors flew through the air in Schenley Park this past weekend at the Pittsburgh Attacks Cancer Together’s 5K Race and Color Run. Members of the Pittsburgh community came to support the student-led organization at its annual event, which aims to raise money for the Hillman Cancer Research Center. Whi...
Cecile Richards reflects on life of activism
By Hannah Schneider, Staff Writer
April 5, 2018
Filed under Campus, Health, News
Cecile Richards has been politically active since seventh grade, when she wore a black armband to school to protest the Vietnam War. When she was called to the principal’s office and asked if her mother knew what she was doing, she replied, “Probably.” Since then, she’s grown to become a lea...
Sutherland student treated for possible meningitis
By Janine Faust / Assistant News Editor
March 28, 2018
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
A Pitt student-athlete living in Sutherland Hall is currently being treated for a potential case of bacterial meningitis, according to a statement released by the University Wednesday morning. The statement said the student was tested for the illness Tuesday, meaning the infection cannot be confi...
NPR correspondent reveals hidden brain
By Cassidy Power | Staff Writer
March 22, 2018
Filed under City, Health, News, Top Stories
The human brain cannot see reality correctly, according to Shankar Vedantam. Vedantam, National Public Radio’s social science correspondent, asserts that the subconscious is so powerful it dramatically impacts the way people view the world. But he believes people can overcome these biases with ...
Kids strut for a cause: PDM raises money for Children’s Hospital
By Madeline Gavatorta and Kieran Mclean | The Pitt News Staff
March 20, 2018
Filed under 2. Featured, Campus, Health, News
Twelve children, ages 4 to 17, modeled personally selected JCPenney outfits in the Soldiers and Sailors auditorium Monday night on a runway of bright white Christmas lights. They were the main event at Pitt Dance Marathon’s fashion show. PDM’s Annual Fashion Show, is in its third year and raised $3,...
Students learn about mental health first aid
By Cassidy Power | For The Pitt News
March 1, 2018
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
“How can I help?” and “How do I start a conversation?” are questions Sean Moundas, a psychologist at the University Counseling Center, gets asked a lot when it comes to mental health. “Over half of those with mental health challenges go untreated,” Moundas said. At the Be The Difference...
Speaker gives lively talk on death
By Noah Manalo | Staff Writer
February 19, 2018
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Anne Allison writes extensively on topics related to modern Japanese culture, ranging from sexuality to censorship. Her most recent publication on the precariousness of Japanese society has led her to explore a more morbid topic. “I will try to make this lively, even though we’re talking about death,...
Students learn about sexual health, safety
By Sophia Mastroianni | For The Pitt News
February 16, 2018
Filed under Health, Top Stories, Uncategorized
“Birth Control Methods” is not a category a contestant would typically encounter on “Jeopardy!” But about 20 students were presented with it and other categories revolving around sexual health Thursday night in the Cathedral of Learning. These students were participating in a Q&A session about sex...
Pitt, UPMC announce $200 million Immune Transplant and Therapy Center
By Janine Faust / Assistant News Editor
February 14, 2018
Filed under Administration, City, Health, News
Jeffrey Romoff, president of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, walked on stage at a century-old abandoned car factory Tuesday afternoon and wondered where some of its necessary facilities were. “This is not quite what I expected,” he said. “I can’t find the lavatories, and I can’...
Real Food Challenge seeks to find better food for campus
By Janine Faust | Assistant News Editor
February 12, 2018
Filed under 2. Featured, Campus, Health, News
Grilled chicken is a popular dish at the Flying Star Diner in Market Central. Lines for it can stretch up to 20 people, and more often than not a freshly served batch runs out minutes after it’s taken off the grill. And while students may be preoccupied with getting a piece or two before the chi...
Taking steps for cystic fibrosis
By Zane Crowell | For The Pitt News
February 8, 2018
Filed under City, Health, News, Top Stories
Members of the Run to Cure Cystic Fibrosis marathon team trek up more than 700 steps of the Cathedral of Learning every Thursday. Then they take the elevator back down and do it two or three more times. The western Pennsylvania chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, a donor-funded nonprofit wo...
Life science buildings evacuated after small explosion
By John Hamilton and Janine Faust | The Pitt News Staff
January 31, 2018
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
Paramedics evaluated one student for eye irritation after a small explosion in a life science lab Wednesday afternoon led to a precautionary evacuation. According to a statement from the University, the explosion occurred at about 2:45 p.m. in the Life Sciences Annex — a section of the Clapp, Langl...
Researcher sues Pitt for wrongful termination following alleged monkey escape
By Salina Pressimone and John Hamilton | The Pitt News Staff
January 30, 2018
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
A former Pitt researcher is suing the University of Pittsburgh, alleging she was wrongfully terminated after reporting the escapes of an infected lab monkey and rabbit in 2016. In a lawsuit filed Jan. 15, 2018, in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, Kelly Stefano Cole — a former immunolo...
Opioid memorial brings attention to epidemic
By Mackenzie Rodrigues and Salina Pressimone | News Editors
January 30, 2018
Filed under 2. Featured, Health
Covered in 22,000 small white pills, each engraved with the face of an opioid overdose victim, the opioid memorial stood behind Monday afternoon’s speakers. Their solemn voices drifted out to an audience who sat listening in silence for the many young lives lost. The press event marked the beginning of the ...
Students learn to administer Narcan
By Anish Salvi | Staff Writer
January 24, 2018
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
As an Emergency Medical Technician of four years, Anthony Lupinacci is no stranger to administering Narcan — and knows the difference the drug can make. “Especially when I have worked in this area, out in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, we see overdoses fairly often,” Lupinacci said. “I can say that Na...
Pitt Dems and Libertarians debate health care
By Sid Lingala | Staff Writer
January 23, 2018
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Char Goldbach recounted leaving school early one semester because she could not get proper health care for her depression. “There are millions of Americans like me who suffer from depression and don’t get the care they deserve,” Goldbach said. “I am not afraid to share my story because I want peo...
Pitt, community push opioid crisis solutions
By Sid Lingala | Staff Writer
January 18, 2018
Filed under City, Health, News, Top Stories
Nearly 3,000 Pennsylvanians died of opioid overdoses in 2015, according to the Pitt Public Health Dynamics Lab. But researchers at Pitt are working to change that statistic. Michael Mallon, the project coordinator for Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health’s Opioid Initiatives, helps arrange ...
Strongr, Fastr and individualized: Pitt alums develop fitness app
By Sid Lingala | Staff Writer
January 18, 2018
Filed under Health, News, Tech Science, Top Stories
As a person without a strong interest in fitness, Eric Lutz had trouble figuring out what constituted a good workout and a healthy meal — and sticking with the exercise and diet plans he came up with. “I would try to go the gym, but would eventually end up not going,” Lutz said. “I really ...
Physicians at play: Pitt professor seeks to improve responsiveness through video game
By Remy Samuels | Staff Writer
January 9, 2018
Filed under Health, News, Tech Science, Top Stories
Imagine you are 80 years old and fall down a flight of stairs, fracturing many ribs. The doctor says your condition isn’t critical and sends you home with medication, but hours later you’re back at the hospital with respiratory failure and a life-threatening case of pneumonia. This scenario is...
Latino youth well-being lacking in Pennsylvania, study finds
By Lauren Forsythe | Staff Writer
November 27, 2017
Filed under 2. Featured, Health, News
Monica Ruiz said people are often unwilling to give funding to help the Latino community — which can include undocumented immigrants. “I say it’s easier to find funding for a box of puppies who are left on the street corner to help them than it is to find funding to help undocumented folks,”...
Pitt alum potential CNN Hero of the Year for humanitarianism efforts
By Anna Bongardino | Contributing Editor
November 13, 2017
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
At the age of 22, Samir Lakhani spent several long and laborious days cleaning, sanitizing and compressing used bars of soap with one young Cambodian woman. The woman, Prornh Thearang, spoke no English, but the duo sat side-by-side for hours, listening to Cambodian folk music as they worked. Lakhan...
Students Cope with Invisible Illnesses
By Amanda Finney | Staff Writer
October 11, 2017
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
Most people wouldn’t say walking with a cane is glamorous. But to Pitt grad student Jessica Benham, “it’s a fashion statement.” Sporting her bedazzled cane — black with sparkly rhinestones — Benham shows she is not ashamed of her connective tissue disorder. But she is quick to point o...
Pharmacy students told to the break rules
By Amanda Finney | For The Pitt News
October 2, 2017
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Students gathered in a lecture hall Monday night to hear a health care professional tell them to defy authority. Looking out at about 30 students assembled before her, Jesabel Rivera-Guerra summarized her entire talk in six words. “Life is short. Break the rules,” Rivera-Guerra said. Phi Lambda Sigma, Pitt...
Pitt partners with UPMC to hire new vice chancellor for new position
By Janine Faust | Assistant News Editor
September 6, 2017
Filed under Campus, Health, Top Stories
In partnership with UPMC, Pitt hired Kristin Davitt Tuesday as the University’s inaugural vice chancellor for development and alumni relations and president of UPMC’s Medical and Health Sciences Foundation. Davitt’s position will have her acting as leader of the Medical and Health Sciences Foun...
Three students OK after one dropped vial with cyanide derivative
By John Hamilton/Editor-in-Chief
July 20, 2017
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
Three Pitt students are OK after one dropped a vial containing a cyanide derivative in a Chevron lab Thursday morning. The 5 ml vial shattered on the 11th floor of the building at around 10:15 this morning, according to Pitt spokesperson Joe Miksch. Three students were treated by paramedics after...
Pitt lab investigation ends on mixed note
By Henry Glitz | News Editor
May 30, 2017
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
A new report from the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare has declared an end to the investigation into alleged animal cruelty in laboratories affiliated with Pitt. The report, cited in a letter last Monday from Axel Wolff — OLAW’s director of compliance oversight — to George Huber, Pitt’s vice provost for research conduct and complianc...
Pitt researchers develop HIV detector
By Janine Faust | Staff Writer
May 30, 2017
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Pitt researchers have moved the world one step closer to finally fully curing HIV. Scientists in the University’s Graduate School of Public Health announced Monday in the medical journal “Nature Medicine” that they’ve created a more accurate, quicker and less costly test for detecting how much of t...
Pitt researchers identify new cancer risks in chromosomes
By Rose Luder / Staff Writer
April 20, 2017
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Scientists have identified a new cancer risk associated with chromosomes, according to a 22-year-long study from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. Jian-Min Yuan — a professor in Pitt’s School of Public Health, a physician and researcher — conducted research indicating that the length of telomeres ...
Pitt researchers link immune system to cancer treatment
By James Evan Bowen-Gaddy / Assistant News Editor
April 13, 2017
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Doctors already fight cancer by stimulating patients’ immune systems, but after a recent Pitt-led study, researchers may have a better idea of how to target specific immune cells to improve their treatment. According to recent findings by Pitt researcher Robert Ferris, doctors will now be able to...
Pitt Pantry simulates hunger, highlights class inequality
By James Evan Bowen-Gaddy and Elias Rappaport / The Pitt News Staff
March 31, 2017
Filed under 2. Featured, Campus, Health, News
A Pitt Pantry representative pointed to an audience member in the William Pitt Union ballroom Thursday night and asked her to imagine that for the rest of night, she was no longer a Pitt student. Instead, the student would assume the fictional role of a part-time nurse with four children. Suddenly, ...
Students get their zen on at mindfulness fair
By Andrew O'Brien / Staff Writer
March 26, 2017
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
Following the instructor’s lead Saturday, a group of students on yoga mats on the second floor of the University Club breathed deeply as they assumed happy baby and downward facing dog poses in unison. The assembled yogis transitioned into tree pose, poised with one foot rooted on the ground and the othe...
Pitt hires full-time psychiatrist
By James Evan Bowen-Gaddy / Assistant News Editor
March 22, 2017
Filed under 2. Featured, Campus, Health, News
After months of long waits and few available psychiatrists, Pitt announced more on-call counselors to schedule same-day appointments and a new full-time psychiatrist Wednesday. Pelin Duzenli, who will begin in April, currently practices as a licensed psychiatrist and behavior scientist at the Tid...
Pitt remembers Dr. Thomas E. Starzl
By Grant Burgman / Staff Writer
March 17, 2017
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
Although Dr. Thomas E. Starzl is known in the Pitt medical community for his contributions to the organ transplant field, his grandson Ravi Starzl knows him as an ice cream connoisseur. The elder Starzl was such a fan of ice cream that he would frequently eat it for dinner, his grandson said. He was ...
Pitt pharmacy extends reach in the community
By Emily Suruda / Staff Writer
February 28, 2017
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
Second-year pharmacy students Olivia Berger, Josh Zimardo and Chris Randall spent two hours in mid-February asking strangers about their daily routines. Specifically, the students wanted to know how often customers were taking their medicine: Do you ever forget to take your medications? Do you ev...
Backlogged
By Nikita Karulkar, Staff Writer
February 23, 2017
Filed under 2. Featured, City, Crime, Health, National News, News
Thousands of sexual assault kits around the nation have been left untested. One lab in Allegheny County found a short-term solution. Natasha Alexenko is an advocate. Alexenko is an activist. Alexenko is a former museum scientist. And in 1993, after Alexenko was raped and robbed at gunpoint, she became...
New blood test aids Pitt Alzheimer’s research
By Alexis Carter / Staff Writer
February 15, 2017
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
With a new blood test, Pitt researchers are hoping to determine whether the content of someone’s blood could indicate if their learning and memory abilities are in danger of diminishing. In a recent study, Pitt researchers Oscar Lopez and James Becker — in collaboration with researchers from the ...
Pitt, University Science Center team up to commercialize Pitt-developed technology
By Amanda Reed / Assistant News Editor
January 31, 2017
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Opposite sides of the state are teaming up to make a Pitt-developed technology profitable. The University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute and the University City Science Center, an urban research park in Philadelphia, announced a collaboration yesterday that puts a device designed to improve lower...
Pitt cancer researchers win international prize
By Amanda Reed / Assistant News Editor
January 25, 2017
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
For the first time, two Pitt faculty members have won the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, an international award given to medical researchers who have made significant contributions to immunology, cancer research, microbiology and chemotherapy. Doctors Yuan Chang and Patrick S. Moore, f...
Son of Salk: cooperation will end polio
By Rebecca Peters / Staff Writer
January 19, 2017
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Peter Salk knows the last step to eradicating polio: teamwork. His father, Jonas Salk, the inventor of the injected polio vaccine, began imagining an institute dedicated to investigating experimental medicine in 1954, two years after the creation of the first polio vaccine in 1952. Jonas founded t...
Eye imaging helps glaucoma patients, according to study
By James Evan Bowen-Gaddy / Staff Writer
January 18, 2017
Filed under 2. Featured, Health, News, Tech Science
With a few pictures, eye disease patients may get more focused help than before, according to a new study. Researchers at both Pitt and the University of Rochester Medical Center have developed a new technique for photographing the human eye that allows them to view cells that have never been seen...
Up all night: all about insomnia
By James Evan Bowen-Gaddy / Staff Writer
December 12, 2016
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
Kelly Shaw is lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and wondering why she’s so tired, but she can’t sleep. At this point she’s just a third-grader, so she asks her father what to do. He tells her he bets she can’t count to 2,000 before falling asleep, so she takes him up on it. “It worked t...
Scientists recommend students watch food timing, alcohol before sleep
By Rachel Glasser and Rebecca Peters / Pitt News Staff
December 12, 2016
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
Two of the most important things to college students — alcohol and food — could be impacting a third desire of theirs — sleep — more than most students realize. Students who aren’t careful about what they put in their body before they go to sleep are likely to end up less rested than the...
Pitt hires psychiatrist
By Lauren Rosenblatt / News Editor
December 7, 2016
Filed under Administration, Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
Even as students complained that Pitt hadn’t hired replacement psychiatrists to staff its Counseling Center, it appears administrators had actually — and quietly — filled one of the open positions. In an email sent Dec. 6, University spokesperson Shawn Ahearn said that Dr. Jennifer Prins, ...
No time to talk: what’s going on with Pitt’s Counseling Center?
By Rachel Glasser and Tristan Dietrick
November 28, 2016
Filed under 2. Featured, Administration, Campus, Health, News
Kelchis Radziewicz had struggled with underlying anxiety before, but after losing a close friend to suicide just before her first year at Pitt, she realized she couldn’t cope with the grief on her own. “It was becoming unmanageable,” said Radziewicz, a junior English literature and Engl...
Pitt moves closer to developing specialized cancer treatment
By Rebecca Peters / Staff Writer
November 22, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
After discovering an alternative way that certain cells divide, Pitt researchers could be on the way to developing treatments for specific types of cancer. The lab of Dr. Roderick O’Sullivan, a University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute member, at the Hillman Cancer Center published findings about can...
Pitt study shows buses main source of diesel pollution
By Lauren Rosenblatt / News Editor
November 16, 2016
Filed under City, Health, News, Top Stories
Although public transportation like Pittsburgh’s Port Authority reduce the total number of vehicles on the road, the emissions from its buses are still a leading contributor to air pollution Downtown, a study released Tuesday found. The study, which came from the Allegheny County Health Departmen...
It’s all in your head: Pitt researchers measure hallucinations
By James Evan Bowen-Gaddy
November 10, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Tech Science, Top Stories
When you think of hallucinations, you may think of a woozy feeling and swimming images or of the bright spots you see after rubbing your eyes. Hallucinations are typically an undesired side effect of sleep deprivation, mental illness or certain prescription drugs –– called psychotropics –– but t...
In ‘safe space,’ CWO discusses mental health
By Nikita Karulkar / Staff Writer
October 27, 2016
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
Sitting in a circle holding cups of coffee and powdered donuts on napkins in their hands, students from different cultural, racial and gender identities shared their struggles with mental illness. The group of about 20 was gathered in a conference room on the fifth floor of the William Pitt Union Thur...
Department of Defense to fund Pitt’s trauma research
By Alexa Bakalarski / Assistant News Editor
October 20, 2016
Filed under Administration, Health, News, Top Stories
Pitt received up to $90 million in federal funding Wednesday to improve trauma care for military members and civilians. The U.S. Department of Defense awarded Pitt’s Schools of Health Sciences the up-to-$90 million contract to collect data and, eventually, initiate projects with the Department, s...
Students angered by lack of psychiatrists at Pitt Counseling Center
By Alexa Bakalarski / Assistant News Editor
October 17, 2016
Filed under Administration, Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
With 130 shares, more than 530 signatures and more than 100 comments, an online petition criticizing Pitt’s support of mental health services made its way around social media this weekend. Anna Shaw, a junior psychology and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies major, started the petition on Friday ...
Researchers, innovators come to Pittsburgh for Frontiers Conference
By Alexa Bakalarski, Amina Doghri, Leo Dornan, Janine Faust, Maria Hurtado, David Robinson / The Pitt News Staff
October 14, 2016
Filed under Campus, Health, National News, News, Tech Science, Top Stories
For just a few hours on Thursday, you could walk on Mars without ever leaving Alumni Hall. In a partnership with Microsoft, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed OnSight, virtual 3-D technology enabling scientists to study Mars’ environment while wearing Microsoft HoloLens. NASA demonstrate...
President Barack Obama visited Pittsburgh to talk innovation, healthcare, technology
By Lauren Rosenblatt / News Editor
October 13, 2016
Filed under 2. Featured, Campus, Health, National News, News, Tech Science
President Barack Obama thinks right now is the greatest time to be alive. At least that’s what he wrote in his guest editorial for this month’s edition of WIRED — a science and technology magazine — and reiterated in a speech on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus Thursday afternoon. ...
Pitt receives $7 million NIH grant to fund urology research
By Emily Brindley / Assistant News Editor
October 11, 2016
Filed under Administration, Health, News, Top Stories
Armed with $7.7 million in federal funding, researchers at Pitt announced on Tuesday the opening of a new research center to find treatments for prostate enlargement and urinary tract infections. The O’Brien Urology Cooperative Research Center, funded by the National Institutes of Health, will res...
Q&A with Julius Youngner: member of original polio vaccine research team
By Jace Bridges / Staff Writer
October 6, 2016
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
In the 1940s and ’50s, polio — a viral disease which attacks the central nervous system — affected nearly half a million people worldwide each year, with the disease often paralyzing or killing them. Children and young adults were particularly at risk for the disease. But then Pitt recruited inf...
Pitt comes closer to Zika vaccine
By Lauren Rosenblatt / News Editor
October 4, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have had success testing an experimental Zika vaccine for mothers on female mice and their pups. In a study posted on the online version of the journal EBioMedicine, Pitt researchers described the results of testing out two methods...
Pitt plans to begin research on the effects of medical marijuana
By Alexa Bakalarski / Assistant News Editor
October 4, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Following Pennsylvania’s legalization of medical marijuana last April, Pitt is now looking to take the lead on researching the drug’s treatment efficacy. Pitt’s School of Medicine sent a letter to School of Medicine colleagues, including faculty members, last week stating the school’s intention ...
Pitt study finds benefits of yoga for people with schizophrenia
By Erin Hare / Staff Writer
October 4, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Medication has helped Mike Baldrige manage his schizophrenia, but yoga has brought him peace of mind. Schizophrenia — a mental illness characterized by disorganized thoughts and movements — is typically treated through a combination of therapy, medication, psychosocial treatments and a range of...
Donut Dash raises money for ALS research
By Preena Patel / For The Pitt News
October 2, 2016
Filed under 2. Featured, Campus, Health, News
Neil Alexander, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2011, died six weeks after he and his wife announced the opening of the Live Like Lou Center for ALS Research at Pitt’s Brain Institute. Since then, the Center has been promoting quality of life research, examining how ALS affects the nervous system...
Doctors warn against e-cigarette risks
By Jace Bridges and Alexis Carter / For The Pitt News
September 27, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Tech Science, Top Stories
Despite their variety of fruity and sweet flavors, electronic cigarettes could pose similar dangers to users as traditional cigarettes, according to a panel of physicians and experts that met Tuesday — so much so that the devices should be banned indoors. On Tuesday afternoon, Karen Hacker, director...
Students attempt to add diversity to donor registries
By Jace Bridges / For The Pitt News
September 21, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Tech Science, Top Stories
After her family friend was diagnosed with leukemia, Jessica Cohen saw her community of family and friends come together. So following their example, she signed up to become a bone marrow donor, adding herself to a list of people who could provide life saving marrow or stem cells to cancer patients....
Pitt researchers design smart materials
By Erin Hare / Staff Writer
September 19, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Tech Science, Top Stories
Computers commonly sit in our pockets or on our wrists, but the next generation’s “smart” materials could weave technology into the very fabric of our clothing. Pitt researchers have linked principles of chemistry, materials science and mathematics to design the model of a material that can rec...
Pitt receives $1 million grant to study family caregivers
By Janine Faust / For The Pitt News
September 14, 2016
Filed under Administration, Health, News, Top Stories
Backed by a $1 million grant, Pitt researchers are launching a study into the effects of providing long-term care for elder relatives. The Stern Foundation and the Emily Kelly Roseburgh Fund of the Pittsburgh Foundation are providing the money to back Pitt’s new Caregiver Project, an effort to study f...
Pitt researchers continue to fight against the Zika virus
By Erin Hare / Staff Writer
September 1, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Tech Science, Top Stories
Amidst the public’s rising fear of the Zika virus, Pitt researchers are on the forefront of those digging for explanations and cures. On Thursday afternoon, researchers from Pitt and from the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, also known as FIOCRUZ, a Brazilian biomedical research and development...
Pitt researchers studying bubbles for cancer treatment
By Emily Brindley / Assistant News Editor
August 29, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Tech Science, Top Stories
Blowing bubbles may seem like child’s play, but Pitt researchers have added another element to the game by filling those bubbles with life-saving medicine. Researchers from UPMC’s Center for Ultrasound Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics are experimenting with sonoporation, a technique that use...
Pitt expands health care coverage for transgender faculty and staff
By Alexa Bakalarski / Senior Staff Writer
August 24, 2016
Filed under 3. Breaking, Administration, Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
Beginning this year, Pitt will — for the first time — provide coverage for faculty and staff members’ transgender-related healthcare services. Pitt announced the change in a three-page long letter the University’s Office of Human Resources sent to faculty and staff last week. The letter detail...
Making plans for student health
By Erin Hare and Alexis Carter / The Pitt News Staff
August 22, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories, Welcome Back 2016
When making a back-to-school checklist for this fall, don’t forget to add health insurance. This academic year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is increasing outreach for Marketplace insurance enrollment through healthcare.gov, centering its efforts on a group that is more likely t...
Self-diagnosing psych a step, not a path, to wellness
By Nikita Karulkar / For The Pitt News
August 19, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories, Welcome Back 2016
Mental illnesses affect millions in the United States alone, but some are heading to Google instead of a doctor’s office. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 43 million Americans suffered from a mental illness in 2015. It was estimated that about 10 million of those Ameri...
Pitt awarded nearly $62.3 million from NIH
By Alexa Bakalarski / News Editor
July 26, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Over the next five years, Pitt will receive a nearly $62.3 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Pitt’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute will receive the funding to quicken the translation of scientific research into treatment. The initiatives CTSI will be working o...
Pitt receives $4.2 million NIH award for large-scale study
By Alexa Bakalarski / News Editor
July 7, 2016
Filed under 2. Featured, Health, News
Pitt has received a multi-million dollar grant to join a national program aiming to individualize disease prevention and treatment. On Wednesday, the National Institutes of Health awarded Pitt with $4.2 million out of the $55 million it is awarding in Fiscal Year 2016 to launch President Barack Obama’s...
Pitt professors selected for national guidelines
By Yuanyuan Xiao / For The Pitt News
July 5, 2016
Filed under Campus, Health, News, Top Stories
Two of Pitt’s own will play a part in setting the nation on a healthier track. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell has selected two Pitt professors — John Jakicic and Kirk Erickson — from a pool of 125 nominees to join the Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory C...
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection fines UPMC
By Alexa Bakalarski / News Editor
June 21, 2016
Filed under City, Health, News, Top Stories
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection fined 12 UPMC hospitals a total of $451,000 for violating the Solid Waste Management Act on Tuesday. Inspectors from the DEP’s Bureau of Waste Management found that large amounts of untreated regulated medical waste — such as dressings, bo...
Fourth Allegheny County Zika case confirmed
By Erin Hare / Staff Writer
June 9, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
The Allegheny County Health Department confirmed the fourth local case of Zika virus since the end of March on Thursday. Three weeks ago, a Pitt researcher accidentally stuck herself with a needle contaminated with Zika virus, according to a Pitt statement. A week later, she developed symptoms of...
Research links transplant complication with shorter lifespan
By Erin Hare / Staff Writer
June 8, 2016
Filed under 2. Featured, Health, News
Recent lung transplant recipients will spend recovery holding their breath after UPMC researchers linked a common complication with a shorter lifespan. This April, researchers at UPMC published in the journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery that nearly a third of lung transplant recipients experience atr...
3D printing aids cancer research
By Erin Hare / Staff Writer
May 31, 2016
Filed under 2. Featured, Health, News
Hacking 3D printers to spit out squishy biological structures, Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University researchers are poised to help doctors make better breast cancer diagnoses. Researchers at UPMC and CMU are collaborating under a new $800,000 grant to make 3D printers able to reproduce breast duct...
Researchers: Computer-based therapy effective
By Erin Hare / Staff Writer
May 24, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
To increase access to therapy, researchers suggest patients turn to their computers. In a recent study, Pitt researchers found that computerized cognitive behavioral therapy was more effective for treating anxiety and depression than the usual treatment provided by primary care physicians, with benef...
Nurse Practitioners Push for Full Authority
By Erin Hare / Staff Writer
May 17, 2016
Filed under Health, National News, News, Top Stories, Uncategorized
The Department of Health and Human Services projects that by 2020, the country will face a shortage of 20,400 primary care doctors. While medical experts can only guess at the cause for the declining number of physicians — higher education costs, strict standards for practicing, waning interest — Pe...
Pitt and UPMC Create Microbiome Research Center
By Alexa Bakalarski / News Editor
May 13, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
UPMC and Pitt’s Schools of Health Sciences, along with the White House, announced a joint venture on Friday to try to understand the microbiome - the trillions of microbes that form an ecosystem within a human body. Pitt and UPMC formally established Pitt’s Center for Medicine and the Microbi...
Pitt Forms Zika Research Team
By Erin Hare / Staff Writer
May 10, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
As potential Olympians get ready to compete in Brazil this summer, they’re also preparing to head into the heart of the Zika outbreak. In early 2016, amidst an increasing number of reported infections across the Americas, the World Health Organization officially declared the Zika virus — a disea...
Pitt collects drugs for disposal
By Lauren Rosenblatt / Assistant News Editor
April 22, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Pitt pharmacy students reversed their traditional roles Thursday and collected drugs rather than distributing them. Aiming to reduce drug misuse, members of Generation Rx — a student group within the American Pharmacists Association — collected unwanted and unused drugs from Pitt students, facul...
Pitt vice chancellor named president of AACR
By Danni Zhou / Staff Writer
April 20, 2016
Filed under Administration, Campus, Health, National News, News, Top Stories
With a new president of the American Association of Cancer Research hailing from Pitt, the University is proving instrumental in the fight to cure cancer. The AACR appointed Nancy E. Davidson, director of University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, as its new president at the New Orleans conference o...
Pitt, UPMC to open wellness center for faculty and staff
By Alexa Bakalarski and Dale Shoemaker / The Pitt News Staff
April 18, 2016
Filed under Administration, City, Health, News, Top Stories
At the end of the month, UPMC will open a free health clinic explicitly for Pitt faculty and staff. A UPMC nurse practitioner, nurse, medical assistant and practicing physician will staff the center, MyHealth@Work, which will treat common conditions, such as allergies, fevers, minor cuts or vaccinati...
Peduto, Humphrey, researchers release report on race and education
By Erin Hare / Staff Writer
April 15, 2016
Filed under City, Health, News
Mayor Bill Peduto wants to give every child in Pittsburgh access to pre-K education. “If I had a magic wand and I could give one thing to the city right now, it would be pre-K education for every child, so that by the time they start kindergarten, they all start along together,” Peduto said Thursd...
Study calls for expanded caregiver support
By Erin Hare / Staff Writer
April 12, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Although retired, Edward Petrisek has not taken a day off in four years. In 2011, Petrisek moved his parents, both in their 90s, into his third floor Pittsburgh walk-up, where he cared for his father until he passed away in 2014 and still cares for his now 98-year-old mother. Petrisek’s work, comb...
Study details how heart disease affects black women
By Emily Brindley / Staff Writer
April 11, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
When it comes to heart disease, a Pitt study has found race and sex play a significant role. On March 30, Pitt researchers published a study that has the potential to lead to a new method of screening for cardiovascular disease in middle-aged black women. The study, which compared menopausal black...
Suicide survivor talks awareness
By Alexa Bakalarski / Staff Writer
April 10, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Less than 1 percent of people who jump off the Golden Gate Bridge survive. Kevin Hines is part of that 1 percent. On Sunday at 3:30 p.m., about 220 members of the Pitt community gathered in the O’Hara Student Center Ballroom to hear Hines speak about his suicide attempt and ensuing mental health ac...
Doctors, professors consider the humanities in healthcare
By Albert Giovanazzi / Staff Writer
April 7, 2016
Filed under Administration, Campus, Health, News
Therapists aren’t the only medical professionals who should know how to talk about feelings. According to Amy Kennedy, an internal medicine resident in Pittsburgh, compassion is a skill all doctors need in order to best serve their patients. “By using stories, we have a better way to empathize ...
Pitt develops new epilepsy drug
By Annemarie Carr / Staff Writer
April 6, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Pitt researchers are developing a drug that may help people with epilepsy see fewer medication side effects, according to a recent report. Epilepsy researchers have spent the past two-and-a-half years redesigning Retigabine, a commonly prescribed epilepsy drug, to increase effectiveness and decreas...
Researchers develop portable cell model
By Erin Hare / Staff Writer
April 3, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Remote communities often lack the kind of medical labs necessary for accurate diagnoses and treatments, but new lab-on-a-chip technology from Pitt may make these devices like these portable. Pitt researchers have created a model that explains how enzymes can move around cells — either engineered mi...
Magee to study pregnancy, heart disease connection
By Erin Hare / Staff Writer
April 1, 2016
Filed under Health, News, Top Stories
Starting today, Pitt researchers will begin to pull at the strings potentially linking pregnancy complications and heart disease. The Magee-Womens Research Institute, along with researchers from four other universities and medical centers, will study the link between certain pregnancy complications —...