SUMC in the News (11/02/07)

Press release

Stanford researchers shed light on black box of gestational diabetes
Stanford researchers have found that a protein in the pancreas of mice may offer insight into the mechanism behind gestational diabetes, a condition that affects about 4 percent of all pregnant women.

Print media coverage

Reuters Health, 11/02/07
Protein may be key to gestational diabetes
This article discusses the recent Stanford study on gestational diabetes. Seung Kim, associate professor of developmental biology, provides comment. Kim is also quoted in WebMD.com and in a HealthDay News article, which appears on Forbes.com.

San Francisco Chronicle, 11/02/07
Maren Grainger-Monsen on how film can wake people up to realities in medicine
The work of Maren Grainger-Monsen, senior research scholar and director of the Biomedical Ethics in Film Program at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, is profiled in this feature.

Seeing into the future
In this piece, Nayer Khazeni, a medical school fellow, discusses eye disease.

Dr. Richard Jobe - Stanford professor, plastic surgeon - dies at 82
Richard Jobe died Oct. 20 at the age of 82, after a yearlong fight with cancer. Jobe was a longtime clinical professor of plastic surgery who retired in 2000. James Chang, professor of surgery and director of the plastic surgery residency program, is quoted here.

Stanford Daily, 11/02/07
New hospital CFO talks expansion
Daniel Morissette, the new chief financial officer at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, discusses the medical center's expansion in this article. Martha Marsh, hospital CEO, is also quoted.

PS3s give protein project world record
This article discusses Folding@home, a program which uses Sony's PlayStation 3 consoles to analyze data to help in the search for cures for diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's. The program has just been dubbed "the world's most powerful distributed computing project" by Guinness World Records. Vijay Pande, assistant professor of chemistry and, by courtesy, of structural biology, is mentioned here. A similar article also appears on CNetNews.com.

USNews.com, 11/01/07
Scientists spot dog fur color gene
A Stanford discovery about the genetics of coat color in dogs could help explain why humans come in different weights and vary in our abilities to cope with stress. Greg Barsh, professor of genetics and lead author, is quoted in this HealthDay News article, which also appears on drKoop.com, Forbes.com and in the Austin American-Statesman, Daily Advance (Elizabeth City, N.C.), Longview News-Journal (Longview, Texas), Lufkin News (Lufkin, Texas), Marshall News Messenger (Marshall, Texas) and Waco Tribune-Herald (Waco, Texas),.

CNN.com, 11/01/07
The new do's and don'ts of the flu season
This article lists the best ways to fight the cold and flu season. A Stanford study on the therapeutic value of zinc is referenced.

Western Morning News (U.K.), 11/01/07
Biochemist won Nobel prize for work on DNA (No online version available)
Arthur Kornberg, professor emeritus of biochemistry and winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize, died Oct. 26 at Stanford Hospital.

Stanford Daily, 11/01/07
Heart test offered to athletes
Researchers at the medical school have begun a voluntary program to conduct advanced routine heart testing of all the university's student athletes. Euan Ashley, assistant professor of cardiology and director of the Stanford Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center, is quoted. Yesterday's headline inaccurately stated that the heart tests were required.