At medical staff meeting, Marsh presents her vision for SHC

Diagnostic images will soon be just a click away

Stanford conference on opiates offers guidance on misunderstood medications

Facilities changes will open up 20 more beds at Stanford Hospital

Surgery professor advocates aggressive, preventive treatment of anal cancer

New residents arrive; all will get POE training

Medical Staff stipends help nurses achieve educational goals

Modest changes in Update will address readers' feedback

Doctors asked to complete survey for Lane Library

Below are selected highlights of recent medical research
conducted at Stanford Medical Center.
Detailed news releases are available on the Internet at
http://www-mednews.stanford.edu

MS genes. Using microarray technology, Stanford researchers have uncovered thousands of genes that may be involved in multiple sclerosis, including some new genes and others once considered unrelated to MS. These findings by a postdoctoral research team working with neurology professor Lawrence Steinman appeared in the May issue of Nature Medicine. The research could lead to new treatments for MS and help clarify earlier observations about the disease.

Diabetic fruit flies. Stanford researchers have created fruit flies with a condition that mimics human diabetes in order to help scientists better understand how insulin-releasing cells develop, which is seen as the first step toward eventually replacing cells lost in human diabetes. The more that is known about normal development, the better the chance to make stem cells develop into insulin-producing cells, according to postdoctoral fellow Eric Rulifson, lead author of a May 10 paper in Science. Rulifson worked with co-author Roel Nusse, professor of developmental biology.

New roles for old drug. Studies at Stanford have found a new uses for sirolimus, developed as an anti-fungal drug but then deemed ineffective based on early trials. Transplantation immunologist Randall Morris, professor of cardiothoracic surgery, and postdoctoral fellow Camille Dambrin and colleagues found that the drug can protect blood vessels of transplanted hearts and prevent chronic rejection, the leading cause of heart transplant failure. Morris presented the findings April 30 at the American Transplant Congress.