 The accomplishments of your colleagues and associates are making a significant impact. Detailed news releases and/or source material are available at the News Bureau of the Stanford University Medical Center Office of Communications, 701 Welch Road, Suite 2207, Palo Alto, CA 94304-5753; phone (650) 725-5376 or 723-6911; and on the Web |
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| STAY-AWAKE DRUG - Sleep researchers at Stanford played a major role in testing a novel drug - modafinil (Provigil) - which in December gained preliminary approval from the Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for excessive sleepiness due to narcolepsy. Senior research scientist Jed Black directed studies of modafinil's effects on people with narcolepsy, while Dale Edgar, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Wesley Seidel, senior life-science research assistant, led animal studies on the drug, which they say helps people stay awake without making them jittery or leaving them extremely sleepy afterward. WEIGHT MESSENGERS - Thomas Kilduff, director of molecular neurobiology at Stanford's Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology, and researchers at four other institutions reported in the Jan. 6 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the discovery of two chemical messengers in the brain that may lead to new insights into weight control. The two newly identifed neurotransmitters, dubbed hypocretins, are made only in the hypothalamus. NATURAL KILLER CELLS - The missing-self model, proposed in 1986 as an explanation for how natural killer (NK) cells identify and attack unhealthy cells, has been validated by research presented in the December issue of Immunity by postdoctoral fellows Markus Uhrberg and Nick Valiante, working in the lab of Peter Parham, a professor of structural biology. Their studies of these large, granular cells suggest a new way to improve the success of bone marrow transplantation by introducing NK cell receptor matching in the donor-matching process. |
[an error occurred while processing this directive]COLUMNS Chief of Staff President of the Medical Staff Managed Care - Your Money at Work NEWS Clinical Fund Cuts Threaten Academics UCSF Stanford Pediatric Services Receive Umbrella Packard Name Off-hours Endscopy Services at ATU ACGME Grants Maximum Accreditation to Six-hospital Intern, Residency Program Entryway Project to be Completed in April PAST ISSUES |