BiotechMashup

(Rush University Medical Center) In middle-aged women, visceral fat, more commonly called belly fat, is known to be a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but what causes visceral fat to accumulate? The culprit is likely not age, as is commonly believed, but levels of active testosterone during the menopausal transition, according to researchers at Rush University Medical Center.

(Rush University Medical Center) Rush University Medical Center has been awarded a $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish the Rush Center for Urban Health Equity. The aim of the Center is to find ways to promote changes to eliminate the disparities in heart and lung disease affecting inner city residents, in particular those who are low-income persons of color.

(Rush University Medical Center) The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is awarding researchers at the Cook County Health & Hospitals System and Rush University Medical Center a $2 million grant to continue a successful program aimed at preventing health-care-associated infections.

(Rush University Medical Center) The National Institutes of Health has awarded a consortium of Chicago-based institutions, led by Rush University Medical Center, a five-year, $3.75-million grant to establish a Developmental Center for AIDS Research, creating a comprehensive research infrastructure to spur basic science, clinical studies and translational research in the prevention, detection and treatment of HIV infection and AIDS.

(Rush University Medical Center) Rush University Medical Center and community organizations are collaborating on an unusual program to educate residents of a Chicago neighborhood about diabetes, increase early diagnosis and provide resources to improve medical care and self-management. The rate of Type 2 diabetes in the community is 14 percent, double that for Americans nationwide.

(Rush University Medical Center) The National Institutes of Health has awarded Rush University Medical Center approximately $5.5 million in grants to study how epigenetic changes -- chemical modifications to genes that result from diet, aging, stress, or environmental exposures -- define and contribute to memory formation and cognitive decline.

(Rush University Medical Center) Using a new approach to developing biomarkers for the very early detection of ovarian cancer, researchers at Rush University Medical Center have identified a molecule in the bloodstream of infertile women that could one day be used to screen for those at high risk for the disease -- or even those with early-stage ovarian cancer.

(Rush University Medical Center) Researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found that a program of pelvic floor muscle exercises, combined with pelvic health education, can be an effective way to manage urinary incontinence in elderly women.

(Rush University Medical Center) Physicians at Rush University Medical Center are testing a unique gene therapy product called CERE-120 to evaluate if its use can improve the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Rush is one of 11 sites in the US and the only site in Illinois enrolling patients into the new, double-blinded trial.