Genetic conditions like Dravet syndrome, which causes severe childhood epilepsy, are hard to tackle with traditional gene therapy. New approaches in the works include using antisense therapy to boost mRNA splicing. The seizures started when Samantha Gundel was just four months old. By her first birthday, she was taking a cocktail of three different anticonvulsant medicines. A vicious cycle of...
The new drug looked so promising — except for that one warning sign. At the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting in 2008, Duke University’s Dr. John Sundy proudly announced that pegloticase, a drug he’d helped develop, was astoundingly effective at treating severe gout, which affects perhaps 50,000 Americans. In about half of those who had taken it, the drug melted away the...
In 2019, Michelle Przybocki nearly died. She became ill from digestive complications, and later learned she had a severe case of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Michelle, a speech therapist from Las Vegas, managed to push through the illness, but her life would never be the same. From then on, she experienced debilitating pain every time she ate, sometimes immobilizing her for hours. To reduce...
Scientists are finding tumor signals in spit that could be key to developing diagnostic tests for various types of cancer In the late 1950s, dentist and US Navy Capt. Kirk C. Hoerman, then a young man in his 30s, attempted to answer a bold question: Might the saliva of prostate cancer patients have different characteristics from that of healthy people? Could it contain traces of a disease that’s...
The University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School Center for Health Management & Policy presented its 12th annual The Business of Health Care event on February 24. The conference was held online and live at Donna E. Shalala Student Center, University of Miami, Coral Gables Campus. Florida Blue was again a presenting sponsor and major donor. This year’s theme was “Managing...
MIAMI — In hindsight, Nikki Ruston said, she should have recognized the red flags. The office in Miami where she scheduled what’s known as a Brazilian butt lift had closed and transferred her records to a different facility, she said. The price she was quoted — and paid upfront — increased the day of the procedure, and she said she did not meet her surgeon until she was about to be placed under...
