Breakthroughs
Breakthroughs is a podcast about groundbreaking research and the scientists leading these discoveries at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. We are driven by our mission to transform the practice of medicine and profoundly impact human health beyond the individual patient. We believe better answers only come from discovery.
Episodes
New evidence shows that a one-time intervention can lead to lasting improvement in the lives of young people struggling with mental health problems. In this episode, Jessica Schleider, PhD, associate professor of Medical Social Sciences, explains how she is using this approach to scale single-session interventions (SSIs) to reach more people in need of mental health services.
In this episode, Minjee Kim, MD, shares results of recent studies she has conducted to better understand the role of inadequate sleep on long-term metabolic health in pregnant women and middle-aged adults. She also discusses a new AI-based intervention that could bring a better night of sleep to those who need it.
In this episode, Rodrigo Braga,
What could be the world's smallest pacemaker was recently developed at Northwestern University and details of the device were published in the journal
A Northwestern Medicine study published in Nature Medicine, used a new technique called spatial transcriptomics to examine the brain’s response to Alzheimer's therapies, revealing new molecular targets that could enhance the effectiveness of current therapies and not just slow the disease, but potentially improve patient outcomes.
David Gate, PhD, assistant professor of Neurology in the Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology an...
A new $11.7 million award from the National Institute of Mental Health aims to help Northwestern Medicine investigators move the dial on the youth mental health crisis by targeting early warning signs of mental health risk in toddlers, rather than waiting until diagnosable and severe conditions are present later in childhood.
In this episode, Lauren Wakschlag, PhD, who is co-leading this grant, explains how the team will implement ...
Women are living longer, healthier lives, but ovarian aging still impacts fertility and hormone production as it always has. In this episode,
Scientists from Northwestern Medicine, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have
With a new $20 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, Northwestern investigator, Linda T
Understanding the systemic drivers of health disparities within marginalized populations is complex. In this episode, Michelle Birkett, PhD,
Nearly one million people in the U.S. are living with Parkinson's disease, a condition for which there is still no known cause or cure. Read more
New research from the lab of Issam Ben-Sahra, PhD, could rewrite textbooks on our understanding of cellular metabolism and potentially identify new targets for cancer and metabolic diseases such as obesity. The discovery, published in the journal Science, has been praised for its rigorous simplicity and underscores the importance of understanding the molecular mechanisms that underlie specific biological processes.
Jeffrey Gordon, MD, often called “the father of microbiome research,” is the 2024 recipient of the Mechthild Esser Nemmers Prize in Medical Science.
In this episode, Gordon discusses the impacts of his long career in gut microbiome research, which has profoundly transformed our understanding of human health. Specifically, he shares the evolution of groundbreaking approaches to treating malnutrition and childhood undernutrition wit...
The MYC oncogene is notorious in the cancer research world because it is implicated in many advanced or aggressive cancers such as treatment-resistant prostate cancer. In this episode, Sarki Abdulkadir,...
A team of Northwestern Medicine scientists are conducting a new longitudinal cross-sectional study to investigate why some people see to age faster than others. In this episode, John Wilkins, MD, associate director of the Human Longevity Laboratory at the Potocsnak Longevity Institute, shares details of the study, which will eventually include a variety of interventions aimed at slowing down the aging process.
Northwestern Medicine physician-scientist Jaehyuk Choi, MD, PhD joins the show again to discuss another breakthrou...
For decades, Marcus Peter, PhD, has drilled into an area of research focused on cell death and the roles of toxic and protective short RNAs, with the goal of developing a novel form of cancer treatment. Now, this same line of research has led Peter’s team to uncover new insights into the cause of Alzheimer's disease. In this episode, Peter explains his pioneering work in investigating RNA interference in diseases and explains how h...
New advances in digital pathology are revolutionizing the analysis of disease, paving the way for greater accuracy and efficiency when it comes to diagnostics, predicting outcomes and treatment. In this episode, Lee Cooper, PhD, discusses the future of digital and computational pathology and his research on machine learning and pathology, including a recent study published in Nature Medicine on using AI in predicting clinical outco...
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is home to a team of premier faculty and staff biostatisticians who are a driving force of data analytic innovation and excellence. In this episode, Denise Scholtens, PhD, a leader in biostatistics at Feinberg, discusses the growing importance of the field of biostatistics and how she leverages her skills to collaborate on several projects in Maternal and Fetal Health.
Northwestern Medicine scientists are at the forefront of research investigating the most effective ways of treating obesity in children and teens and improving their access to care.
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