President's Message

FEATURES

Making the Rounds in
South Jersey

Patients benefit when teams of professionals work together. On the University’s Stratford campus, these ”new“ health care teams are not so brand new anymore.

Spanning the Biology– Technology Bridge
A young graduate student in the UMDNJ–NJIT Biomedical Engineering Doctoral Program is already making his mark researching bisphosphonates, commonly prescribed for osteoporosis and cancer, and also advocating for Newark’s high school students.

Studying City Life
Students in the Urban Health Systems Doctoral Program have the advantage of tapping into the expertise at three major Newark schools: UMDNJ-School of Nursing, Rutgers–Newark, and NJIT.

Engineering New Cells for the Injured Brain
Doctoral student Nolan Skop – collaborating with his faculty mentors from NJIT and UMDNJ’s New Jersey Medical School and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences — jumps head-first into what may be the toughest research challenge of our time.

A Neighborhood’s New Health Outlook
The Jordan & Harris Community Health Center in the Ironbound section of Newark follows sick patients “every step of the way” and trains community health workers how to reach fellow residents with tips on living healthier lives.

When I Grow Up
The Health Science Careers Program, launched almost 20 years ago by the School of Health Related Professions, introduces high school students to a broad spectrum of career possibilities in health care and gives them a leg–up in getting there.

A Pipeline to Dentistry
If you think you may want to be a dentist, but you’re just not sure, UMDNJ–New Jersey Dental School welcomes high school and college students to come on site and “practice.”

DEPARTMENTS

Amazing Science
UMDNJ researchers continue to make notable contributions to the world of science with discoveries that are moving more quickly from the laboratory into daily life.
More Brain Breakthroughs
Cognitive Therapy in MS
The Female Advantage
Autism Findings in New Jersey
Learning the Business of Science
Zeroing in on a New Therapy
Epilepsy and Cataracts: the Missing Link
Grant Addresses Hospital Delirium
Your Neighborhood and Your Health
Amazing Science Awards
Standing Up To Cancer
Two Students Win AMA Grants
Science Advances in Spinal Cord Injury
Truly Remarkable Proteins
The Eye as Window to the Heart in Blacks with Diabetes
Restoring the Tumor Suppressor Function of Mutated p53 Protein
Grand Challenges TB Biomarkers Grant
Titanium Debris May Cause Inflammation of Artificial Joints
Massage for Osteoarthritis of the Knee
Starvation Can be Deadly
Detecting Parkinson’s Disease Earlier
HIV Infection and Geography
Hibernation and Cardiac Arrhythmias
$1.3M Awarded for Blood-Based Biothreat Tests
Promising Vaccine Regimen for Pancreatic Cancer
The Impact of Exercise and Nutrients on Colorectal Cancer

A Day in the Life of a Liver Transplant Team
With more than 1,000 transplants to its name, the University Hospital liver transplant program, launched in 1989, has been a major success story.

Five Questions with Carolyn Burr
This nurse educator and activist is determined to bring perinatal transmission of HIV in New Jersey down to zero.

Focus on Jobs
The reputation of UMDNJ’s new program to train occupational therapy assistants has even preceded its birth.

Update
News from all the UMDNJ campuses.

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Amazing Science News

Massage for Osteoarthritis of the Knee

SOM students

THE NIH HAS AWARDED Duke Integrative Medicine and its key research partners at SHRP and Yale–Griffin Prevention Research Center a $2.75 million shared grant to investigate the impact of massage therapy on people with osteoarthritis of the knee. The combined research team will conduct a randomized controlled trial to definitively evaluate an eight–week course of Swedish massage as a treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee in terms of its effects on pain‚ stiffness‚ and physical function.

Duke Integrative Medicine Executive Director and Principal Investigator Adam Perlman‚ MD‚ formerly of UMDNJ‚ comments‚ "The team we have established has been working to study the efficacy of massage for this prevalent condition. The support from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine for our work on osteoarthritis demonstrates that our health care system faces an imperative to identify evidence–based approaches for common conditions that call upon all of the tools and treatments available in modern medicine."

Perlman and his co–investigators‚ Susan Gould–Fogerite‚ PhD‚ and Gwen Mahon‚ PhD‚ from SHRP‚ and David Katz‚ MD‚ MPH‚ and Ather Ali‚ MD‚ MPH‚ of the Yale–Griffin Prevention Research Center‚ also will gather data to study the cost–effectiveness of massage as a form of treatment. Ultimately‚ they expect to demonstrate that massage can serve as a valuable option for treating osteoarthritis in clinical settings‚ which could help set the stage for reimbursement from health insurance companies for this form of treatment.

The new study will recruit more than 200 participants with osteoarthritis of the knee‚ and will follow them for one year. For those who qualify for the study‚ the treatments will be available locally at the Barnabas Health Ambulatory Care Center in Livingston. For more information‚ contact Carl Milak‚ research coordinator‚ at 973–972–8564‚ (milakcj@umdnj.edu)‚ or Mary Carola‚ research assistant‚ at (973) 972–3449 (carola@umdnj.edu).