Scope
About face
The brain's prefrontal cortex may hold the key to our ability to recognize and remember one another.
Patricia S. Goldman-Rakic, Ph.D., of neurobiology, and her colleagues have pinpointed an area of the brain that retrieves information about faces and facial expressions from memory. Their findings were reported in the Nov. 7 issue of the journal Science.
The research team showed macaque monkeys pictures of human faces and objects, and measured the electrical impulses in different areas of the brain. Research results showed that neurons clustered in an area of the inferior prefrontal cortex responded only to pictures of faces and to no other stimuli. The team further found that the prefrontal cortex was able to maintain information about the faces even after the stimuli were removed.
Scientists know that the prefrontal cortex is the most advanced part of the human brain and is responsible for cognitive functions such as memory, reasoning, mental computation and languages, but it has been...
This is only a test
When faced with medical tests, patients and their families generally have questions galore. Yale faculty have teamed up to provide answers in a new book, The Yale University School of Medicine Patient's Guide to Medical Tests, published in December by Houghton Mifflin Co.The book's 620 pages are packed with information on common and not-so- common diagnostic procedures. Each of its 29 chapters is written by a Yale...
Breaking bread with the new brass
Every other Thursday throughout the academic year, students, faculty and staff file into the Beaumont Room for an...
University of California professor named dean of nursing school
Catherine Lynch Gilliss, D.N.Sc., chair of the Department of Family Health Care Nursing at the University of...
Physician's award will support end-of-life AIDS care
As a patient's life comes to an end, physicians and care providers are faced with the unique task of tending to the...
A Model Renovation
"This is something I got very good at in Washington," Dean David A. Kessler, M.D., below left, joked as he joined in...
New research finds link between religion and health in the elderly
For the elderly, religion may do more than ease the soul. In fact, attendance at religious services may actually...
Et Cetera
Federal audit shows Yale's Medicare billing practices in good health
The Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has given the School of...
Urban health program broadens community outreach efforts
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has awarded...
Study documents dumping of psychiatric patients
Two-thirds of psychiatric hospitals providing inpatient mental health care in the United States are reported to dump...
Yale, SCIREX Corp. open unit for psychiatric drug research
The Department of Psychiatry and SCIREX Corp. have announced a new collaboration to conduct clinical research on...
Grant from insurer funds two outcomes research projects
Insurance giant Aetna Inc. has awarded more than $750,000 to the School of Medicine to fund research aimed at improving...
Psychiatric hospitals may be deluged with sex offenders
When convicted sex offenders finish serving prison time, many of them will go directly from a jail cell to a...
EPH, Hospice Institute work to improve access to care
The John D. Thompson Hospice Institute in Branford, Conn., and experts from Yale's Department of Epidemiology and...
Study explores connections between menopause and mood
The number of women experiencing menopause is expected to triple over the next decade, causing an increased demand for...
From Other Issues
Autumn 2005
Researchers discover odor receptor genes in fruit flies
In a finding with profound implications for controlling insect pests that spread disease and cause crop blights,...
Fall 1999 | Winter 2000
Class of 2003 arrives from all corners
What is perhaps the most international class of medical students in Yale’s history arrived in New Haven in late August,...
Fall 1999 | Winter 2000
A new doctorate for doctors
As medicine seeks new ways to speed basic discoveries from the laboratory to bedside, there is growing concern that the...
Fall 1999 | Winter 2000
A new dean for education
One of the Ivy League’s most highly regarded medical educators is stepping down, much to the chagrin of students and...
Fall 1999 | Winter 2000
Medical school and health system form a new affiliation
Thirty-four years ago, Yale University and The New Haven Hospital laid out a framework for their joint activities in...
Fall 1999 | Winter 2000
Tech transfer office gets a new director
E. Jonathan Soderstrom, Ph.D., has been named managing director of Yale’s Office of Cooperative Research, succeeding...
Fall 1999 | Winter 2000
The OCR forms three new ventures, assists in mergers of others
The Office of Cooperative Research pressed forward during the past year with the creation of three new ventures and...
Fall 1999 | Winter 2000
Easing children's minds about surgery
Imagine the operating room from the point of view of a child about to have surgery: bright lights, sharp instruments, a...
Fall 1999 | Winter 2000
In the ribosome, clues to better antibiotics
Yale scientists have produced three-dimensional images of the largest component of the ribosome — the cellular...
Fall 1999 | Winter 2000
A changing of the guard for Humanities in Medicine
For the past 16 years, faculty, students and the general public have gathered in the Beaumont Room one or two evenings...
Fall 1999 | Winter 2000
HHMI grant to support science teaching at Career High School
The School of Medicine plans to use a four-year, $300,000 grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to strengthen...
Fall 1999 | Winter 2000
New labs, new appraoch bring hope for spinal cord injuries
Traditionally, physicians have believed that spinal cord injuries are irreversible. Paralysis will never go away and...
Fall 1999 | Winter 2000
Library dedicates resources on end-of-life care
Paul M. Kennedy, the J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History at Yale, and Florence Wald, former dean of the School...
Summer 1999
Satcher's message of prevention
Human behavior, according to Surgeon General David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., is the most important factor in the public...
Summer 1999
Yale delegation brings high-tech care to remote corner of Peru
Two Yale plastic surgeons traveled to the Peruvian Amazon in March, where they performed about 80 operations for people...
Summer 1999
Telemedicine proves its mettle on Mt. Everest
In May 1998, a team of Yale physicians trekked to the slopes of Mt. Everest to provide medical support for climbers and...
Summer 1999
CIRA events focus on the ethics and science of HIV
An impromptu debate over the case of NuShawn Williams, an upstate New York man accused of infecting at least nine women...
Summer 1999
EPH inaugurates grand rounds series
Connecticut’s $3.6 billion share of the nationwide tobacco settlement should be used to fund public health and...
Summer 1999
Non-traditional medicine is complementary, not alternative, says alumnus who headed NIH office
Although he once headed the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, Joseph J. Jacobs, M.D....
Summer 1999
Cancer Center chosen for breast cancer study
The Yale Cancer Center will participate in a national trial to determine the effectiveness of two drugs in preventing...
Summer 1999
Grant will support musculoskeletal research
A biologist who isolates a gene linked to the musculoskeletal system, regardless of where on campus he or she works,...
Summer 1999
What’s in a yam? Clues to fertility, a student discovers
White yams, a staple of the diet of the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria, may play a role in the society’s high...
Summer 1999
Yale researchers find ways to ward off delirium in hospitalized patients and eliminate home hazards for the elderly
In separate studies, Yale geriatricians have found two ways to help the elderly maintain their physical and cognitive...
Summer 1999
Estrogen treatment increases brain activity in mature adults
In a study of 46 postmenopausal women, Yale researchers found that estrogen therapy stimulated activity in areas of the...
Spring 1999
Congress Avenue project gains the backing of city officials
Plans for a new research and teaching complex on Congress Avenue took several large steps forward over the winter,...
Spring 1999
Raiding the reservoir
AIDS Researcher David Ho reports on “hidden HIV” and potential new avenues of attack.In 1996, when Time magazine named...
Spring 1999
“First aid” for medical students
Every spring second-year medical students across the country prepare for the first of three exams collectively known as...
Spring 1999
Yale-created Lyme vaccine hits the market
LYMErix, a vaccine against Lyme disease based on Yale research licensed to SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, received...
Spring 1999
“What’s in your Medicine Cabinet?” gives the public an inside look at drug discovery
During the past 150 years, scientists and physicians first discovered that germs, bacteria and viruses caused disease,...
Spring 1999
A “toxic mismatch” in Havana
A student’s research on Cuban HIV policy shows the potential for higher rates of infection.For years Cuba had the...
Spring 1999
NCI renews Cancer Center’s comprehensive designation
The Yale Cancer Center, which is marking its 25th year in 1999, has again earned designation from the National Cancer...
Spring 1999
Graduate students celebrate common ground at research symposium
Toiling away in a highly specialized branch of scientific research, a graduate student may feel isolated at times,...
Spring 1999
In Macedonia refugee camp, students serve as volunteers
As the exodus of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo continued this spring, a team of student emissaries left for neighboring...
Spring 1999
Elective C-sections found to reduce HIV transmission to infants
An international study has found that elective caesarean sections, coupled with anti-retroviral therapy, can reduce the...
Spring 1999
Outlook for Y2K: partly cloudy but no hurricanes in sight
The medical school’s computer infrastructure and processor-controlled medical devices are largely in good shape for the...
Spring 1999
Digital imaging center comes to library
Students, residents and faculty members can now create presentation graphics, put videotapes of lectures online and...
Spring 1999
Magnetic stimulation offers relief to schizophrenia patients
Pulsing a magnetic field into the brain can temporarily reduce or stop the imaginary voices heard by schizophrenic...
Spring 1999
Apoptosis gene suggests new target for chemotherapy
Yale scientists who identified a gene that enables cancer cells to evade one of the body’s mechanisms for weeding out...
Spring 1999
Unveiling of protein structure could yield tumor-starving drugs
In a finding that could result in more effective angiogenesis blockers, biochemists at Yale and Cornell have discovered...
Spring 1999
Salmonella vector overcomes an obstacle
A year ago, scientists at Yale and Vion Pharmaceuticals reported success in experiments that used a modified salmonella...
Spring 1999
A simple test to predict presence of Alzheimer’s
Dementia often goes unrecognized in elderly people because tests for it are difficult and time-consuming. Yale...
Winter 1999
First-year class brings more than smarts to school
Gaining entry to the School of Medicine remains among the academic world’s most competitive selection processes. With...
Winter 1999
A clean room for gene therapy and stem cell transplantation
In 1989 leukemia patient Richard D. Frisbee III became the first child in Connecticut to receive a bone marrow...
Winter 1999
From cough medicine to deadly addiction, a century of heroin and drug-abuse policy
A century ago, scientists at a German pharmaceutical firm investigated a chemical modification to morphine that made it...
Winter 1999
A pediatrician’s frank talk about fibs
Long before Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s report and possible presidential lies were the topic of the day, Diane...
Winter 1999
Improving public health from the ground up
Faculty in epidemiology and public health are joining forces with Griffin Hospital in Derby to create an innovative...
Winter 1999
Lessons of healing: Exploring the link between spirituality and health
Throughout the ages, men and women have thanked deities for favors bestowed. Such blessings may be good health, fortune...
Winter 1999
With a mechanical heart, a patient goes home—and waits
Everywhere Robert Kenyon goes these days a bundle of electrical wires connects him to a battery pack that powers an...
Winter 1999
Yale epidemiologist leads study of risks from radon in drinking water
Radon in Connecticut’s drinking water poses a minimal health risk, primarily when it is released into household air,...
Winter 1999
School, government settle suit over credit balances
A federal investigation into the medical school’s billing practices ended in September with a $5.6 million settlement...
Winter 1999
State-of-the-art imaging for neurovascular disease
One of the nation’s most advanced diagnostic neuroangiography suites for diagnosis and treatment of neurovascular...
Winter 1999
New research clinic seeking to identify schizophrenia earlier
While traditional treatment of schizophrenia, or psychosis, seeks to reduce symptoms after they have affected people’s...
Winter 1999
'Jumping DNA' may help explain evolution of immune system
A bit of DNA that has the ability, heretofore unseen in humans, to “jump” from one organism to another may have given...
Winter 1999
Early study suggests new way to treat schizophrenia
A drug under development for anxiety has been found to reverse schizophrenia-like effects of “angel dust” in rats...
Winter 1999
Women under 75 fare worse than men after heart attacks
Many clinicians have long believed that men were more prone to death from heart attack than women. Evidence from a Yale...
Winter 1999
A little testosterone may aid estrogen replacement therapy
A dose of testosterone may be a good thing for post-menopausal women undergoing hormone replacement therapy. Estrogen...
Winter 1999
Many heart-failure patients would rather not be revived
Nearly one-quarter of all patients hospitalized for severe congestive heart failure say they do not wish to be...
Winter 1999
Imaging RNA enzyme a step toward understanding hepatitis
Using X-ray crystallography, researchers have solved the three-dimensional structure of an RNA enzyme that plays a role...
Fall 1998
For a world of emerging diseases, a revived program in microbiology
Three decades ago, it seemed that modern medicine had virtually eliminated many infectious diseases. Armed with...
Fall 1998
Dissecting the body with the click of a mouse
Exploring the depths of the human body is one of the hallmarks of the first year of medical school. Through new...
Fall 1998
Brain surgery, without opening the skull
For decades neurosurgeons have treated diseases of the brain by beaming radiation inside the skull, sidestepping the...
Fall 1998
Lyme disease vaccines prove effective
Clinical trials conducted at Yale over the past two years have proven the effectiveness of two Lyme disease...
Fall 1998
Physician associates gain their master’s
Starting next year, graduates of the physician associate program will receive master’s degrees instead of the graduate...
Fall 1998
11 grants awarded to advance research in women’s health
The Ethel F. Donaghue Women’s Health Investigator Program at Yale announced its first round of grants in August for...
Fall 1998
A high school link to the Human Genome Project
With the help of a Yale geneticist, some New Haven-area high school students have been advancing the frontiers of...
Fall 1998
Estrogen studies yield hope of breast cancer treatment
Yale University researchers have visualized in atomic detail how two important female sex hormones, progesterone and...
Fall 1998
Seeing the whole person instead of the disease
racing the rise of medical technology from ancient examples of trepanation to the advent of the X-ray, John H....
Fall 1998
Weighing privacy and progress, Congress considers limits on patient data
Advances in genetic screening abilities have put the medical world on alert about threats to patient privacy. In...
Fall 1998
Building a town-gown partnership, from high school to medical school
A five-year collaboration between Yale University and New Haven’s Career High School entered a new phase in September,...
Fall 1998
A new tool to combat cocaine addiction
Yale researchers have found that a combination of medication and counseling can be effective in treating cocaine...
Fall 1998
A new strategy for stroke and Alzheimer’s?
Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that blocking an enzyme known to be involved in cell death could help...
Fall 1998
Personal warmth, hostile slogans for medical delegation to Iran
On their arrival at a hotel in the Iranian desert city of Shiraz, members of a medical delegation from the West,...
Fall 1998
Yale ethicist defends safeguards in human investigations
Is the pace of medical advances moving beyond existing safeguards regarding the use of human subjects in...
Fall 1998
Children thrive when fathers stay at home
Fathers can play the traditional child-rearing role of mothers with no detriment to the children, according to a...
Fall 1998
HIV drug resistance an increasing threat
Despite the clinical gains a new generation of AIDS medications have yielded, drug-resistant strains of HIV and the...
Fall 1998
“Ticked off” about Lyme disease treatment
While physicians discussed therapies, vaccines and research at a Yale symposium on Lyme disease in early June, several...
Summer 1998
Budget, space concerns addressed in school's strategic facilities plan
When David A. Kessler, M.D., began speaking with faculty and top administrators in early 1997 before coming to the...
Summer 1998
Yale spins off five biotech firms
Until a decade ago, Yale's participation in technology transfer, the movement of basic science advances into the...
Summer 1998
Lab testing may allow earlier cancer diagnosis
If promising research at the Yale Cancer Center is proven effective, a simple blood or tissue test may be able to...
Summer 1998
Worry about Lyme disease may be worse than the illness
Lyme disease was first identified and named by researchers at Yale more than a decade ago. Now, Yale investigators have...
Summer 1998
Bringing public health education to a changing China
The explosive growth of the economy of the People's Republic of China brings with it many benefits–and a set of...
Summer 1998
Discovery of how a brain tumor travels may pave way to treatment
Yale researchers have discovered a molecule that speeds the growth and spread of a form of brain cancer that afflicts...
Summer 1998
Wider use of medication could prevent many strokes
An irregular heartbeat, or atrial fibrillation, affects some 2.5 million Americans. Clot formation associated with...
Summer 1998
A web of New Haven health information
Already an important tool for public health investigators, the World Wide Web now offers a new site for one-stop local...
Summer 1998
Yale physicians link up with Everest expedition
In May, several dozen seasoned climbers set their sites on Everest, the world's highest mountain. As one group labored...
Summer 1998
“Tobacco Wars” began with a simple question: Why not?
On a Wednesday evening in early April, David Kessler is telling the story of The Tobacco Wars to a room full of about...
Summer 1998
Attention deficit study finds no evidence of overdiagnosis
The number of children being diagnosed and treated for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has risen...
Summer 1998
A brain structure that keeps confusion at bay
Animals are constantly gathering signals from the surrounding environment, yet somehow they learn to focus on stimuli...
Summer 1998
New Haven's mayor visits medical school
New Haven and Yale University have never had better relations, Mayor John DeStefano told students and faculty during a...
Summer 1998
Using art to sharpen observational skills
Medical education took an artistic turn for a group of Yale students this past spring. Professor Irwin M. Braverman,...
Summer 1998
Child Study Center aids Arkansas town after shootings
The day after four girls and a teacher were shot to death at a middle school in Arkansas, Yale psychologist Steven...
Summer 1998
Exercise science soars on human powered wings
As a physiologist, Ethan Nadel, Ph.D., knows a great deal about what happens to the body during exertion and the causes...
Summer 1998
Cardiologists combine to form statewide network
In today's managed care world, consolidation of health care delivery services is the order of the day, including the...
Summer 1998
A genetic intervention for children with rare disease
Yale investigators are evaluating a potential therapy for Canavan disease, a rare neurological disorder in children...
Summer 1998
Probing the hazards of autobody work
Walk into an autobody shop and you may be greeted by a curious cocktail of chemical fumes. Posted signs keep customers...
Summer 1998
Yale appeals verdict in Dr. Doe case
In December a New Haven jury awarded $12.2 million to a former medical resident who became HIV-positive after an...
Summer 1998
A “natural” tan to beat the sun
With skin cancer rates soaring, dermatologists have been warning people to protect themselves from the sun, but the...
Summer 1998
Confronting violence in the home
Domestic violence is rarely thought of as a public health issue, yet it has a massive impact on the health care system,...
Summer 1998
Focus on fitness
The Yale Conference on Women's Health & Fitness in May brought together some of the nation's leading experts on...
