Medical breakthroughs from Houston

Medical breakthroughs from Houston

 Flu-be-gone?
Who loves getting a flu shot? Yea, we get it; no one enjoys getting pricked at the doctor's office year after year. Lucky for us, UTMB in Galveston has been awarded $4.4 million for research that could spell the end for your annual flu shot.

The potential new vaccine would be so effective, scientists at UTMB say, that it could adapt to any strain of flu with one single vaccine. It does this by activating the body's T cells, which are crucial  to our immune system.

 The gift of graft
Baylor College of Medicine is credited with inventing the Dacron graft, which usually replaces or repairs blood vessels. Houston's Dr. Michael Ellis DeBakey was the first U.S. surgeon to remove an aneurysm in the aorta near the stomach.

The nation's first mobile stroke unit
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School, in partnership with Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, unveiled the country’s first Mobile Stroke Unit.

On board the ambulance is a computed tomography (CT) scanner that allows a mobile stroke unit team member to quickly assess whether a patient is having a stroke caused by a blood clot and if so, the clot-buster tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) can be administered. The stroke unit will be run in conjunction with the Emergency Medical Services of the Houston Fire Department, Bellaire Fire Department and West University Fire Department.

Rett syndrome
Baylor College of Medicine discovered the gene that causes Rett syndrome. That's a post-natal genetic disorder in the grey matter of the brain that primarily affects girls.

Cancer-fighting meds
Baylor College of Medicine is credited with discovering cytoplasmic microtubule complex in eukaryotic cells. Sounds like a lot of technical mumbo jumbo, but it boils down to this: that finding led to the use of a new class of cancer-fighting drugs, including Taxol.

Pump it up (or don't)
Physicians at the Texas Heart Institute have created a heart pump that keeps blood flowing, but produces no pulse. The blood flows steady like a garden hose making it easier to keep going.

No bones about it
Rice bioengineer Antonios Mikos invented a honeycomb structure that is being used to regrow bone tissue using stem cells. The U.S. Department of Defense awarded a grant to Rice and the UT Health Science Center to develop their regenerative medicine program to grow bone tissue that would be used or the treatment of wounded soldiers.

Visit my Food Blog at http://southerncookingwithtodd.blogspot.com/