Broadening Opportunities for Students in STEM at Brown University and Beyond
Credit: Courtesy of Brown University. Andrew G. Campbell, Ph.D., a professor of medical science at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and previous dean of the graduate school, is passionate about researching understudied diseases and helping students reach their full potential. Dr. Campbell’s lab has studied the single-cell organism Trypanosoma brucei (T. brucei), a parasite transmitted through the bite of the tsetse fly, which is only found in specific regions of Africa. In humans, T. brucei causes African Trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness. Symptoms of this illness include headache, weakne...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - February 8, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist STEM Education Profiles Training Source Type: blogs

Increasing Opportunities in STEM at Brown University and Beyond
Credit: Courtesy of Brown University. Andrew G. Campbell, Ph.D., a professor of medical science at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and previous dean of the graduate school, is passionate about researching understudied diseases and helping students reach their full potential. Dr. Campbell’s lab has studied the single-cell organism Trypanosoma brucei (T. brucei), a parasite transmitted through the bite of the tsetse fly, which is only found in specific regions of Africa. In humans, T. brucei causes African Trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness. Symptoms of this illness include headache, weakne...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - February 7, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist STEM Education Profiles Training Source Type: blogs

What ’s behind racial disparities in kidney disease?
My first exposure to kidney disease and its impact on communities of color occurred when I was in high school. An elderly neighbor, who was like a grandfather to me, had been diagnosed with kidney failure. At about the same time, my older first cousin, who had children about my age, was starting dialysis due to kidney failure attributed to hypertension. She would go on to get a kidney transplant. If you ask any African American, he or she is likely to have at least one relative with kidney disease requiring dialysis or transplantation. Disparities in kidney disease not noted in medical literature until early 1980s When I b...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 3, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: J. Kevin Tucker, MD Tags: Health care disparities Kidney and urinary tract Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 555 - Parasites and the Number Five
Wow - we received so many excellent comments on how parasites and the number 5 go together! Here are many of them - in no particular order - for your viewing pleasure:Pentatrichomonas hominis is a nonpathogenic intestinal flagellate named for its 5 flagella (penta from the Greek pente, meaning five + trich, pertaining to hair [flagella]). By Neil Anderson and Bernardino Rocha.There are 5 lobes of the lung, and all can be infected by Paragonimusspecies. By Brian Duresko.The are 5Plasmodiumspecies that are responsible for the bulk of malaria in humans:P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, P. malariae, andP. knowlesi(t...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - August 1, 2019 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

African Trypanosomiasis: Crossing Borders
141 individual importations (193 patients) of African trypanosomiasis are listed by Gideon www.GideonOnline.com  Ten of these patients acquired the disease in Zambia, and 27 were treated in South Africa. As of February, 2019 the Gideon web application and e-book series [1,2] list 2,718 individual cross-border events, arranged in 134 charts – by disease and country.  Charts also include importation of infected animals (ie, rabid dogs) and contaminated foods and other vehicles which resulted in outbreaks.  Charts in the web application are interactive, and allow the user to sort data according to country, year, numb...
Source: GIDEON blog - March 20, 2019 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology ProMED Travel Source Type: blogs

Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 236
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia FFFF…introducing Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 236. Readers can subscribe to FFFF RSS or subscribe to the FFFF weekly EMAIL Question 1: You see a patient who has returned from Uganda complaining of pain in his arm whenever he turns the key. What is the diagnosis? + Reveal the Funtabulous Answer expand(document.g...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - May 11, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Frivolous Friday Five African Trypanosomiasis amblygeusia Cabot's rings Darwin award dengue fever Jean Francois Kerandel Kerandel's sign Kerandel's symptom male idiot theory MIT sleeping sickness Tourniquet test Source Type: blogs

Trypanosomiasis – Imported / Exported
Gideon follows cross-border Infectious Disease events in tabular form – including movement of infected animals, and outbreaks related to imported items. [1]  The following list chronicles cases of African trypanosomiasis which were imported into South Africa, or were exported from Zambia.  Further details and references are available from the author. Acquired in Zambia. 1986 – An American tourist acquired trypanosomiasis in Zambia. 2000 – A British tourist acquired trypanosomiasis (nonfatal) in Zambia. 2001 – A British national acquired trypanosomiasis in Zambia. 2008 – A British tourist acq...
Source: GIDEON blog - January 12, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology ProMED Source Type: blogs

Travel-Related African Trypanosomiasis
During January 1970 to May 2017, 138 case reports of travel-related trypanosomiasis were published in the medical literature.  In 49 cases (36%) the patients were identified as Europeans, and in 49 (37%) the disease was acquired in Tanzania.  A chronology of these events follows below [1]. African Trypanosomiasis – A Chronology of Travel-Related Cases Year               Patient From                              Infected In                         Cases (#) 1970  Switzerland multiple **  1 1970  United States multiple  2 1975  Sweden Gambia  1 1977  Switzerland multiple ...
Source: GIDEON blog - May 18, 2017 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Epidemiology Graphs Source Type: blogs

Remote Controlled Microbots for Medical Uses Inside Body
Researchers at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have developed a technique for building “mobile micromachines” inspired by origami that can be controlled and powered remotely using magnets. The goal is to eventually use the technology to create diagnostic and therapeutic devices that can travel through the body and perform specific actions, reaching areas and doing tasks that are difficult with existing techniques. The investigators’ approach allows for a wide variety of tiny robots that change shapes in different ways and respond to ma...
Source: Medgadget - July 25, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Editors Tags: Surgery Source Type: blogs

Do hair growth inhibitors really work? The Beauty Brains Show episode 57
Do those hair growth inhibitor products (the ones that say they let you shave less often) really work? This week Randy and I explain what to look for when shopping for a shave minimizing lotion.       Click below to play Episode 57 or click “download” to save the MP3 file to your computer. Show notes Strange beauty science search terms You’d be surprised at some of the search terms that lead people to our website. Randy reviews a few of the more amusing ones and we talk about where they might have come from… Rachael Ray panties Human hair clothing Mascara eating bugs Paris Hilton ptosis How to tell if...
Source: thebeautybrains.com - November 18, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Perry RomanowskiThe Beauty Brains Tags: Podcast Problems Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 255
Answer:  African trypanosomiasis due to Trypanosoma brucei.  It is not possible to tell the 2 subspecies of Trypanosoms brucei apart microscopically, but the origin of the patient (Sudan) would be consistent with East African trypanosomiasis due to T. b. rhodesiense.  The flagellated form of T. brucei (called trypomastigotes) are typically seen in peripheral blood, and in late stage disease, in CSF.  They can be differentiated from the similar-appearing T. cruzi trypomastigotes by the small size of their kinetoplast (arrows, below). Occasionally, trypomastigotes of other zoonotic organisms such ...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - April 28, 2013 Category: Pathologists Source Type: blogs