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The 2017 Annual Clinical Research Appreciation Event sponsored by the Duke Office of Clinical Research was a resounding success.  Over 600 attendees enjoyed networking with colleagues and meeting with clinical research administrative offices and service providers at vendor tables, along with food, music, dancing, and raffle prizes.  Highlights of the event included remarks by Dr. Adrian Hernandez, Vice Dean of Clinical Research along with remarks from Denise Snyder, Associate Dean of Clinical Research.

  The biological valves used in TAVR and surgical procedures maintain function over time A minimally invasive procedure used to replace heart valves without open heart surgery appears to provide a durable remedy for people with a life-threatening form of heart disease in which the aortic valve opening narrows, diminishing blood flow.

[Video: https://youtu.be/zUtNKQL5JqQ]  Dr. Ann Marie Navar Fewer than one-third of patients prescribed a new medication actually received therapy Most prescriptions for a class of drugs heralded as game-changers for people with stubbornly high cholesterol are going unfilled because of high out-of-pocket costs and challenges by pharmacy benefit managers, according to a study from the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

After spending more than 22 years as chair of the Department of Community and Family Medicine, J. Lloyd Michener, M.D., professor of community and family medicine, will soon step down to focus his attention on national and international projects designed to improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities, an extension of his work with The Practical Playbook.

DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) — Families dealing with autism often turn toward Duke’s Center for Autism and Brain Development. Researchers are working to learn more about autism and help those who have it. This summer the center hired its first intern with autism. Raghav Swaminathan spent the summer helping out with everything from scanning papers to cleaning and organizing research supplies.

Fungus rapidly shrugs off challenge of anti-fungal drugs Mutations tend to get a bad rap, and deservedly so. A single defect in our DNA can strip us of our sight, thicken our lungs with mucus, prompt us to bleed to death, weaken our muscles or fill our organs with tumors.   But in certain situations, a mutation can actually be a source of strength. For microorganisms, the right mutation can confer superpowers, allowing them to traverse continents, infect new hosts and avoid drug-induced annihilation.

  Cell-by-cell analysis of regrowing fish heart shows how stress helps By taking videos of a tiny beating zebrafish heart as it reconstructs its covering in a petri dish, scientists have captured unexpected dynamics of cells involved in tissue regeneration. They found that the depleted heart tissue regenerates itself in a wave, led by a front of fast-moving, supersized cells and trailed by smaller cells that multiply to produce others.

The project, in addition to others announced this week, is intended to address the needs of current U.S. service members and veterans.

Dr. Christopher Plowe, the founding director of the Institute for Global Health at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine and a leading expert on malaria elimination, has been named director of the Duke Global Health institute (DGHI). He will start in January.  Plowe succeeds Dr. Michael Merson, who stepped down June 30 after leading the institute since it was launched in 2006.

A global team of researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that the study did not meet its primary efficacy endpoint, but yielded important results for all-cause mortality.