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Root cause is shared by Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases    The loss of motor function and mental acuity associated with Huntington’s disease might be treatable by restoring a cellular quality control process, which Duke Health researchers have identified as a key factor in the degenerative illness. Huntington’s disease is an inherited condition that results in the gradual erosion of nerve cells, leading to impairments and death. It affects about one in 10,000 people in the United States and has no cure.

Blake S. Wilson, a Duke University alumnus and faculty member who invented many of the sound-processing strategies used in modern cochlear implants, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Five School of Medicine faculty members have been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) Class of 2017. Membership in this organization is a distinction recognizing excellence and outstanding achievement for physician-scientists representing a diverse range of disciplines and specialties.  American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI)

Mary Klotman, M.D. -- a nationally renowned physician-scientist and academic leader who has served as chair of Duke’s Department of Medicine for almost seven years -- has been named Dean of the Duke University School of Medicine and Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University. Klotman will assume these roles July 1, 2017.

Moira Rynn, MD, has been named the new chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, effective July 1, 2017. Dr. Rynn is professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. She serves as director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division in the Department of Psychiatry and as medical director of the Columbia University Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders and director of the Children’s Research Day Unit in the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Matthew D. Barber, MD, MHS, has been named the new chair of the Department of OB-GYN, effective May 1, 2017.  Dr. Barber is professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and vice chair for Research in the Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. He is also the fellowship program director for Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.

Electron micrograph of Exiguobacterium

Progress on Duke's newest research building was celebrated with the topping out of the final girder, which was signed by Duke Health and School of Medicine leaders, faculty, staff, and students.

Donald McDonnell, PhD, the Glaxo-Wellcome Professor of Molecular Cancer Biology and chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, has been named the 2017 recipient of the Robert R. Ruffolo Career Achievement Award in Pharmacology. The Ruffolo Award honors the scientific achievements of scientists who are at the height of their careers and who have made significant contributions to any area of pharmacology. Dr.

  Scientists solve structure of sought-after bacterial protein Bacterial cells have an added layer of protection, called the cell wall, that animal cells don’t. Assembling this tough armor entails multiple steps, some of which are targeted by antibiotics like penicillin and vancomycin. Yet one step in the process has remained a mystery because the molecular structures of the proteins involved were not known.