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Improving the Health of People in Their Communities for 50 Years In July 1966, the Duke University School of Medicine established a new department: the Department of Community Health Sciences. Its roots were multiple and complex, and began with a decision to discontinue another department — the Department of Preventive Medicine — which had functioned since the first days of the medical school.

By combining super-fine electrodes and tiny amounts of a very specific drug, Duke University researchers have singled out a circuit in mouse brains and taken control of it to dial an animal’s mood up and down. Stress-susceptible animals that behaved as if they were depressed or anxious were restored to relatively normal behavior by tweaking the system, according to a study appearing in the July 20 issue of Neuron.

The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF) announced the selection of its 2016-2017 class of North Carolina Albert Schweitzer Fellows. Thirty graduate [and medical] students, one of the biggest classes to date, will spend the next year learning to effectively address the social factors that impact health, and developing lifelong leadership skills. In doing so, they will follow the example set by famed physician-humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, for whom their Fellowship is named.

Christopher G. Willett, MD, FASTRO, chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Duke University School of Medicine, has been named a recipient of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Gold Medal, the highest honor bestowed upon members of the world’s largest radiation oncology society. He will be recognized at an awards ceremony during ASTRO’s 58th Annual Meeting, to be held September 25-28, 2016, in Boston.

Duke University has begun construction of a third Medical Sciences Research Building (MSRB), continuing Duke Health’s ongoing commitment to invest in science and foster collaboration among basic science researchers.

A Duke team has performed the first hand transplant in North Carolina, attaching the limb to a 54-year-old patient from Laredo, Texas, whose hand was severed in a childhood accident.

People with serious mental illnesses who use guns to commit suicide are often legally eligible to purchase guns, despite having a past record of an involuntary mental health examination and brief hospitalization, according to a new Duke Health analysis. The study, released in the June issue of Health Affairs, looked at gun use, violent crime and suicide among 81,704 people diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression in Florida’s Miami-Dade and Pinellas counties over 10 years starting in 2002.

Dr. Mark Stacy, vice dean for clinical research at Duke University School of Medicine, remembers his special friendship with Muhammed Ali. Dr. Stacy served as the director of the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center in Phoenix from 1998 – 2003.   

A research team at Duke University has discovered a potential new class of small-molecule drugs that simultaneously block two sought-after targets in the treatment of pain. These proof-of-concept experiments, published June 1 in Scientific Reports, could lead to the development of a new drug to treat conditions including skin irritation and itching, headaches, jaw pain, and abdominal pain stemming from the pancreas and colon.

Jun Wang received her Ph.D. from the Duke University School of Medicine this month. “My participation in this Bass Connections project is one of the most meaningful and rewarding Duke experiences I have had,” she writes. “It not only helped me land my first job, but also helped me find my true passion.” Jun is among four graduating Ph.D. students to be honored with the Duke Alumni Association’s Forever Duke Student Leadership Award.