Basic Science News at Duke School of Medicine

A common powerful mutation found in melanoma can push heart muscle cells to multiply in laboratory models of heart tissue.

A perplexing problem for people with recurring urinary tract infections (UTIs) is persistent pain, even after antibiotics have successfully cleared the bacteria. Now Duke Health researchers have identified the likely cause - an overgrowth of nerve cells in the bladder.

Duke University, in collaboration with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and ​​​NC​​ State University, has received a three-year, $3 million grant from the Chan​ ​Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) to map and manipulate the unseen complexities of biological networks, with a focus on kinases.  Their work on kinases, which is a class of proteins, will help researchers better understand cellular organization, nervous system function, and neurological diseases affecting the brain. The living kinome is the complete set of protein kinases encoded in the genome.  

Duke School of Medicine rises in 2023 Blue Ridge ranking based on growth of its National Institutes of Health funding to $551 million.

Duke Human Vaccine Institute scientists are targeting a fast-moving protein that could hold the key to developing an effective HIV vaccine.

The Duke Regional Biocontainment Lab (RBL), a vital hub for research of infectious diseases, is gearing up for a new era under the leadership of Herman Staats, PhD, and a significant boost in funding from the National Institutes of Health.  

Researchers at Duke University School of Medicine have unveiled a breakthrough genetic sensor that shines a light on critical changes in our genetic material.   The sensor, developed by a Duke team led by Kate Meyer, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry, produces a fluorescent glow when it detects m6A, a small but powerful modification in RNA.  

A research team led by the Duke Human Vaccine Institute has activated specific immune cells that induce broadly neutralizing antibodies in a study using monkeys. The next phase of the work will now move to testing in humans.

While previous studies suggest Parkinson’s disease begins in the gut and spreads to the brain, how the process occurs has been elusive. Now, a pre-clinical study led by Duke Health researchers provides new evidence that bolsters the gut-brain connection.

Lee Zou, PhD, joined the Duke faculty in March 2023 as chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology in part because of the very collegial environment he found in Durham.   He was previously professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and scientific co-director of Massachusetts General Cancer Center. Both Harvard and Duke have excellent scientists, he said, but at Duke he sees more opportunities to build collaborations.