In a fifty-year career as a scientist at the National Institutes of Health, Harvey Alter helped lead research initiatives to isolate strains of hepatitis that had been previously undetected.

Recognizing that too many patients were at risk of being infected with hepatitis when they received blood transfusions, Alter–who received his BA from Rochester in 1956 and his MD degree in 1960–undertook several innovative projects that ultimately reduced the risk of infection from about 30 percent to nearly nonexistent.

As he once noted, most people now have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than they do of leaving a transfusion procedure with a new infection of hepatitis.

As a result, Alter is one of three recipients of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, joining British scientist Michael Houghton and Rockefeller University scientist Charles Rice. Alter is the 13th Rochester graduate or faculty member to receive a Nobel Prize.

University President Sarah Mangelsdorf praised Alter as an example of Rochester’s tradition of using education to improve the world.

“We are enormously proud that Harvey Alter has received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,” Mangelsdorf said. “Dr. Alter exemplifies Rochester’s long tradition of scientific research and discovery. His contributions to solving the global public health challenge of Hepatitis C are an example of Meliora in action—making the world ‘ever better.’ We are honored to count him among our most distinguished alumni.” Read more here.

A new peer-reviewed journal—launched with the help of the University’s Susan B. Anthony Center—addresses sexual and gender-based violence in South Asia while connecting researchers with legal practitioners and policy makers.

In the fall of 2018, Catherine Cerulli, director of the Susan B. Anthony Center and the Laboratory of Interpersonal Violence and Victimization (LIVV) traveled to India under the Fulbright Specialist Program to teach courses on the intersection of law, policy, and social science to students at the law school of Jamia Millia Islamia, a central university in New Delhi. Toward the end of her stay, two young men, Naseer Husain Jafri and Umair Ahmed Andrabi, asked Cerulli for help in starting an academic journal. The group grew to include the Anthony’s Center assistant director, Catherine Faurot, who has extensive editorial and academic writing experience. Together, Cerulli and Faurot became the editors-in-chief for the journal’s inaugural edition that was to focus on violence against women.

The first of two inaugural issues of the South Asian Journal of Law, Policy, and Social Research is now out. Accessible online, the peer-reviewed journal focuses on how to respond to gender-based violence with articles ranging from navigating sexual harassment on the Delhi metro, to unpacking the role of women’s collectives in addressing intimate partner violence in South Asia, to engaging boys in a comprehensive model to address sexual and gender-based violence in schools.

From the get-go the founders had an overriding principle in mind: not only was the journal to be firmly anchored in scientific, research-tested best practices—it was also to be widely accessible. Open access meant that everyone would have access to the articles while the authors maintained ownership over their work. But that was easier said than done. Read more here.

New research led by Minsoo Kim, a professor of microbiology and immunology, and appearing in the journal Nature Immunology describes how different cells in the immune system work together, communicate, and—in the case of cells called neutrophils—bring about their own death to help fight off infections.

For example, when the respiratory tract is infected with a virus like influenza or COVID-19, a large number of neutrophils rush to the infection site and release chemical signals.  This triggers the production of specialized T cells, which are part of the body’s adaptive immune system, which is activated to produce a more direct response to specific infections.

The new study, which was conducted in mice infected with the flu virus, shows that in addition to jump-starting the adaptive immune response, neutrophils have one more important mission that requires that they sacrifice themselves.  As T cells arrive at the infection site, the neutrophils initiate a process called apoptosis, or controlled death, which releases large quantities of a molecule called epidermal growth factor (EGF).  EGF provides T cells with the extra boost in energy necessary to finish the job.

The findings could have important implications for the development of vaccines and antiviral therapies.

Can the act of completing surveys in a research study help improve symptoms for children with asthma? Yes, according to a new study from Medical Center researchers.

The study, “Considering the Control Group: The Influence of Follow-Up Assessments on Asthma Symptoms,” led by Sean Frey, an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics, found that children with uncontrolled asthma who participated in clinical trials as control subjects — and therefore did not receive an active intervention — experienced a decrease in symptoms over the course of the clinical trial. The decrease in symptoms was strongly associated with the number of follow-up surveys completed.

This result provides evidence in support of the research participation effect, which refers to changes in patient behavior and outcomes due to simply being assessed in a research study. Read more here.

The Program for Advanced Immune Bioimaging (NIH program project P01) has funds to support a limited number of pilot projects.

The program focuses on the cellular dynamics of inflammatory disease and the regulation of immune function.

Initial applications are due Friday, October 30, and should include a one-page abstract describing the goals and objectives of the proposed project, the relevance to the mission of the program, and the investigators involved (there is no form template for the abstract portion).

When The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History was first published in 2004, the National Academy of Sciences named it the outstanding book of the year on science and medicine.

Written by John Barry ’69 (MA), the book examines the 1918 influenza pandemic from a broad range of angles: scientists’ quest to understand a new pathogen, officials’ efforts (or lack thereof) to contain the spread of infection, and communities’ and families’ horrifying experiences of a disease so contagious and lethal that it infected about a quarter of the US population and killed between 50 and 100 million people around the world, the equivalent of 220 to 440 million today.

Anchoring The Great Influenza is Barry’s consideration of leadership, science, and society. Trust, he argues, is crucial, because without trust in information people have no reliable knowledge of what is happening. In 1918, when leaders gave wartime morale priority over public health communication, terror overran society, so much so that some flu victims starved to death because others were too frightened to bring them food.

The fundamental lesson of the 1918 pandemic, Barry writes, is this: “Those in authority must retain the public’s trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one.” Read more in this conversation Barry had with Kathleen McGarvey of University Communications.

Here are important links for researchers:

• University’s COVID-19 website for important updates and guidance on working, teaching, and learning remotely
• University of Rochester Medical Center website for restrictions, resources, and news
• Office of Research and Project Administration (ORPA) site on Coronavirus 2019 resources related to sponsored programs
• University’s COVID-19 “Restart and Recovery” web page.

NEW COVID-19 DASHBOARD LAUNCHES: The University’s new COVID-19 dashboard displays the latest updates related to confirmed coronavirus cases and testing results. This will provide a consistent snapshot of the status of COVID-19 throughout all of our campuses. The dashboard is updated Monday through Friday as new data becomes available. Explore the new dashboard.

ON-CAMPUS FLU CLINIC INFORMATION: University health officials are strongly encouraging all students, faculty, and staff to get a flu shot this fall, and University Health Service (UHS) will again host several vaccination clinics on River Campus and at the Eastman School in October. Due to the impact of flu-like symptoms on the demand for isolation housing among students who live in residence halls, UHS will offer flu vaccines first to the student population, and then later in October to faculty and staff.

Faculty and staff who wish to be vaccinated sooner are encouraged to go to one of the many walk-in options now available at pharmacies such as CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreens, Walmart, and Wegmans, or get vaccinated through their primary care physician. Given UHS’s continuing efforts to COVID-test hundreds of students each week through its surveillance program, any reduction in the overall number of faculty and staff needing to receive their flu shot on campus would greatly help UHS manage its staffing needs and allow the focus to be on ensuring as many students as possible get vaccinated this season.

Attending any of these clinics listed below requires making an advance appointment. Find full details online. All of the River Campus clinics are at the Goergen Athletic Center.

For full-time students only; appointment needed:

• Wednesday, October 14, 1 to 4:30 p.m.
• Thursday, October 15, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, October 20, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, October 21, 1 to 4:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, October 21, 1 to 4 p.m. at the Eastman School of Music

For faculty and staff only; appointment needed:

• Thursday, October 22, 3 to 6 p.m.
• Tuesday, October 27, 3 to 6 p.m.
• Wednesday, October 28, 3 to 6 p.m.
• Thursday, October 29, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Eastman School of Music.

Flu vaccinations are available for Medical Center employees, students, and volunteers through URMC Employee Health. Here’s a list of clinics for the Medical Center community.

NANCY BENNETT DISCUSSES COVID-19 RESURGENCE: After a recent uptick in COVID-19 cases in New York City, Nancy Bennett, co-director of the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI), joined WXXI’s Connections with Evan Dawson to discuss local spread of the virus. Bennett reiterated the importance of social distancing and wearing masks to prevent the spread and to keep our community safe.

ONLINE LEARNING SYMPOSIUM SERIES: Every fall, the University of Rochester hosts a series of open forums to provide insight and promote dialogue about Online Learning with the community. This fall the series is centered around discussions with panels of University of Rochester faculty who have designed and developed online versions of their courses and are teaching them this semester. The panels are organized by broad disciplinary areas. This week’s presentation:

• Wednesday, October 14 (noon-1 p.m.)
  Faculty experiences with Online Learning in the Health Sciences at the University of Rochester
  Christopher Seplaki, associate professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine
  Luis A. Rosario-McCabe, assistant professor of clinical nursing, specialty director for the CNL Program, School of Nursing
  Margie Hodges Shaw, associate professor, law and bioethics, Division of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, School of Medicine
  Cynthia L. Wong, associate professor of clinical dentistry and clinical pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Dentistry, Eastman Institute for Oral Health
  Register in advance for this meeting:
  https://rochester.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwuduysqjorH9JpFBRzM2JhOk1lIbdHtvDU
  After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.