Category: Topics

Familial Hypercholesterolemia New Insights New Opportunities

Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) is the most common inherited disorder to cause premature morbidity and mortality. It is under-recognized and under-treated. FH provides a genetic model for the cholesterol hypothesis linking cholesterol intake to cardiovascular disease. The discovery of the FH mechanism dramatically improved understanding of lipid metabolism in the body. This talk will examine new […]

Tools for Studying the Genetic Basis of a Complex Disease

Susceptibility to most common diseases is complex, and based on both genetic and environmental risk factors. This presentation will discuss basic concepts and current tools to identify and interpret genetic and epigenetic variation, and pitfalls in associating variants with disease risk. Dr. Barthold is a pediatric urologist/clinician scientist at Nemours. She completed an American Foundation […]

A New Paradigm for Outcomes Assessment

There are several large initiatives that have potential to create a paradigm shift in the way outcomes measurement is practiced. These include the PROMIS, Neuro-QOL and adaptations for rehabilitation populations, the TBI-QOL and SCI-QOL and all have been developed using innovative item banking procedures and Item Response Theory. All of these scales utilized extensive qualitative […]

A Quantitative Model for Glagov Remodeling in Atherosclerosis

Glagov phenomenon describes how atherosclerotic vessels change shape under an increasing disease burden (see Glagov et al, New England Journal of Medicine 1987). Specifically, lumen areas remain constant or increase slightly before contracting as intima areas increase. This presentation will introduce a mathematical model for Glagov remodeling and allow clinicians and researchers to understand the […]

Mindfulness Based Interventions for Maternal Child Health

Mindfulness interventions have been found to decrease symptoms and health issues and to improve overall health. We conducted two mindfulness based studies at Thomas Jefferson University to determine effects of mindfulness on maternal child health. The first study that will be presented was a one year pilot Mindfulness in Pregnancy in the Ob/Gyn Dept with […]

Mindfulness Based Interventions to Prevent Toxic Stress

This presentation will describe current research on adverse exposures and the use of mindfulness based programs for new mothers in treatment for opioid addiction. Mindfulness Based Parenting has shown improvements in parenting and behavior change. The presentation will describe the mechanisms of mindfulness based training and findings from research. A pilot project that aims to […]

The Complex Network of Human Disease: Applying Network Theory to Medicine

Recent research has advanced a network-based approach to human disease based on the hypothesis that a disease phenotype is rarely a consequence of an abnormality in a single effector gene product, but reflects various pathobiological processes that interact in a complex network. Networks have been studied in mathematics, computer science, engineering and social sciences for […]

Why must my child sound like Stephen Hawking: Personalized Synthetic Voices for Pediatric Assistive Communication

Existing speech synthesis technology allows us to record fluent speech from an individual and, using machine learning, develop a Text To Speech (TTS) “voice” that sounds like the individual. This technology is used for “Voice Banking” by patients diagnosed with neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS who are able to create personal TTS voices for use […]

P-Values in Modern Research

This talk will cover p-values and their role in modern research, including a brief discussion of their short comings and impact on publication literature. Also covered will be a few ways that researchers should be aware of for manipulating p-values, and how to avoid making these (sometimes inadvertent) errors. Dr. Pohlig is the Biostatistician for […]

The Human Gut Microbiome and Health: Insights from System-Level Models

There has been a revolution in medical thinking based on the large number of diseases that have been associated with alterations in the composition of the human microbiome. Examples include autism, allergies, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases, and neurological disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). A major research challenge […]