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The Making of Medicine

UVA has 3 Big Contenders for Biomedical Advance of the Year!

We have not one, not two, but three -- yes, three! -- contenders for 2022's biggest biomedical advance in the annual STAT Madness competition this year, I am happy to report. It's the fifth year in a row a discovery of ours has been deemed to be among the year's most important.

STAT Madness is an annual basketball-style elimination tournament conducted by the STAT health news site to identify the year's biggest discovery. Public voting determines the winner, and you can do so here. You can vote once a day for all three our entries, and I encourage you to do so. They're all pretty great, if I do say so myself.

Our three contenders:

John Lukens, PhD, and his team discovered a molecule in the brain responsible for the immune system’s responses to Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis. This finding could allow doctors to supercharge the body’s ability to fight those and other devasting neurological diseases

Melanie Rutkowski, PhD, and her collaborators found that an unhealthy gut triggers changes in breast tissue that helps breast cancer metastasize (spread to other parts of the body). The finding could help scientists develop ways to keep the cancer from spreading.

Kenneth Walsh, PhD, and his team discovered that the loss of the male sex chromosome as many men age causes the heart muscle to scar and can lead to deadly heart failure. The finding may help explain why men die, on average, several years younger than women. The discovery suggests that men who suffer Y chromosome loss – approximately 40% of 70-year-olds – may benefit from an existing drug that targets tissue scarring.

Told you they were cool, didn't I? Please consider voting for them each day. To make it easy, just bookmark the bracket you find right here. Let's go all the way, UVA!

Tags: STAT Madness

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