Not one but two School of Medicine discoveries have been selected to compete for the title of 2023's biggest scientific advancement in the annual STAT Madness tournament.
STAT Madness is a bracket-style tournament, a la the NCAA basketball tournament, held each year by the prominent health news site STAT. The publication's editors pick 64 of the most exciting and innovative findings of the year and then you, dear readers, decide the winner in an online vote.
Our two contenders this year come from the labs of Jeffrey Wilson, MD, PhD, and Alban Gaultier, PhD, and both build on fascinating lines of research they've had under way for some time.
Dr. Wilson and his team found that sensitivity to common food allergens such as dairy and peanuts could be a significant and previously unknown cause of heart disease even in people without obvious food allergies. That risk could equal or exceed the risk posed by smoking.
Professor Gaultier, meanwhile, revealed how the bacterium Lactobacillus, commonly found in fermented foods and yogurt, may help prevent depression and anxiety. His findings open the door to new ways to treat those and other mental-health conditions.
You can vote in STAT Madness once each day, and I hope you will!