Catarino told KTLA 5 anchors Jessica Holmes, Frank Buckley and Henry DiCarlo that without CPR, 32-year-old G’bari Gilliam “wouldn’t be sitting here with us today.”

Gilliam was unaware he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic heart condition that causes the heart muscle to become abnormally thick and require more oxygen during exertion.

“What happened to G’bari was that he exerted himself too much, the heart didn’t have enough oxygen and he went into cardiac arrest,” Catarino told Holmes.

After Gilliam arrived at Cedars-Sinai, he went into cardiac arrest again and was placed on artificial heart-and-lung support called ECMO. Catarino explained that ECMO supported Gilliam’s organs while his care team determined whether his heart could recover. Because it could not, Gilliam eventually received a heart transplant.

Catarino encouraged everyone to learn CPR.

“It’s a short, practical skill that anybody can learn,” he told Buckley. “You're most likely to need it for one of your loved ones, because most cardiac arrests happen in the home, and you will double or triple the chances of survival.”

If someone collapses, appears unresponsive and is not breathing normally, Catarino said, call 911 and begin CPR immediately. Chest compressions should be performed at a rate of 100 to 120 beats per minute. If an automated external defibrillator (AED) is available, it can be used to restore a normal heart rhythm with a shock. 

Now six months into his recovery, Gilliam expressed gratitude “for the people that helped save my life in the moment, the dancers that were there, the bystanders that helped out, the people that were in the ambulance, and the team at Cedars-Sinai that literally saved my life.”

Watch the complete segment from KTLA 5.

Cedars-Sinai in the News

Cedars-Sinai CEO Urges Teamwork | Los Angeles Business Journal
Peter L. Slavin, MD

Doctor Discusses Pope Leo XIV Lung Cancer Diagnosis | CBS 2
Karen Reckamp, MD

Pope Leo XIV Diagnosed With Lung Cancer | Fox 11
Sara Ghandehari, MD

Race To Treat Rare Genetic Disease | CBS 2
Michelle Allen-Sharpley, MD, PhD

Even if Dairy Bothers You, Ice Cream Might Not Be Off the Table | The Wall Street Journal
Mark Pimentel, MD

Could GLP-1 Drugs Be Anti-Aging Medications? | CNN
James Kirkland, MD, PhD

Beyond The Pitt: Meet the Women Leading Emergency Medicine at Cedars-Sinai | Forbes
Vanessa Beckett, MD, and Sam Torbati, MD

Oral Icotrokinra Sustains UC Response Through 76 Weeks in ANTHEM-UC LTE | HCP Live 
Maria Abreu, MD

Cardiologists Get Real About How They Actually Take Care of Their Hearts | MSN
Noel Bairey Merz, MD

How To Chew Your Food for Better Digestion, According to Doctors | Verywell Health
Rashmi Advani, MD

What Is an Ozempic Plateau, and How Do You Overcome It? | Everyday Health
Amanda Velazquez, MD

Why You Can’t Sleep: A Sleep Specialist on What Chronic Insomnia Really Is and the Treatment That Works Better Than Pills | Yahoo! Creators 
Ashkan Lee Naraghi, MD

Faculty Publications

Biomedical Sciences

Bending the Curve: Revealing Population Risk With Quantitative Atherosclerotic Plaque. Shaw, Leslee J., Ron Blankstein, Damini Dey, and Thomias H. Marwick. JACC. Cardiovascular Imaging, October, S1936-878X(26)00490-0.

Multiple Motor Proteins Regulate TDP-43 Anterograde Axonal Transport. Feole, Monica, Victorio M. Pozo Devoto, Neda Dragišić, Maria Čarna, Katja Klosterman, Clara Limbaek-Stokin, Giancarlo Forte, Kenneth L. Moya, Richard A. Smith, Clive N. Svendsen, and Gorazd B. Stokin. Acta Neuropathologica 152 (1): 47.

Cardiac Surgery

Ex Vivo Therapeutics in Cardiac Xenotransplantation: A Scoping Review. Giao, Duc M., Pedro A. Catarino, Dominic Emerson, Kambiz Ghafourian, Jon Kobashigawa, Fardad Esmailian, Joanna Chikwe, and Laura DiChiacchio. Xenotransplantation 33 (5): e70173.

The Impact of Composite Allocation Score Implementation on Waitlist Outcomes and Post-Transplant Survival in Lung Re-Transplantation. Krishna, Vikram, Allen A. Razavi, Brian Lim, Zachary Brennan, Qiudong Chen, Laura Dichiacchio, Dominick Megna, Joanna Chikwe, Michael E. Bowdish, and Pedro Catarino. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, October, S0003-4975(26)01013-1.

Cardiology

A Multiview Video-Text Model Detects Obstructive Coronary Stenosis and Predicts 1-Year Cardiovascular Events From Angiography. Harrabi, Sarra, Yichen Wu, Omar Majwal, Gabriel Asslo, George Azar, Geoffrey H. Tison, Minhaj Ansari, Milos Vukadinovic, David Ouyang, Joshua P. Barrios, Jacques Delfrate, and Robert Avram. Nature Cardiovascular Research, October.

Associations of Mild or Trace Valvular Abnormalities With Cardiac Remodeling in Older Adults: The ARIC Study. Gao, Yumin, Jonathan Rubin, Susan Cheng, Lena Mathews, Ajay J. Kirtane, Ron C. Hoogeveen, Christie M. Ballantyne, Elizabeth Selvin, Martin B. Leon, Josef Coresh, Scott D. Solomon, Amil M. Shah, and Kunihiro Matsushita. Journal of the American Heart Association, October, e049301.

Health Behavior Profiles in Early Pregnancy Are Associated With Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Maternal Blood Pressure 2-7 Years After Delivery. Kozai, Andrea C., Bethany Barone Gibbs, Lisa D. Levine, Abbi D. Lane, Mitali Ray, William Grobman, Philip Greenland, Matthew K. Hoffman, C. Noel Bairey Merz, Phyllis C. Zee, Lisa Mims, Natalie A. Cameron, George Saade, Robert M. Silver, Natalie A. Bello, Eliza C. Miller, Uma M. Reddy, Judith H. Chung, Kara M. Whitaker, and Janet M. Catov. American Journal of Preventive Cardiology 29 (October): 101489.

Modeling Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF) Likelihood Among Women With Suspected Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction (CMD). Allison, Zev, Sachini Ranasinghe, Jenna Maughan, Okezi Obrutu, Galen Cook-Wiens, Ana Iribarren, Alan Kwan, Michael Nelson, Debiao Li, Martha Gulati, C. Noel Bairey Merz, and Janet Wei. American Heart Journal Plus: Cardiology Research and Practice 71 (November): 100925.

Nutritional Interventions’ Impacts on Human Milk: Three Trials in Low-Resource Settings. Dailey-Chwalibóg, Trenton, Andrew Mertens, Kelsey Fehr, Chi-Hung Shu, April Jauhal, Melissa B. Manus, Lishi Deng, Laeticia Celine Toe, Ameer Muhammed, Aneela Pasha, Yasir Shafiq, Naveed Iqbal, Waqasuddin Khan, Muhammad Imran Nisar, Jo-Anna B. Baxter, Megan R. Beggs, Niveda Sundararaman, Jennifer E. Van Eyk, Lars Bode, Alan Hubbard, Kim A. Lagerborg, Mohit Jain, Daniela Hampel, Setareh Shahab-Ferdows, Lindsay H. Allen, Carl Lachat, Mark D. DeBoer, Fyezah Jehan, Nima Aghaeepour, Liat Shenhav, Joann M. McDermid, and Meghan B. Azad. Science, October.

Shared Patterns of Human Milk Composition Link Mammary Gland Function to Infant Growth. Jauhal, April, Bianca Cordazzo-Vargas, Daniel Sunko, Pratima Niroula, Lishi Deng, Laeticia Celine Toe, Ameer Muhammad, Aneela Pasha, Yasir Shafiq, Naveed Iqbal, Waqasuddin Khan, Andrew Mertens, Kelsey Fehr, Joann M. McDermid, Melissa B. Manus, Chi-Hung Shu, Daniela Hampel, Setareh Shahab-Ferdows, Megan R. Beggs, Kim A. Lagerborg, Mohit Jain, Carl Lachat, Mark D. DeBoer, Jennifer Van Eyk, Natalie Rodriguez, Theo J. Moraes, Padmaja Subbarao, Alan Hubbard, Muhammad Imran Nisar, Lars Bode, Lindsay Allen, Donna Geddes, Michelle Kay McGuire, Nima Aghaeepour, Trenton Dailey-Chwalibóg, Fyezah Jehan, Meghan B. Azad, and Liat Shenhav. Science, October, eaee7240.

The Quo Vadis for COVADIS Diagnostic Criteria. Beltrame, John F., Peter Ong, Colin Berry, Paolo G. Camici, Filippo Crea, Javier Escaned, Juan Carlos Kaski, Carl J. Pepine, Udo Sechtem, Hiroaki Shimokawa, Tim P. van de Hoef, Satoshi Yasuda, Christopher J. Zeitz, C. Noel Bairey Merz, and Coronary Vasomotor Disorders International Study Group (COVADIS). Heart, Lung & Circulation, October, S1443-9506(26)00502-0.

Transseptal Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement for Mitral Annular Calcification: ENCIRCLE MAC Registry 1-Year Outcomes. Guerrero, Mayra E., David V. Daniels, Brian Whisenant, Raj R. Makkar, Pradeep Yadav, Vinod Thourani, Amar Krishnaswamy, Kamran I. Muhammad, Michael Morse, Evelio Rodriguez, Adam B. Greenbaum, Charanjit Rihal, Christine Chung, Alejandro Vasquez, Nicolas van Mieghem, Paul Sorajja, Philip Gideon, Thom G. Dahle, Jason Foerst, J. Bradley Oldemeyer, Neil Fam, Curtiss Stinis, Matthew J. Price, Oluseun Alli, Daniel Pu, Brian P. O’Neill, Dale Murdoch, John Wang, Philipp Blanke, Michael Pham, Federico M. Asch, John Webb, and ENCIRCLE Trial Study Investigators. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, September, S0735-1097(26)07442-5.

Use of Myocardial Perfusion Imaging to Guide Prognosis and Management in Older Adults: Is There an Age Limit? Patel, Krishna K., Robert J. H. Miller, Mark Lemley, Aakash Shanbhag, Giselle Ramirez, Joanna X. Liang, Wanda Acampa, Timothy M. Bateman, Sharmila Dorbala, Andrew J. Einstein, M. Timothy Hauser, Philipp A. Kaufmann, Attila Feher, Edward J. Miller, Terrence D. Ruddy, Tali Sharir, Julian Halcox, Monica Martins, Panithaya Chareonthaitawee, Samuel Wopperer, Thomas L. Rosamond, Rene R. S. Packard, Mouaz Al-Mallah, Isabel Carvajal-Juarez, Erick Alexanderson, Stacey Knight, Ronny R. Buechel, Leandro Slipczuk, Damini Dey, Daniel S. Berman, Marcelo Di Carli, and Piotr J. Slomka. Circulation. Cardiovascular Imaging, October, e019932.

Medicine

CEBPB Integrates OSM Signaling and eIF4G2-Mediated Alternative Translation to Configure Enhancer Landscape and Sustain Oncogenic CHI3L1 in Glioblastoma. Liu, Jiyang, Ying Zhang, Xiaoping Yi, Long Xie, Xingze Huang, Zhipeng Zhu, Zhongyuan Zhang, Jing Wang, Suya Zheng, Yongjie Wang, Hangzhe Xu, Yue Yu, Zeming Tan, Tuan Zea Tan, H. Phillip Koeffler, Ye Chen, and Liang Xu. Neuro-Oncology, October, noag246.

Challenges and Opportunities Facing Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa: Towards a Contextually Relevant Research and Practice Agenda. Cooper, Sara, Gill Watermeyer, Dion Levin, Zozibini Mhlaba, Karin Davidson, Charles Bernstein, Dermot P. B. McGOvern, and David Epstein. Journal of Crohn’s & Colitis 20 (10): jjag135.

Characterisation of a Portuguese Origin Founder Missense Variant in MSH6. Melvill, Kenzie, Leora Witkowski, Céline Domecq, Nancy Hamel, Justin Mayers, Sofia Maia, Manuel R. Teixeira, Carla Pinto, Inês Francisco, Cristina Albuquerque, Léa Guerrini-Rousseau, Olivia C. Tan, Kevin McDonnell, Alexandra Capasso, George Chong, Victoria Marcus, and William D. Foulkes. European Journal of Human Genetics: EJHG, October.

Differential Impact of Tumor-Derived ESR1 Mutations on Elacestrant Benefit in Metastatic Breast Cancer. Sledge, George W., Joanne Xiu, Suzanne Fuqua, Jennifer R. Ribeiro, Heather McArthur, Matthew J. Oberley, Milan Radovich, David Spetzler, and Virginia Kaklamani. Clinical Cancer Research, October.

Etrasimod Reduces Circulating and Mucosal Inflammatory Lymphocyte Populations and Alters Innate Immune and Non-Immune Cell Signatures in Intestinal Mucosa: ELEVATE UC Phase 3 Clinical Data. Siegmund, Britta, Catherine M. Crosby, Rathi D. Ryan, Justin Smith, Maria T. Abreu, Séverine Vermeire, Iris Dotan, Keren M. Rabinowitz, H. Kiyomi Komori, Martina Goetsch, Karolina Wosik, John C. Woolcott, and Silvio Danese. Journal of Crohn’s & Colitis 20 (10): jjag159.

Exploration of the Genetic Architecture of ANCA-Associated Vasculitis. Byun, Jinyoung, Vikram R. Shaw, Catherine Zhu, Younghun Han, Ryan Sun, Zhihui Zhang, Xiangjun Xiao, Benjamin D. Pinder, Jinyi Zhang, Yohannes Tadesse, Thomas R. Riley, Sharon Chung, David Cuthbertson, Paul F. Dellaripa, Anisha B. Dua, Ora Gewurz-Singer, Lindsy J. Forbess, Carol A. Langford, Nader Khalidi, Curry Koening, Alfred D. Mahr, Carol McAlear, Paul A. Monach, Larry Moreland, Christian Pagnoux, E. Philip Seo, Ulrich Specks, Robert F. Spiera, Antoine Sreih, Jason M. Springer, E. William St Clair, Kenneth J. Warrington, Steven R. Ytterberg, Jeffrey C. Edberg, Peter C. Grayson, David Jayne, Rona Smith, Michael Walsh, Peter A. Merkel, Katherine A. Siminovitch, Christopher I. Amos, and Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium. EBioMedicine 133 (October): 106502.

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-Induced Cardiovascular Disease: The Role of Accelerated Senescence in Vascular Dysfunction. Casso-Chapa, Bernardo, Angelica Paniagua-Bojorges, Nicolas L. Palaskas, Kevin T. Nead, Venkata S. K. Samanthapudi, Jonghae Lee, Gilbert Mejia, Oanh Hoang, Jung Hyun Kim, Steven H. Lin, Anita Deswal, Joerg Herrmann, Guangyu Wang, James L. Kirkland, Sunil Krishnan, Ying H. Shen, Syed Wamique Yusuf, Cezar A. Iliescu, Abhishek Jain, Norma Alicia Vazquez González, Keila Carolina Ostos Mendoza, Nordin M. J. Hanssen, Menno P. J. de Winther, Laurent Yvan-Charvet, Roza I. Nurieva, Keri Schadler, Efstratios Koutroumpakis, John P. Cooke, Sivareddy Kotla, Nhat-Tu Le, and Jun-Ichi Abe. Antioxidants & Redox Signaling 45 (16–18): 821–39.

Paracrine Bone-Derived Senescent Secretome Is Associated With Spatially Patterned ECM Remodeling and Altered Biomechanics in Human Brain Organoids. Kim, Chanul, Luke Daniel Ofria, Hossein Shaygani, Anannya Kshirsagar, Sai Kulkarni, Alan Y. Liu, James L. Kirkland, Annie Kathuria, and Maryam Tilton. Stem Cells, October, sxag057.

Phase 2 Trial of Icotrokinra for Patients With Ulcerative Colitis. Abreu, Maria T., Britta Siegmund, Lindsey Surace, Ngozi Erondu, Minhu Chen, Karen Chachu, Edouard Louis, Katsuyoshi Matsuoka, Jimmy Limdi, Edmund Arthur, Nicole Houck, Colleen Marano, Marion L. Vetter, Bin Zou, Joyce Zhan, Mary Ellen Frustaci, Arun K. Kannan, Grazyna Rydzewska, Edward V. Loftus, Vipul Jairath, and ANTHEM-UC Study Group. The New England Journal of Medicine 395 (15): 1495–1504.

Second- and Third-Line Outcomes After Selective RET Inhibitor Failure in RET Fusion-Positive Metastatic Lung Cancer: A Real-World Analysis From the RET-MAP Registry. Miliziano, Daniela, Julia K. Rotow, Meghanne Lomibao, Arianna Marinello, Helena Bote-de Cabo, Fabrizio Citarella, Lorenza Landi, Massimiliano Cani, Mariana Brandão, Jamie Feng, Sophie Cousin, Andrea De Giglio, Marco Tagliamento, Philippe Rochigneux, Florian Guisier, Lea Ruge, Annarita Avanzo, Francesca Colamartini, Francesco Cortiula, Vladmir Cordeiro de Lima, Antonio Calles, Patricia Iranzo, Barliz Waissengrin, Clarisse Audigier-Valette, Frank Aboubakar, Noemie Simon-Tillaux, Vinicius Ernani, Jordi Remon, Alessio Cortellini, David Planchard, Biagio Ricciuti, Benjamin Besse, Petros Christopoulos, Alexander Drilon, and Mihaela Aldea. Clinical Cancer Research, October.

Self-Reported Obesity Medicine Competence, Knowledge, and Attitudes Among US Medical Students: An Eight-School Pre- vs. Post-Intervention Study. Pasarica, Magdalena, Robert F. Kushner, Angelina V. Leary, Amber Mirando, Ricardo Correa, Monica Agarwal, Eduardo Grunvald, Sadie Trammell Velasquez, Virginia Uhley, Jonathan Q. Purnell, Dee-Ann Carpenter, Amanda Velazquez, Gabriel Smolarz, FORWARDQI group, Colleen Croniger, Mark S. Johnson, Julie Loza, Andrew Mock, and Kim Pfotenhauer. Journal of General Internal Medicine, October.

Severity-Associated Endothelial Dysfunction in Post-COVID-19 Patients: Flow-Mediated Dilation and Vasoactive Biomarkers. Palii, Svitlana M., Boryslav Selskyy, Svyatoslav Kostiv, Anastasia Voitovych, Kateryna Kozak, Oksana Shevchuk, Mykhaylo Korda, and Sandor G. Vari. Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis, October.

Neurology

Activating Systemic Inflammation With Lipopolysaccharide Drives Microglia-Mediated Degradation of Perineuronal Nets After Cervical Spinal Cord Injury in Female Rats. Cucarian, Jaison, Ram Rakheja, Kale R. Scatterty, Edward Armstrong, Sydney Storvold, Antoinette T. Nguyen, Keith Fenrich, Joshua E. Burda, Steve Lacroix, and Karim Fouad. Experimental Neurology, October, 116068.

Combining the Central Vein Sign and Paramagnetic Rim Lesions in the Evaluation of Multiple Sclerosis Misdiagnosis. Lee, Joshua D., Brian Renner, Elaina Luskin, Brooke L. Guerrero, Andrew J. Solomon, Nancy L. Sicotte, Pascal Sati, and Marwa Kaisey. Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders 115 (October): 107960.

Financial Burden, Non-Medical Drivers of Health, and Early Caregiving Role Formation After Stroke: A Scoping Review. Okpala, Munachi, Mariel Flake-Rojas, Edwin Akomaning, Shelby Woodall, Alexis Simpkins, Okechukwu Chukwuekezie, Layomi Oladunjoye, and Anjail Z. Sharrief. Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, October, 1–11.

Neurosurgery

Advanced Practice Providers in Spinal CSF Leak Programs: A Multi-Institutional Study of Current Roles and Perceived Impact on Patient Care. Madhavan, Ajay A., Michelle L. Kodet, Peter G. Kranz, Timothy J. Amrhein, Mark D. Mamlouk, Andrew Callen, Gayle Salama, J. Levi Chazen, Vinil Shah, Wouter I. Schievink, Rachelle Tache, Ian T. Mark, Anousheh Sayah, Miriam E. Peckam, Lubdha Shah, Amish H. Doshi, Ian Carroll, and E. Hope Weant. AJNR. American Journal of Neuroradiology, October, ajnr.A9679.

Safety and Efficacy of Repeat Surgery for Recurrent Craniopharyngiomas: A RAPID Consortium Collaboration. Shih, Ryan M., Maya Harary, Marvin Bergsneider, Marilene Wang, Anthony P. Heaney, Kyle C. Wu, Daniel M. Prevedello, James J. Evans, Michael R. Chicoine, Albert H. Kim, Julie M. Silverstein, Michael Karsy, Jamie J. Van Gompel, Sandhya Palit, Donato R. Pacione, Paul Gardner, Stephanie Cheok, Nathan Zwagerman, Varun R. Kshettry, Robert C. Rennert, William T. Couldwell, Garni Barkhoudarian, Juan C. Fernandez-Miranda, Gabriel Zada, Carolina G. Benjamin, Michael P. Catalino, Adam Mamelak, Daniel Gomez, Georgios Zenonos, Michelle Magaña Mendoza, Andrew S. Little, and Won Kim. Neurosurgery, October.

OBGYN

Optimizing Longitudinal Follow-up After Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy: A Quality Improvement Initiative. Fabricant, Sonya, Matthew Cervantes, Glenda Marshall, Ojiugo Onwumere, Natalie A. Bello, Emily Seet, Mariam Naqvi, and Sarah Kilpatrick. Pregnancy 2 (6): e70480.

Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine

Circulating Oligodendrocyte-Derived Extracellular Vesicle Surface Markers in Athletes Exposed to Repetitive Head Impacts: An Exploratory Study. Mitsuhashi, Masato, Haiping Sun, Li Xing, Akihiro Hirata, Yuko Oguma, Hiroyuki Ishida, Keisuke Kawata, Viviana Jimenez, and Vernon B. Williams. Frontiers in Neurology 17: 1915481.

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

From ISO 9001:2015 to ISO 20387:2018: A Proposed Implementation Roadmap for Biobanks. Zuniga, Michael, Denis Marino, Gabriele Hartl, Berthold Huppertz, Zisis Kozlakidis, and Karine Sargsyan. Frontiers in Genetics 17: 1953941.

Modern Approaches to Cancer Biobanking: Quality Assurance, Methodological Innovation, Equity, and Collaborative Infrastructure. Michalska-Falkowska, Anna, Denis Marino, and Karine Sargsyan. Biopreservation and Biobanking, October, 19475535261497228.

Quinolinic Acid Contributes to Maladaptive Kidney Injury and Acute Kidney Injury-to-Chronic Kidney Disease Transition. Saade, Marie Christelle, Afaf Saliba, Amanda J. Clark, Subrata Debnath, Shiqi Zhang, Nagarjunachary Ragi, Valerie Etzrodt, Rahil Al-Humaidi, Kyle Vu, Yu Tao, Esmeralda Trevino, Alejandra L. Lorenzen, Guanshi Zhang, Anders H. Berg, Jason C. O’Connor, Samir M. Parikh, and Kumar Sharma. Science Translational Medicine 18 (871): eaec9689.

Pediatrics

Paediatric Therapeutic Development Workshop on Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumours. Baxter, Joseph S., Jan J. Molenaar, Arushi Agrawal, Ana Teresa Amaral, Patricia Blanc, Nikki Bowdidge, Richard Bowdidge, Bernadette Brennan, Michela Casanova, David da Silva Moura, Sam Daems, Laura Danielson, Cancer Grand Challenge Protect team, et al. British Journal of Cancer, October.

Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

Social Drivers of Health and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Stafford, Cleo, Arpit Arora, Edmond Benedetti, Priya Chandan, Prateek Grover, Serena Satcher, Scott Laker, Devon McFedries, and Melanie Dolak. PM & R: The Journal of Injury, Function, and Rehabilitation, October.

Radiation Oncology

A Syngeneic Murine Glioma Model Recapitulates Key Molecular, Immunologic, and Functional Features of Human Glioblastoma to Enable Therapeutic Development. Grausam, Katie B., Marissa S. Pioso, Julio C. Sanchez, Marissa Li, David Rincon Fernandez Pacheco, Emily A. Hatanaka, Gilbert Herrera, Thomas J. Lai, Eddie Lu, Paul W. Linesch, Naomi Kobritz, Trinh L. Phan, Sophie Ashley, Ariel A. Andrade, Lauren Markus, Jingwen Yao, Xuemo Fan, Bohyeon Yu, Aaron A. Diaz, Linda M. Liau, Moise Danielpour, David A. Nathanson, Robert M. Prins, Joshua J. Breunig, and Stephen L. Shiao. Cancer Research, October.

Surgery

Clinical Practice Guideline: Tinnitus Update. Adams, Meredith E., John D. Cramer, David E. Tunkel, Victoria S. Lee, James A. Bourgeois, Adrien A. Eshraghi, Marc A. Fagelson, Kayla B. White, Amy F. Juliano, Helen Kim, Brianna Kuzbyt, Patrick A. Lynch, Mia Miller, Kathryn Y. Noonan, Pamela C. Roehm, Scott R. Schaffer, LaGuinn P. Sherlock, Kristen K. Steenerson, Margaret Wallhagen, Tara L. Zaugg, and Zarah Akrami. Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery, 175 Suppl 1 (October): S1–62.

Executive Summary of the Clinical Practice Guideline on Tinnitus Update. Adams, Meredith E., John D. Cramer, David E. Tunkel, Victoria S. Lee, James A. Bourgeois, Adrien A. Eshraghi, Marc A. Fagelson, Kayla B. White, Amy F. Juliano, Helen Kim, Brianna Kuzbyt, Patrick A. Lynch, Mia Miller, Kathryn Y. Noonan, Pamela C. Roehm, Scott R. Schaffer, LaGuinn P. Sherlock, Kristen K. Steenerson, Margaret Wallhagen, Tara L. Zaugg, and Zarah Akrami. Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery, 175 (4): 739–56.

Has the Use of Enhanced Recovery Protocols in IBD Surgery Increased Postoperative Bleeding Complications? Aviran, Eyal, Dan Assaf, Karen Zaghiyan, and Phillip Fleshner. American Journal of Surgery 262 (October): 117281.

Orbital Abscess Complicating Allergic Fungal Rhinosinusitis Due to Streptococcus Halichoeri: A Rare Zoonotic Sinonasal Infection. Bashiri, Sowgand, Shazia Lutfeali, Jonathan Grein, Dennis M. Tang, and Arthur W. Wu. The Annals of Otology, Rhinology, and Laryngology, October, 34894261497528.

Pushing the Envelope With a Single Cut. Brownlee, Andrew R., and Harmik J. Soukiasian. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, October, S0003-4975(26)01030-1.

Vitamin D Deficiency, Supplementation, and Aging-Related Morbidity and Mortality Across Two Longitudinal Population Cohorts. Israel, Ariel, Abraham Weizman, Sarah Israel, Shai Ashkenazi, Eytan Ruppin, Eli Magen, Eugene Merzon, and Shlomo Vinker. Aging Cell 25 (10): e70752.

Urology

Cribriform and Intraductal Carcinoma in Prostate Cancer - Implications for Risk Stratification and Therapeutic Decision-Making. Bernardino, Rui M., João Lobo, Zeyad Schwen, Theodorus van der Kwast, Adam B. Weiner, Robert E. Reiter, Jane K. Nguyen, Estevão Lima, Robert Stein, Nicolas Soputro, Rashed Ghandour, Alp Tuna Beksac, Karim Daher, Ricardo Leão, Mark L. Gonzalgo, Roderick van den Bergh, Juan Garisto, Giancarlo Marra, Jennifer Le Guévelou Kammerer, Sara M. Falzarano, Cristina Magi-Galuzzi, Cosimo De Nunzio, Susan Prendeville, Neil Fleshner, Jihad Kaouk, and Riccardo Autorino. Nature Reviews. Urology, October.

Real-World Overall Survival With Abiraterone Acetate and Enzalutamide in Patients With Chemotherapy-Naïve Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer From the Flatiron Electronic Health Records Database. George, Daniel J., Jasmina I. Ivanova, Maëlys Touya, Betty Thompson, Jonathan Assayag, Benjamin Li, Nikolaos Kountouris, Gordon Siu, and Stephen J. Freedland. Cancer Medicine 15 (10): e72356.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

And more experiments will soon be on the way into low-Earth orbit: NASA recently awarded Cedars-Sinai a $10 million NASA In Space Production Applications (InSPA) grant that will fund projects on six additional missions over the next four years. The research will be conducted in continued partnership with Axiom Space and BioServe Space Technologies.

On this month’s flight, one experiment, called Stellar Stem Cells Mission 3, will focus on the manufacturing of heart and brain organoids. These tiny, three-dimensional groups of cells are created from induced pluripotent stem cells, which have been reprogrammed so that they can be turned into virtually any cell type. The organoids mimic some of the structure and function of actual organs.

The second experiment will explore the creation of cardiac spheroids, simpler three-dimensional clusters of heart cells that can be used in similar ways but are faster and easier to create.

“We are continuing to explore whether creating organoids and spheroids in the microgravity environment of space has advantages over creating them on Earth,” said Arun Sharma, PhD, director of the Center for Space Medicine Research and the Ben Winters Chair in Regenerative Medicine at Cedars-Sinai. “This could translate into advantages for science—and patients—on Earth.”   

Stellar Stem Cells is an extension of a previous experiment that flew in 2025.

“We saw such beautiful 3D formation of organoids on that mission that NASA extended our InSPA grant to cover this extra flight,” said Clive Svendsen, PhD, executive director of the Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute and, like Sharma, a co-investigator on the grant. “This is a larger-scale mission that allows us to do more analysis of the organoids in flight and after we bring them back to Earth.”

To create the cardiac spheroids, investigators bring together heart muscle cells and cells that line the heart’s blood vessels.

“On Earth, we use a centrifuge to force them to come together. In space, they come together on their own because the cells are able to float and they are attracted to each other,” Sharma said.

Investigators hope to determine whether they can leverage microgravity of space to produce large quantities of the spheroids. The investigators will also be examining blood vessel formation in the spheroids, which has been achieved to a limited extent on Earth but could be improved in microgravity.

The project is funded through the International Space Station National Laboratory Igniting Innovation award, designed to fund basic science.

Sharma Lab members Maedeh Mozneb, PhD, Madelyn Arzt, and Jemima Moses are traveling to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to prepare the science for this launch. But even as these projects lift off, the Sharma and Svendsen labs will begin work on projects funded by the newly announced NASA grant.

In these missions to the International Space Station, investigators will attempt to prove that human induced pluripotent stem cells and organoids derived from those cells can be manufactured in large-scale batches, using established best manufacturing practices. The missions will focus on creation of disease models and therapies using heart, brain and pancreatic cells and organoids.

“Our experiments on Earth have shown us that there are many, many applications for these cells and the organoids we create with them,” Svendsen said. “If we can leverage the microgravity of space to scale up our production, there is so much more that we can achieve.”

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

The medication, icotrokinra, blocks the effects of IL-23, an immune system protein that helps drive damaging inflammation in the intestinal lining. Unlike many advanced therapies for ulcerative colitis that are given by injection or infusion, icotrokinra is taken as a pill.

An estimated 3.1 million U.S. adults have been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The chronic, debilitating condition causes inflammation and ulcers in the lining of the large intestine, leading to frequent bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain, malnutrition, anemia and joint pain.

Conducted in 21 countries, the ANTHEM-UC Phase II-B clinical trial randomly assigned participants to receive icotrokinra or a placebo. Almost half of the patients in the study had been on advanced therapies such as biologics, while the rest were on conventional anti-inflammatory medications.

“Icotrokinra was effective even in hard-to-treat patients who had failed previous drug regimens,” said Maria T. Abreu, MD, executive director of the F. Widjaja Inflammatory Bowel Disease Institute and corresponding author of the study. “The fact that the medicine can be taken orally will help us improve the range of options we have for treating patients.”

Earlier this year, the FDA approved icotrokinra for the treatment of plaque psoriasis.

“Patients with ulcerative colitis often need to try several treatments before finding one that controls their disease,” said Gil Melmed, MD, director of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Research at Cedars-Sinai. “It’s not unusual for medications that work against one immune-related condition to also benefit patients with another. We already know that targeting the IL-23 pathway can be effective in both psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease.”

Icotrokinra demonstrated benefits at the study’s primary 12-week assessment, with patients maintaining remission through 28 weeks of treatment.

“The drug’s favorable safety profile and precise mechanism of action could make this an important addition to our treatment options for ulcerative colitis, particularly earlier in the disease,” Abreu said. “Hopefully we can study it for Crohn’s disease as well.”

Additional authors include: Britta Siegmund, MD; Lindsey Surace, MD; Ngozi Erondu, MD, PhD; Minhu Chen, MD, PhD; Karen Chachu, MD, PhD; Edouard Louis, MD, PhD; Katsuyoshi Matsuoka, MD, PhD; Jimmy Limdi, MD; Edmund Arthur, PharmD; Nicole Houck, BS; Colleen Marano, PhD; Marion L. Vetter, MD; Bin Zou, MD; Joyce Zhan, PhD; Mary Ellen Frustaci, MAS; Arun K. Kannan, PhD; Grazyna Rydzewska, MD, PhD; Edward V. Loftus Jr., MD; and Vipul Jairath, MBChB, DPhil.

Funding: The study was supported by Johnson & Johnson.

Disclosures: Maria T. Abreu, MD, reports serving as a consultant or advisory board member for AbbVie, Inc., Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Pfizer Pharmaceutical, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and UCB Pharma.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

“Our findings provide a strong mechanistic rationale for studying GLP-1 medicines as potential treatments for heart failure,” said David Lefer, PhD, director of Translational Research in the Department of Cardiac Surgery in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai and co-senior author of the study.

The study, published in the European Heart Journal, investigated the drugs’ effects on heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. The incurable disorder, in which the heart pumps out blood normally but is too stiff to fill properly, accounts for more than half of the roughly 6.7 million heart failure cases in the U.S. each year, according to the American College of Cardiology.

Investigators administered low doses of semaglutide, a GLP-1 drug, to laboratory rats and minipigs with a condition that mimics a subtype of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction that is associated with obesity. They found that while the drug didn’t reduce overall body weight, it significantly reduced the heart’s stiffness. The drug also reduced heart enlargement and tissue scarring. The researchers were encouraged to observe that the drug also cleared damaging fat around the heart and liver.

“This opens the door to potentially prescribing GLP-1s at low doses to achieve major cardiovascular protection while minimizing common side effects,” said Traci Goodchild, PhD, professor of Cardiac Surgery in the Smidt Heart Institute and co-senior author of the study.

The authors emphasized that the study’s findings do not diminish the well-established benefits of weight loss for the heart. Instead, the results indicate that GLP-1 therapy may provide additional, direct cardiovascular benefits independent of weight loss.

“These data suggest that low-dose semaglutide has powerful protective effects on the heart independent of its impact on weight loss,” said Mahmoud Elbatreek, PhD, a project scientist in the Department of Cardiac Surgery in the Smidt Heart Institute and lead author of the study.

Additional Cedars-Sinai authors include Zhen Li, Xiaoman Yu, Miguel Huerta, Xinheng Zhang, Hsin-Jung R. Yang and Michael E. Bowdish.

Additional authors include Natalie D. Gehred, Tatiana Gromova, Jingshu Chen, Naoto Muraoka, Martin Borch Jensen, Vinay Kartha, Chris Carrico, Timothy D. Allerton, Sanjiv J. Shah, Kathleen C. Woulfe, Timothy A. McKinsey, Edwin Yoo, David J. Polhemus and Thomas M. Vondriska.

Funding: This study was supported by NIH HL181016 (D.J.L.), NIH HL105699 (T.M.V.), NIH HL174996 (T.M.V. and D.J.L.), NIH HL159428 (T.T.G.). D.J.L. was supported by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM, PDEV-19141). N.D.G. was supported by the American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship PRE1026591. T.A.M. was supported by the National Institutes of Health grants R01HL171711 and HL181226 and an American Heart Association Collaborative Sciences Award (24CSA1255857). H.-J.R.Y. was supported by National Institutes of Health grants 1R01HL165211 and1R01HL181091. D.J.P. was supported by a (NIH) Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Institutional Training Grant (5T32HL007227).

Disclosure of interest: J.C., N.M., M.B.J., V.K., and C.C. work for Gordian Biotechnology. S.J.S. is a consultant for Abbott, Alleviant, Amgen, Aria CV, AstraZeneca, Axon Therapies, Bayer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Boston Scientific, Bristol Myers Squibb, Corvia, Cyclerion, Cytokinetics, Edwards Lifesciences, Eidos, Eli Lilly, Imara, Impulse Dynamics, Intellia, Ionis, Merck, MyoKardia, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Regeneron, Rivus, Shifamed, Tenax, Tenaya, and Ultromics. T.A.M. is a co- founder of Myracle Therapeutics, is on the scientific advisory boards of Eikonizo Therapeutics and Revier Therapeutics and is a consultant for Augustine Therapeutics. All other authors declare no disclosure of interest for this contribution.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Ahead of accepting the honor, Wyle shared his connection to Cedars-Sinai. “As an Angeleno, I’ve got a lot of ties to Cedars-Sinai, my first child was born there,” he said. “A lot of our background nurses and experts come from the Cedars staff, so we owe them a debt of gratitude that we're just paying back a small percentage of tonight, by trying to raise money.”

The Schwartzberg family received the Philanthropic Leadership Award in recognition of their decades of meaningful service, mentorship and transformative support of Cedars-Sinai’s mission and the wellbeing of the broader Los Angeles community.

Jaime Schwartzberg said Cedars-Sinai has played an instrumental role in her family’s health. “Andrew and I are incredibly honored to receive the Philanthropic Leadership Award from an institution that has meant so much to our family,” she shared. “Our relationship with Cedars began at one of the most frightening times in our lives, when our youngest daughter, Kate, had serious medical complications and ended up at Cedars in an induced coma. When you're a parent in that situation your entire world becomes very small. We will never forget the extraordinary doctors and nurses at Cedars-Sinai, who cared for Kate and our family during that time.”

Attendees raised more than $3.1 million to support the Board of Governors Innovation to Impact campaign, a $60 million fundraising initiative focused on advancing early-stage research across five critical areas: children’s health, cancer, neurosciences, autoimmune diseases and metabolic diseases, and aging. Scientific discoveries in single-cell technology are central to the initiative, empowering investigators to study diseased cells at the individual level to uncover root causes of complex medical conditions and develop new care options for patients.

“With deep appreciation, I recognize the Board of Governors for extraordinary generosity and commitment to advancing discovery,” said Peter L. Slavin, MD, president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai and the David and Meredith Kaplan Presidential Chair. “The Board of Governors’ work empowers Cedars-Sinai investigators to pursue bold ideas, translate breakthroughs into care and create new hope for patients and families.”

Actress Katherine LaNasa, who also stars in “The Pitt,” presented The Hollywood Leadership Award to Wyle, Wells and Gemmill. The award recognized the series’ authentic portrayal of life in the emergency department and its commitment to depicting the realities of emergency medicine with accuracy and heart.

“Fate and HBO brought these remarkable men together to bring ‘The Pitt’ into being,” LaNasa said. “John creates a culture of respect in which artists can do their best work. Scott protects the show’s vision, truth and authenticity, and Noah sets the standard for our ensemble with his generosity and humility.”

LaNasa also paid tribute to the dedicated healthcare professionals at Cedars-Sinai. “Dana, the character I play, is a love letter to the nurses whose skill, strength and kindness have meant so much in my own life,” she added. “Dr. Sam Torbati, chair of Cedars-Sinai’s Department of Emergency Medicine, and the exceptional team of caregivers in the ED meet people in their most difficult moments with a remarkable presence of mind.”

The historic Warner Bros. Studios lot—home to the sound stage where “The Pitt” is filmed—was transformed into an immersive Hollywood experience centered on purpose and celebration. Attendees—including event co-chairs Casey Bloys, chair of the Board of Governors and co-chair and chief creative officer of Skydance Direct to Consumer, and Richard Weitz, co-chair of the WME Group—joined celebrities Fiona Dourif, Grant Show, Scott Budnick and Katie Wincor Hacker on the red carpet.

A live auction featured a luxury vacation to Los Cabos, Mexico, tickets to the global premiere of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” and an exclusive opportunity to travel aboard the Los Angeles Rams’ team charter for an unforgettable, away-game weekend against the San Francisco 49ers. Award-winning musician Andy Grammer closed the evening with a special performance of songs including “Love Showed Up” from his sixth studio album, “Big Stupid Heart,” set for release on October 16 (S-Curve Records/Hollywood Records).

Event sponsors included Warner Bros. Discovery, Warner Bros. Television, HBO Max, City National Bank, Douglas Emmett, Smidt Foundation, Adi & Jerry Greenberg, and acclaimed Beverly Hills steakhouse, Steak 48, which provided a signature pop-up dining experience. In-kind partners included A3 visual, Aero, Amazon Web Services, Chameleon Beverage, EZPZ, FabFitFun, Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane, Los Angeles Rams, Sōgo, Sweetgreen, Levain, Pink’s Hot Dogs and Van Leeuwen.

Media Contact

Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis | cedarssinaigala@ssmandl.com

The therapeutic nanoparticle, called HerDox2.0, was developed by Lali Medina-Kauwe, PhD, professor of Biomedical Sciences at Cedars-Sinai and associate director of Basic Research at Cedars-Sinai Cancer.

“Acceptance into the elite Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory program will provide thorough testing of HerDox2.0 by top experts in the field, moving us toward our goal of submitting it to the Food and Drug Administration as an Investigational New Drug,” Medina-Kauwe said.

The particle works like a cancer “smart bomb,” connecting with a protein called HER3, which helps it cross the protective blood-brain barrier and target and penetrate tumor cells. Medina-Kauwe has been working on the particle for decades and most recently described it in a 2025 paper in Nature Nanotechnology.

“We’ve put a huge amount of preclinical work into this, so I knew the technology was ready. Having the program help move it to the next stage is a huge jump for us,” Medina-Kauwe said. “The program will provide advanced-level analysis that otherwise would have required hiring a third party at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

The Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory analysis will help determine the physical and chemical properties of the formulation, evaluate the particle’s compatibility with and stability in human blood, assess potential immune responses the particle might elicit, and evaluate general toxicity of the formulation. Testing will also evaluate whether the particle can be manufactured consistently and in larger-scale batches for clinical use.

The Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory, operated at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, was founded in 2004 in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to expedite the development of promising nanotech therapies and diagnostics. To date, the laboratory has tested more than 1,000 nanomaterials and worked with more than 250 academic researchers and companies.

“We are happy to welcome Dr. Medina-Kauwe’s team to the NCL’s Assay Cascade Characterization Program,” said Marina Dobrovolskaia, PhD, NCL co-director and director of Operations.

Acceptance into the program required a written application describing key features of the particle, followed by a live presentation to a panel of nanotechnology, pharmacological and pharmaceutical experts regarding the particle’s possible path to clinical use.

“Even as we are offering patients leading-edge therapies, we are looking to new treatments on the horizon,” said Robert Figlin, MD, associate dean of Cedars-Sinai Cancer Care. “Acceptance of HerDox2.0 into this prestigious program highlights the level of translational work Dr. Medina-Kauwe and her team are doing to bring novel therapies to our patients.”

Medina-Kauwe said HerDox2.0 has advantages over currently available therapies, as well as some in development. And while it has potential against several cancer types, breast cancer that has spread to the brain will be the team’s first target if the therapy makes it to clinical trials.

“The best treatment currently available for brain metastatic breast cancer is systemic chemotherapy, which can be hard on the body,” Medina-Kauwe said. “And metastatic tumors are generally resistant to chemotherapy. Our work so far has shown that our particle penetrates tumor cells but spares healthy tissue. We’re focusing on these tumors first because we believe we can make a big difference for patients.”

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Andrew J. Hung, MD, a urologist and minimally invasive robotic surgery specialist in the Cedars-Sinai Department of Urology, will serve as co-director of the new center. Partnering with Hung as co-director is Michael C. Yip, PhD, who joins Cedars-Sinai from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and holds a joint faculty appointment in Urology and Computational Biomedicine.

At UCSD, Yip directed the Advanced Robotics and Controls Laboratory and developed expertise in surgical robotics, machine learning and autonomous systems. Together, Hung and Yip form a surgeon-scientist partnership designed to bridge the gap between the operating room and the engineering lab.

“For too long, the development of surgical robots has happened at a distance from the operating room, but the Center for Autonomous Robotic Surgery changes that,” said Hung, an internationally recognized leader in the integration of AI and machine learning into robotic surgery. “As surgeons, we know what good surgery looks like. By embedding clinical expertise directly into the engineering process, we can build autonomous systems that surgeons will trust and patients will benefit from. This is where the future of robotic surgery will be built.”

Hung’s experience in robotic surgery and research into AI-driven surgical performance metrics will help guide how autonomous systems function in the operating room. Yip’s engineering science innovation will make the vision possible.

Together, they plan to develop the next generation of surgical robots and surgeon-driven autonomous systems designed to augment a surgeon’s clinical judgment rather than replace it, making it possible to treat more complex diseases and reach more patients. The goal is to make surgery safer, more precise and more available.

“Surgical robotics has reached a turning point,” Yip said. “We now have the tools, from machine learning to advanced sensing, to build systems that genuinely understand the surgical environment and be able to autonomously support the surgical team in real time. Co-creating this center at Cedars-Sinai gives me the opportunity to bring the leading edge in surgical robot intelligence into clinical practice, working directly with physicians who are treating patients every day to make sure it is translated responsibly and effectively.”

As the co-directors embark on this new initiative for Cedars-Sinai, Hung and Yip are recruiting clinicians, engineers and data scientists to join the center’s multidisciplinary team building the future of robotic surgery.

“The launch of the Center for Autonomous Robotic Surgery marks a pivotal moment for surgical innovation at Cedars-Sinai,” said Jeffrey A. Golden, MD, executive vice dean of Research and Education and director of the Burns and Allen Research Institute. “Dr. Hung and Dr. Yip represent exactly the kind of partnership we need to move this field forward. Their respective leadership will give the Center for Autonomous Robotic Surgery a rare ability to develop autonomous systems that are both scientifically rigorous and grounded in real patient care.”

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: How AI Is Turning Medical Intuition Into Evidence

Cedars-Sinai in the News

Screen Time and Kids: Setting Healthy Digital Boundaries | WebMD Health Discovered Podcast
Jane Tavyev Asher, MD

Pros and Cons of At-Home A1C Testing for Type 2 Diabetes | Everyday Health
Ruchi Mathur, MD

Burps and Farts: Why the Body Is Such a Gas | Science News Explores
Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS

The Drug Trends Worrying Behavioral Health Leaders Most | Becker’s Behavioral Health
Itai Danovitch, MD

Can the BPC-157 ‘Wolverine’ Peptide Really Help With Pain and Recovery? | Healthline
Bert Mandelbaum, MD

What It’s Like To Care for a Partner With Alzheimer’s | Everyday Health
Zaldy Tan, MD, MPH

Building a Scalable Obesity Care Team: Dr. Amanda Velazquez | American Journal of Managed Care Online
Amanda Velazquez, MD

GLP-1s Could Offer Unexpected Relief From Back and Knee Pain, But Doctors Urge Caution | Morningstar
Andrew Bach, DO

Does Drinking Coffee Prevent Cancer? | Cancer Therapy Advisor
Hyunseok Kim, MD, MPH, PhD

Faculty Publications

Biomedical Sciences

Improved Plaque Composition From Intensive Medical Treatment in Women With Angina and Non-Obstructive Coronary Disease. Lenell, Joel, Guadalupe Flores Tomasino, Donghee Han, Rafal Wolny, Caroline Park, Kajetan Grodecki, Jacek Kwiecinski, Emily Xing, Nipun Manral, Folahanmi Asebiomo, Divyani Goyal, Vinicius F. Calsavara, Osama Dasa, Daniel S. Berman, Piotr J. Slomka, Matthew Budoff, Eileen Handberg, Colin Berry, Carl J. Pepine, Janet Wei, Leslee Shaw, Martha Gulati, Noel Bairey Merz, Balaji Tamarappoo, and Damini Dey. Cardiovascular Research, October, cvag174.

Multiomic Analysis of Malignant Ascites Defines RORC-Expressing Dendritic Cells at Sites of Metastasis. Blum, Steven M., Thomas L. Chan, Neal P. Smith, Courtney Ambrose, Katherine H. Xu, Alice Tirard, Nandini Samanta, Sidney Martin, Roya Best, Elizabeth Tuttle, Christopher T. Stueber, Yuhui Song, Vaishnavi R. Yalala, Haley Barnes, Sean T. Bannon, Chloe Simms, Benjamin Y. Arnold, Mushriq Al-Jazrawe, Joseph J. Zhao, Kamil Slowikowski, Jessica Tantivit, Kasidet Manakongtreecheep, Lukas M. Altenburger, Simon Knott, Matthew R. Strickland, Michael G. Drage, Linda T. Nieman, Jesse S. Boehm, Raghav Sundar, Gary Reynolds, Samuel J. Klempner, and Alexandra-Chloé Villani. Science Immunology 11 (124): eaeb9068.

Non-Rigid Motion-Compensated MR Multitasking for Free-Breathing Low-Dose Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI in the Abdomen. Ma, Lingceng, Chaowei Wu, Lixia Wang, Hsu-Lei Lee, Junzhou Chen, Zheyuan Hu, Yibin Xie, Stephen J. Pandol, Srinivas Gaddam, Debiao Li, and Anthony G. Christodoulou. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, October.

Performance of the PREVENT Heart Failure Risk Score and Correlation With Microvascular Dysfunction and Coronary Plaque Burden in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis. Usiskin, Ilana M., Katherine Zhong, Ying Qi, Lauren Rusnak, Andrew Cagan, Yumeko Kawano, Gregory C. McDermott, Tianrun Cai, Sara M. Sweet, Vidul Panickan, Alexandra A. Josephson, Tianxi Cai, Damini Dey, Marcelo Di Carli, Daniel H. Solomon, Jennifer E. Ho, Brittany Weber, and Katherine P. Liao. American Journal of Preventive Cardiology 30 (December): 101734.

Ras Protein Activator-like 3 Is a Key Ras GTPase-Activating Protein That Protects the Survival and Anti-Tumor Activity of CD8+ T Cells. Peng, Zhenzi, Xinyi Zhou, Alato Okuno, Derick Okwan-Duodu, and Suguru Saito. Frontiers in Immunology 17: 1893111.

Cardiac Surgery

Benign Emergence of Pathological Q Waves Following Minimally Invasive Direct Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: A Case Series. Liu, Hailei, Laura DiChiacchio, Michael Shehata, Ashkan Ehdaie, Tarun Chakravarty, Raj R. Makkar, Mamoo Nakamura, Xunzhang Wang, Sumeet S. Chugh, Joanna Chikwe, and Dominic Emerson. Journal of Surgical Case Reports 2026 (10): rjag873.

Semaglutide, Independent of Weight Loss, Attenuates Cardiac and Hepatic Remodelling in Experimental Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction. Elbatreek, Mahmoud H., Zhen Li, Xiaoman Yu, Natalie D. Gehred, Tatiana Gromova, Jingshu Chen, Miguel Huerta, Naoto Muraoka, Martin Borch Jensen, Vinay Kartha, Chris Carrico, Timothy D. Allerton, Xinheng Zhang, Hsin-Jung R. Yang, Michael E. Bowdish, Sanjiv J. Shah, Kathleen C. Woulfe, Timothy A. McKinsey, Edwin Yoo, David J. Polhemus, Thomas M. Vondriska, David J. Lefer, and Traci T. Goodchild. European Heart Journal, October, ehag732.

The Pros and Cons of National Databases. Kim, Richard W. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, October, S0003-4975(26)01004-0.

Cardiology

Agatston-2.0: A Next-Generation AI-Based Coronary Calcium Quantification Approach to Improve Risk Stratification Among Individuals With Zero Agatston Scores - Part I: An AI-CVD Study Within the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Framingham Heart Study. Naghavi, Morteza, Amir Azimi, Kyle Atlas, Anthony P. Reeves, Chenyu Zhang, Seyed Reza Mirjalili, Mohammadhossein Mozafarybazargany, Amir Ghaffari Jolfayi, Ali Hashemi, Thomas Atlas, Jakob Wasserthal, Rozemarijn Vliegenthart, Claudia I. Henschke, David F. Yankelevitz, Andrea D. Branch, Sion K. Roy, Jamal S. Rana, Zahi A. Fayad, Oren Mechanic, Koen Nieman, Jagat Narula, Roxana Mehran, Prediman K. Shah, John A. Rumberger, Kim A. Williams Sr, Paolo Raggi, David J. Maron, Michael V. McConnell, Robert A. Kloner, Matthew J. Budoff, Nathan D. Wong, and Arthur S. Agatston. American Journal of Preventive Cardiology 30 (December): 101698.

Bioactive Lipids of Cardiorespiratory Fitness Insights From Exercise Models in Humans, Mice, and Burmese Pythons. Guseh, J. Sawalla, Athar Roshandelpoor, Mona Alotaibi, Shahrooz Zarbafian, Emily S. Lau, Alexandra Kuznetsov, Anthony Rosenzweig, Nima Saeidi, Amit Choudhary, Mohit Jain, Susan Cheng, Gregory D. Lewis, and Jennifer E. Ho. Circulation. Genomic and Precision Medicine, October, e005720.

Cardiovascular Emergency Action Planning in the United States Military. Dean, John-Henry L., Matthew A. Soderstrom, Andrea N. Keithler, M. Alaric Franzos, Mark Haigney, Eli M. Friedman, Caroline E. Murphy, and Bradley J. Petek. Military Medicine, October, usag460.

Comprehensive Aortic Stenosis Characterization Using Multiview Deep Learning. Ieki, Hirotaka, Yuki Sahashi, Miloš Vukadinovic, Meenal Rawlani, Christina Binder, Neal Yuan, Andrew P. Ambrosy, Alan S. Go, Wansu Chen, Ming-Sum Lee, Bryan He, Paul Cheng, and David Ouyang. JACC. Cardiovascular Imaging 19 (10): 1186–1200.

Empagliflozin Improves Angina and Endothelial Dysfunction Indices in Angina and No Obstructive Coronary Arteries (ANOCA). Tapp, Danielle N., Sukhleen Kaur, Olga Toleva, Paxson Tipler, Namrita Ashokprabhu, Pooja Acharya, Christian W. Schmidt, Leslie Korbee, Michelle Hamstra, Michael Tranter, Andreas Tzoumas, Ayushi Mohan, Shesh N. Rai, Dirk J. Duncker, John Beltrame, Steve Miner, C. Noel Bairey Merz, Timothy D. Henry, A. Phillip Owens, and Odayme Quesada. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, October.

Functional Hypothalamic Amenorrhea Phenotype and Cardiovascular Disease Risk. Shufelt, Chrisandra L., Jennifer J. Stuart, Jana Karam, Xiaoyu Che, JoAnn E. Manson, Karen K. Miller, Kathy Rexrode, Stephanie Faubion, Sarah Berga, C. Noel Bairey Merz, and Janet W. Rich-Edwards. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, October, dgag405.

Computational Biomedicine

Enriching Public Pathogen Genomic Records With Patient Metadata: Quantitative Study and Exploratory Case Analysis. Pavia, Michael J., Karen O’Connor, Graciela Gonzalez-Hernandez, and Matthew Scotch. JMIR Bioinformatics and Biotechnology 7 (October): e92529.

Omics Data DiscOvery Agents: Agent-Supported Retrieval, Reanalysis, and Synthesis of Published Omics Data. Hutton, Alexandre, and Jesse G. Meyer. PLoS Computational Biology 22 (10): e1014822.

Pediatric Developmental Safety Assessment and New Approach Methodologies: US FDA/Triangle CERSI Workshop Report. Burckart, Gilbert J., Gelareh Abulwerdi, Christin L. Daniels, Calib Choi, Rebecca Racz, Jean-Pierre Valentin, Kristin Ardlie, Nicholas Tatonetti, Susan Laffan, Marjory Moreau, Will Redfern, Lang Li, James J. Hickman, Rajanikanth Madabushi, Bhagwat Prasad, Lynne Yao, and Paul B. Watkins. Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, October.

Medicine

ACG Clinical Guideline: Preventive Care for Patients With Cirrhosis. Tapper, Elliot B., Ani Kardashian, Jose Debes, Janet GripshOver, Andrew M. Moon, John J. Kim, and Jennifer C. Lai. The American Journal of Gastroenterology, October.

Belimumab Prevention Against Organ Damage Over 8 Years and Safety up to 13 Years: Three Pooled Open-Label, Long-Term Extension SLE Studies. Touma, Zahi, Cristina Arriens, Maria G. Tektonidou, Ricard Cervera, Roger A. Levy, Anne Hammer, and Daniel J. Wallace. Lupus Science & Medicine 13 (2): e002199.

Dynamic Prediction of the Development of Extrahepatic Organ Failures in ICU Patients With Decompensated Cirrhosis. Yeo, Yee Hui, Linjie Que, Mengyi Zhang, Jian Zu, Yuankai Wu, Dian-Jung Chiang, Tao Chen, Yu Shi, Yingli He, Fengping Wu, Feng Han, Qing-Lei Zeng, Yu-Chen Fan, Hirsh D. Trivedi, Xiaogang Xiang, Yadong Wang, Yu Chen, Ju Dong Yang, Jun Li, Rajiv Jalan, and Fanpu Ji. eGastroenterology 4 (3): e100463.

Early-Life Microbiota Direct an Epithelial S100 Program Required for Neonatal Immunity. Negi, Shikha, Seika Hashimoto-Hill, Amanda Waddell, Laura Engleman, Maggie Lutz, Taylor Rice, Lee A. Denson, Bruce A. Vallance, Nurit P. Azouz, Philippe A. Tessier, Sergei I. Grivennikov, Hitesh Deshmukh, and Theresa Alenghat. Science Translational Medicine 18 (870): eadx6147.

Endotrophin Is a Circulating Fibroinflammatory Biomarker Associated With Treatment Response in Human Metastatic ER+ Breast Cancer. Santos, Bethania, Dawei Bu, Megan Virostek, Ethan Johnson, Cheryl Lewis, Lavanya Vumma, Sunati Sahoo, Yan Peng, Ningyan Zhang, Zhiqiang An, Heather McArthur, Philipp E. Scherer, and Joshua J. Gruber. Clinical Cancer Research, October.

HIV and Antiretroviral Therapy Influence Tumor Microenvironment Architecture, Subclonal Evolution, and Immune Evasion Strategies in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma. Coelho, Jenny, Sophia M. Roush, Samantha Beck, Albert Wielgus, Alexander M. Xu, Amon Chirwa, Marriam Mponda, Edwards Kasonkanji, Maurice Mulenga, Tamiwe Tomoka, Satish Gopal, Akil Merchant, Matthew S. Painschab, and Yuri Fedoriw. Cancer Research Communications, October.

Mechanical Thrombectomy Versus Anticoagulation Alone in Intermediate-High Risk PE: Improved Functional 90-Day Outcomes in STORM-PE RCT. Rosovsky, Rachel P., Stavros V. Konstantinides, Ido Weinberg, Suhail Y. Dohad, Zachary Rosol, Jakub Stępniewski, John M. Moriarty, Sahil A. Parikh, Andrew Holden, Richard N. Channick, Braedon McDonald, Khanjan H. Nagarsheth, Yuri Matusov, Robert A. Lookstein, and STORM-PE Trial Investigators and Collaborators. JACC. Cardiovascular Interventions, October, S1936-8798(26)02391-5.

Nuclear Prohibitin 1 Depletion Drives Alcohol-Associated Liver Injury and Sensitization to Colon Cancer Liver Metastasis. Chhimwal, Jyoti, Sonal Sinha, Jina Kim, Mario Alba, Lucía Barbier-Torres, Jiaohong Wang, Heping Yang, Youngyi Lim, Ramachandran Murali, Maria Lauda Tomasi, Sungyong You, José M. Mato, and Shelly C. Lu. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, October, e206235.

Reply: Referent Choice and Dose - Response Modeling Behind Moderate, Unsweetened Coffee. Celtik, Derin, Hyun-Seok Kim, and co-authors. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, October, S1542-3565(26)00741-X.

Senolytics Dasatinib and Quercetin in Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis: A Proof-of-Principle Randomized, Controlled Trial. Koning, Mijra, Artemiy Kovynev, Marcos F. Fondevila, Eliza J. M. Ruhe, Michiel C. Mommersteeg, Christian Ramakers, Barbara A. Hutten, Bart Verwer, Marije Vlug, Teaco Kuiper, Maarten van den Berg, Anne Vrieze, Maurice Bizino, Annewieke van den Beld, Luuk Berk, Thomas Boerlage, Quinten J. J. Augustijn, Willem Pieter Brouwer, Weena J. Chen, Djuna Cahen, Robert Verdonk, Wouter J. de Jonge, Sandjai Ramsoekh, Michail Doukas, Sanne M. M. Vermorgen, Joanne Verheij, Ulrich Beuers, R. B. Takkenberg, Jacques J. G. Bergman, Geert R. A. M. D’Haens, Joost P. H. Drenth, Tamar Tchkonia, Bernd Schnabl, James L. Kirkland, and Abraham S. Meijnikman. Nature Metabolism, October.

Sex-Specific Cardiovascular Responses in Cerulein-Induced Acute Pancreatitis Models. Du, Aolin, Jiahui Zhao, Yu Henry Huo, Junmeng Zhang, Debiao Zhao, Ahmed U. Fayyaz, Bin Wang, Jiale Wang, Yan Bi, S. Jeson Sangaralingham, Aurelia Lugea, Richard T. Waldron, Stephen J. Pandol, Margaret M. Redfield, Baoan Ji, and Ying Wang. American Journal of Physiology. Heart and Circulatory Physiology, October.

Survival Outcomes After Liver Transplantation in Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure: A Prospective Study. Gustot, Thierry, William Bernal, Javier Fernández, Eva Usón-Raposo, Juan Manuel Díaz, Alberto Queiroz Farias, Ashwin Rammohan, Sebastián Marciano, Alexander Kuo, Giovanni Perricone, Rebecca Bateman, Luis Bagulho, Investigators of the CHANCE study group, et al. Journal of Hepatology, September, S0168-8278(26)02908-9.

Neurology

Histopathological Investigation in Glycine Receptor Antibody Positive Progressive Encephalomyelitis With Rigidity and Myoclonus (PERM): A Case Report. Guzman, Samuel, Ann-Charlotte Granholm, Mary Benson-Gallanis, Ashley Denney, Henric Ek Olofsson, Marcella Raust, Jeremiah Phares, Samuel Aragon, Candace Bretsch, Aaron M. Carlson, Xiaoli Yu, and Amanda L. Piquet. Journal of Neuroimmunology 422 (October): 579107.

Neurosurgery

A Hypertensive Response to Irrigation: Endoscopic Repair of a Ventral Spinal CSF Leak. Garcia, Catherine M., Shane Shahrestani, Sohrab Gollogly, Wouter I. Schievink, and Corey T. Walker. Neurosurgical Focus 61 (4): E20.

Intraosseous Access in Neurological Emergencies: A Critical Narrative Review and Research Framework. Al Matairi, Alzahra’a, Ahmad E Saeed, Bara M Hammadeh, Leen A Alkuttob, Zainab I Bahdar, Bassel Alrabadi, Areen A Melhem, Mohi Alddin Moustafa Mahouk, and Tariq D Al-Saadi. Future Science OA 12 (1): 2743713.

OBGYN

RE-AIMing for Better Maternal Health: Nurse Leader Experiences With Quality Care Collaborative Toolkits Across 10 States. Bhandarkar, Mallika, Gabriela Alvarado, Dana Schultz, Priya Batra, Sarah J. Kilpatrick, Sujeong Park, Megan Andrew, Rachel K. Landis, and Chloe E. Bird. Women’s Health Issues, October, S1049-3867(26)00139-8.

Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine

Diffuse Serous Atrophy of Bone Marrow in the Ankle and Hindfoot With Focal Acute Lateral Malleolar Osteomyelitis: A Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Based Case Report. Elhaddad, Moamen, Elizabeth Frame, and Tanya L. Tivorsak. Foot & Ankle Specialist, October, 19386400261491427.

When Legal Reasoning Contradicts Sports Orthopaedic Evidence. Kennedy, John G., Samuel Adams, Jorge Batista, Steve Bayer, Thomas Clanton, Pieter D’Hooghe, Jari Dahmen, Christopher DiGiovanni, Mark Drakos, Robin R. Elliot, Richard Ferkel, Paloma Gauthier, Arianna Gianakos, Eric Giza, Mark Glazebrook, Laszlo Hangody, Daniel Haverkamp, MaCalus Hogan, Jonathan Houghton, Jon Karlsson, Stephen Kearns, Gino Kerkhoffs, Sameh Labib, Jin Woo Lee, Alberto Marangon, Graham McCollum, Christopher Murawski, Stefan Nehrer, James Nunley, Martin O’Malley, Jochen Paul, Helder Pereira, Marcelo Prado, Jared Rubin, Ian Savage-Elliott, Lew Schon, Pietro Spennacchio, James Stone, Alexander Tham, Hajo Thermann, David Thordarson, Victor Valderrabano, Niek van Dijk, Francesca Vannini, Markus Walther, Youichi Yasui, and Alastair Younger. Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy, October.

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Donor-Derived Bladder Cancer Following Kidney Transplantation. Engels, Eric A., Sandra Burkett, V. Krishnan Ramanujan, Kelly J. Yu, Petra Lenz, Aaron M. Rozeboom, and Gabriel J. Starrett. Urology Case Reports 69 (November): 103618.

Pediatrics

Rapid Whole Genome Sequencing Enhances Pediatric Cancer Diagnosis. Vedi, Aditi, Jamie Trotman, Joao M. L. Dias, Martina Mijuskovic, Sera Choi, Laura Kingham, Rachel A. Moore, Sarah M. Leiter, Rowena Guermech, Amanda Semerene, Aviva Grisby, Sophie Wool, Victoria Joslin, Arunthethy Mahendrayogam, Jonathan Abrams, Michael Gattens, Esther Blanco, Emmy L. Dickens, Charlotte Burns, Matthew J. Murray, John A. Tadross, Claire Trayers, Catherine E. Hook, Jennifer Becq, Taksina Newington, Ivana Armogida, Zoya Kingsbury, Pascal Grobecker, Ines Vitoriano, Mitchell A. Bekritsky, Jacqueline Weir, Louise J. Fraser, Mark Ross, David Bentley, Matthew Cullen, Sam Behjati, Jack Bartram, Sean J. Humphray, Patrick Tarpey, and David Rowitch. Nature Communications 17 (1): 10078.

Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

Patient-Reported Outcomes in Cancer Rehabilitation. Smith, Sean R., and Philip Chang. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America 37 (4): 747–59.

Surgery

American Rhinologic Society Expert Practice Statement: Indications and Recommendations for Posterior Nasal Nerve Ablation. Adams, Dara R., Meha G. Fox, Peter H. Hwang, Christopher R. Roxbury, Mas Takashima, Arthur W. Wu, David M. Yen, and Omar G. Ahmed. International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology, October.

ASO Author Reflections: Predicting Axillary Pathologic Complete Response After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer. Fleshner, Katherine, and Marissa K. Boyle. Annals of Surgical Oncology, October.

ASO Visual Abstract: Lack of Utility of Ki-67 in Axillary Surgical Planning and Prognostication After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for Node-Positive Breast Cancer. Fleshner, Katherine, Farin Amersi, Alice Chung, James Mirocha, Armando E. Giuliano, and Marissa K. Boyle. Annals of Surgical Oncology, October.

Lack of Utility of Ki-67 in Axillary Surgical Planning and Prognostication after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for Node-Positive Breast Cancer. Fleshner, Katherine, Farin Amersi, Alice Chung, James Mirocha, Armando E. Giuliano, and Marissa K. Boyle. Annals of Surgical Oncology, October.

Summary Report of the Fifth International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association Summit on Stem Cell-Derived Islets. Odorico, Jon S., Antonio Citro, Eelco J. P. de Koning, Thomas H. Kay, Esther Latres, Jeffrey R. Millman, Maria Cristina Nostro, Lorenzo Piemonti, Michael R. Rickels, Holger A. Russ, Kevin Alessandri, Joana Almaça, Juan R. Alvarez-Dominguez, Diego Balboa, Jessie M. Barra, Thomas Bollenbach, Michael Brehm, Remi J. Creusot, Jacques Galipeau, Alessandro Grattoni, Matthias Hebrok, Nathaniel Hogrebe, Christian Honore, Danwei Huangfu, Eddie A. James, Norma S. Kenyon, Minglin Ma, Marjana Marinac, Maki Nakayama, Audrey V. Parent, Edward A. Phelps, Alvin C. Powers, Joseph Sushil Rao, Trevor Reichman, Bart O. Roep, Sonja Schrepfer, Peter Stock, Piotr Witkowski, and James F. Markmann. Transplantation, October.

Surgeons, Time to Step Up! Building Quality Surgical Evidence in Gastroenteropancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors. Meloche-Dumas, Léamarie, Stefano Partelli, Alexandra Gangi, and Julie Hallet. Annals of Surgical Oncology, October.

The Robotic PIANO: A Critical Narrative Review of Surgeon-Controlled Operative Polyphony, Human Factors, and Robotic Training. Marano, Luigi, Mirko Barone, Mehmet Mahir Özmen, Bojan Jovanovic, Francesco Paolo Prete, Silvia Malerba, Edmundo Inga-Zapata, Panagiotis Lainas, Elena Ruiz-Úcar, Miguel Angel Cáceres Yap, Vikas Jain, Beniamino Pascotto, Juan Santiago Azagra, Salaam Sadi, Ruslan Duka, Robert Molchanov, Adolfo Perez-Bonet, Nicolas Zucchini, Luis Osvaldo Suárez Carreón, Jaroslaw Skokowski, Adébusola Adenike Owokole, Archil Aladashvili, Miljana Vladimirov, Mahmoud Al-Balas, Cesar Santiago, Sharona Ross, Sharique Nazir, Yogesh Vashist, Adel Abou-Mrad, Mario Testini, Ludovico Docimo, David Albala, and Rodolfo J. Oviedo. Journal of Robotic Surgery 20 (1): 1067.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

It was his fourth time reaching the summit, but this climb came after years of care at Cedars-Sinai, including spine surgery and, more recently, a right hip replacement for severe arthritis.

Since returning from Kilimanjaro, Ulene has reached another milestone: He underwent a second hip replacement, this time on his left side. Now, with two new hips and another recovery underway, he already has his sights set on his next goal—getting back on the ski slopes. His season pass is purchased and waiting.

“The secret is that I am trying to live up to my peak span,” Ulene said. “Most people talk about lifespan—that’s how long you’re alive. A very important thing is ‘healthspan.’ I want to live up to my peak potential for my age.”

One Step at a Time

For Ulene, Kilimanjaro was about more than reaching a summit. He views the mountain as a metaphor for navigating the challenges of life.

“The mountain has peaks and valleys. Life has peaks and valleys,” said the former Today show medical expert. “It’s an up-and-down process.”

Near the summit, when the final stretch still looked impossibly far away, Ulene stopped focusing on the distance remaining.

“Can I take the next step? Of course I can,” he recalled thinking. “What about the step after that? Yeah, I can do that too. And you just repeat that 800 times and you’re at the summit.”

It’s a philosophy he applies far beyond climbing.

“I call Kilimanjaro ‘Mount Metaphor,’” Ulene said. “The same lessons I learned on the mountain can be used to get over those problems. … One step at a time.”

Getting Back to What Matters

Ulene’s history with Cedars-Sinai—as a physician—stretches back decades. He recalls delivering babies at the former Mount Sinai Hospital as early as 1963.

More recently, though, he became the patient.

In 2023, debilitating back pain led him to Cedars-Sinai spine surgeon Terrence Kim, MD, for spine surgery. Ulene said he has been pain-free since the procedure.

Then came his hips.

Ulene—father-in-law of Cedars-Sinai pediatric spine surgeon David Skaggs, MD—was referred to orthopedic surgeon Carlos Guanche, MD, after worsening hip pain began interfering with his mobility and active lifestyle.

Imaging showed severe arthritis in Ulene’s right hip, with little remaining joint space. Guanche performed an anterior-approach total hip replacement.

Ulene was walking within hours of surgery and went home the next day. Within days, he had progressed from a walker to a cane—and soon abandoned the cane, too.

“I have not had a single pain or problem with the hip he replaced,” Ulene said. “I climbed Kilimanjaro; never felt a pain.”

Guanche said Ulene’s physical conditioning and determination were important parts of his recovery.

“I always tell patients it’s a team effort,” Guanche said. “The doctor is only one part of it. The rehabilitation and the patient’s mental attitude are a huge component.”

Ulene had given himself a powerful goal: Kilimanjaro.

“He was dead set on getting to Kilimanjaro,” Guanche said. “That was his goal, and then he took it over after that.”

For Guanche, Ulene also illustrates why age alone doesn’t tell the whole story when physicians evaluate older adults for surgery. A patient’s overall health and medical conditions, he said, are important considerations when determining whether surgery is appropriate.

Building a Longer Healthspan

Ulene may be exceptional, but his geriatrician, Allison Moser Mays, MD, said the lesson from his story isn’t that everyone needs to climb Kilimanjaro.

It’s that everyone can find their own mountain.

“Dr. Ulene is exceptional in so many ways,” Mays said. “But that doesn’t mean that the rest of us can’t have our own physical achievements and accomplishments within the context of our own lives or our own capabilities.”

Mays encourages older adults to think not only about lifespan, but also healthspan—the years spent healthy enough to continue doing the things that give life meaning.

And it is never too late to start moving, she said.

For adults 65 and older, Mays recommends working toward 150 minutes of cardiovascular activity each week, along with two strength-training sessions and one to two sessions focused on balance and flexibility.

“You can build strength and muscle mass at any age, so it’s never too late to get going,” Mays said.

The goal doesn’t have to involve a mountain. For one person, it might be attending a granddaughter’s wedding. For another, traveling to see family, walking regularly or simply maintaining the strength and balance needed to remain independent.

The Next Peak

Ulene recently underwent his left hip replacement with Guanche after arthritis began causing pain on that side as well.

And after recovery?

Ski season.

Ulene has already bought his season pass and plans to take lessons to sharpen his technique. He and Guanche are even planning to hit the slopes together at the end of February. It’s another goal in a life increasingly organized around a simple question: What am I still capable of?

“I did this climb to find out what my peak was,” Ulene said. “I wanted to know who I was, what I was capable of.”

And at 90, he is already thinking about the decade ahead.

“I plan to spend the next 10 years trying to get people to live up to their peak,” he said. “It takes work, but it’s worth it.”

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Protecting HealthSpan as Important as Protecting Lifespan

“We look forward to the continued contributions of Dr. Figlin and Dr. Hendifar,” said Ravi Thadhani, MD, MPH, executive vice president, chief physician executive and dean of the Medical Faculty at Cedars-Sinai. “We are confident their talent and leadership will continue to spur the growth and vision of Cedars-Sinai Cancer as one of the nation’s leading destinations for cancer care, research and education.”

As associate dean, Figlin, formerly interim director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer, will serve as a senior adviser and institutional leader. Drawing on his experience, he will guide the advancement of strategic and clinical cancer priorities across Cedars-Sinai Health System and assist with key physician and leadership recruitment efforts and national outreach.

“I look forward to building on the work we have done to promote research excellence that translates into leading-edge therapies for cancer patients,” Figlin said. “To support such work, strategic direction is key.”

Under Figlin’s leadership as interim director, Cedars-Sinai Cancer increased clinical volumes, expanded access to clinical trials and advanced the integration of cancer services across health system hospitals. He was instrumental in establishing the Investigator Initiated Trials Program in Cedars-Sinai Cancer and offering oversight for the Investigator Initiated Trials Incubator.

Through his work in clinical trials, Figlin shifted the treatment landscape for renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer. His pioneering work in immunotherapy testing proved that the immune system could eradicate kidney cancer and achieve long-term survival. He has also been a principal investigator on pivotal trials of targeted therapies that block enzymes responsible for driving cancer cells to multiply, and in trials establishing combination therapies as a preferred first-line treatment.

Figlin is the Steven Spielberg Family Chair in Hematology Oncology and a professor of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He formerly served as chair and associate director of the Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research as well as associate director for Clinical Research at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center. He also held an endowed chair in urologic oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

A member of multiple national professional organizations, Figlin has also published more than 430 peer-reviewed articles in major medical journals and authored and edited multiple textbooks on kidney cancer.

He currently serves as the editor of Oncology News Central and the Kidney Cancer Journal.

As interim director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer, Hendifar will continue building the academic cancer program based on excellence in clinical care, research and teaching. He will deepen the integration of cancer services at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Network and health system affiliates.

“I look forward to supporting the physicians, scientists and clinical care specialists who make up Cedars-Sinai Cancer,” Hendifar said. “By continuing to advance scientific discovery, precision medicine and patient-centered and community-informed approaches, we can redefine cancer care.”

Hendifar brings extensive clinical, research and management experience to this interim leadership role.

He has been a principal investigator on Phase III clinical trials and published in the highest-impact journals, including a Phase III study in The New England Journal of Medicine in May about an experimental treatment that nearly doubled survival time for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Hendifar has led key studies on integrating artificial intelligence into pancreatic cancer care, and he is a principal investigator on multiple trials focusing on novel therapeutic strategies and targeting cancer wasting syndrome.

He currently serves as a professor of Medicine, medical director of the Cancer Clinical Trials Office and medical director of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Disease Research Group at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer institute.

Hendifar began his career at Cedars-Sinai in 2012, was a founding director of the Hematology and Oncology Fellowship Program and has served on several Cedars-Sinai committees, including those for the Internal Review Board, Pharmacy and Therapeutics, and Medical Oncology/Cancer Center leadership, as well as the Medical Executive Committee. 

In addition to his medical and research accomplishments, Hendifar has executive managerial experience as chief medical officer for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and holds a master’s degree in health systems management from Tulane University, where he earned his medical degree. He has served as a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Neuroendocrine Tumor Task Force and on the steering committee for the Precision Promise Consortium.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Investigators will share the results of studies that examine whether AI and virtual reality could be used to improve clinical care, predict public health trends and ease symptoms of disease.  

In a featured plenary session, Maria T. Abreu, MD, executive director of the F. Widjaja Inflammatory Bowel Disease Institute, will present findings from a Phase II clinical trial of an oral medication for ulcerative colitis. The treatment targets an immune system protein that causes gut inflammation.

“Despite major advances in treatment, many patients with ulcerative colitis still do not have their disease adequately controlled,” Abreu said. “This study evaluates a new approach that could expand the treatment options available to patients.”

Abreu can also discuss an analysis of potential risks to the developing fetus following maternal or paternal exposure to an etrasimod, an oral medication used to treat ulcerative colitis.

Other Cedars-Sinai digestive and liver disease experts are available to discuss a wide variety of additional research, including these presentations.

AI, Virtual Reality and Medicine

Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS, director of Health Services Research, has been selected as the 2026 ACG Trailblazer Lecturer. His lecture, “Why Doctors Will Not Be Replaced: The Future of Humanistic Medicine in an AI-Driven World,” will explore how AI could transform medicine, what will remain uniquely human, and how the technology could enhance patient care

Spiegel, a professor of Medicine, also is available to discuss two poster presentations during the conference exploring uses of virtual reality and AI in patient care. One examines a virtual reality program designed to help clinicians better understand the physical, emotional and social challenges experienced by patients with IBS. The other evaluates a self-guided, AI-powered virtual reality tool to provide behavioral health and weight-management support for patients who regain weight after bariatric surgery.

Christopher Almario, MD, MSHPM, co-director, Cedars-Sinai Center for Virtual Medicine and Health System Innovation, is also available to discuss a study of a home-based virtual reality program designed to make cognitive behavioral therapy more accessible to people with IBS.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Mark Pimentel, MD, executive director of the Medically Associated Science and Technology (MAST) Program, can discuss new research on bloating, one of the symptoms that matters most to patients who have IBS with constipation. The analysis suggests current patient evaluations fail to properly track bloating relief.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Gil Melmed, MD, director of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Research, will present findings from a study that found many patients with IBD did not begin newly prescribed therapies within the recommended two-week window.

Disorders of the Esophagus

Amrit Kamboj, MD, assistant professor of Medicine, is available to discuss an investigation exploring how search data could offer an economical way to help track seasonal and geographic patterns in swallowing problems and eosinophilic esophagitis, a chronic inflammatory disease.

Dana Gornick, MD, an internal medicine resident physician, will present research that found that severe abnormalities visible on a barium esophagram (a specialized swallowing X-ray) were often associated with significant swallowing disorders.

Media Contact

To schedule an interview with a Cedars-Sinai expert, contact Laura Coverson at Laura.Coverson@cshs.org or 310-562-1112.

Buchman joins Cedars-Sinai from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, where he spent 18 years in a variety of investment roles, including leadership positions for the last decade. He served since 2021 as vice president and chief investment officer managing the foundation’s $8.3 billion investment portfolio.

At the Hilton foundation, he reported directly to the CEO and worked closely with the investment committee and board of directors to successfully craft investment strategy, including asset allocation, risk management, manager selection and operations.

“I am excited to join Cedars-Sinai and look forward to continue stewarding and growing its investment portfolio in service of its mission,” Buchman said. “Investing Cedars-Sinai’s assets by partnering with outstanding investment managers will generate returns that enable us to enhance health and healthcare in Los Angeles and beyond.”

In his new role, Buchman will oversee Cedars-Sinai’s investment strategy, objectives and policies as established by the board of director’s investment committee, and he will advise on investment portfolio risk and exposure while further developing the investment team.

Earlier in his career, Buchman held positions in finance, real estate and law at Citigroup Global Investment Bank and real estate asset-management firm Broadway Partners. He also worked at the law firms Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom.

Buchman earned his JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and an MBA and bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

“Michael is the ideal leader to strategically grow our investment portfolio and enable us to better serve all those who need Cedars-Sinai,” said David Wrigley, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Cedars-Sinai Health System.

For Buchman, joining Cedars-Sinai on Dec. 1 marks a homecoming of sorts. He was born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, as were each of his three children.

“As a native Angeleno, I have seen firsthand the impact Cedars-Sinai has across the city,” he said. “I am thrilled to play my part in ensuring a vibrant Cedars-Sinai for years to come.

More from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Inspiring Community Health by Meeting Patients' Needs

Cedars-Sinai is the first hospital in the Los Angeles area to offer HIV-to-HIV organ transplants. Surgeons recently transplanted a donated liver into Billy Miller, 71, and kidneys into two other recipients living with HIV. All three organs came from deceased donors with HIV.

Kim told CBS 2 reporter Kara Finnstrom that giving Miller access to an HIV-positive donor pool significantly shortened the time he had to wait for a transplant.

“Because that pool of recipients for that type of organ is very, very small, what it allowed us to do was transplant Billy much faster,” she said.

Kim told Finnstrom the program is currently limited to recipients living with HIV.

“Right now, there is not a cure for HIV, so we wouldn’t want to transplant an HIV- positive donor organ into someone who is HIV negative,” she said.

However, Kim explained, research shows that it is “quite safe to do this matching profile,” transplanting an organ from an HIV-positive donor into an HIV-positive patient.

For years, federal law prohibited organs from donors with HIV from being transplanted at all. Clinical trials later allowed researchers to study HIV-to-HIV transplants, and after years of research supporting the safety and effectiveness of the approach, federal rules were changed in 2024.

Kim told Finnstrom the goal is to expand the donor pool wherever possible.

“We try to make, in short, every donor work that we possibly can because there is an organ shortage crisis in the United States,” she said.

Ten weeks after receiving his liver transplant, Miller said he feels dramatically better. Kim said the two kidney recipients also are doing well.

Watch the complete segment from CBS 2.

Coleman joined Cedars-Sinai in 1987 as a clinical nurse specialist in cardiac surgery. Her research spans bench to bedside to community—with work on genomic transplant disparities, family caregivers and church-based preventive blood pressure education. She earned a master’s degree from the Yale University School of Nursing and a doctorate from the UCLA School of Nursing.

“Dr. Coleman’s induction as a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine is a well-deserved recognition of her impact on nursing, patient care and the advancement of health,” said David Marshall, JD, DNP, RN. “Her leadership, clinical expertise, research and commitment to mentoring others exemplify the kind of influence that strengthens both our profession and the communities we serve. We are proud to celebrate this important achievement and the example she continues to set for colleagues and future generations.”

Founded in 1847, the New York Academy of Medicine is committed to helping all people live healthier, longer lives through innovative research and collaboration. With more than 1,700 distinguished fellows and members, the academy brings together leading experts to translate ideas into policy and real-world impact.

The Cedars-Sinai Newsroom spoke with Coleman about the significance of the fellowship, her commitment to advancing nursing science and the leadership lessons she hopes to pass on to others.

What does becoming a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine mean to you personally and professionally?

It is a tremendous honor. Personally, I am deeply grateful to be welcomed into a community with such a long history of advancing health through science, evidence, innovation and service.

Professionally, it is especially meaningful because the academy brings together leaders from many disciplines who share a commitment to improving health and addressing some of the most complex healthcare challenges affecting people in the United States. I see the fellowship not simply as recognition, but as an opportunity to contribute.

How did you react when you learned you had been selected?

I was surprised, humbled and very grateful. As your career progresses, you don’t necessarily stop to think about individual recognition because you are usually focused on the next patient, the next research question, the next grant or helping someone else move their work forward. So this caused me to reflect for a moment on the journey and all the people who have been part of it. It was very special.

What aspects of your experience or work contributed to this recognition?

My career has really been driven by curiosity and built at the intersection of clinical practice, research and leadership.

Much of my scholarship has grown directly from questions I encountered caring for patients after cardiac surgery or heart transplantation and patients experiencing mechanical circulatory support. That has led to work in transplant outcomes and genomics, caregiver support, health disparities and, more recently, the responsible use of artificial intelligence in healthcare.

Another important part of my work has been strengthening nursing science itself—mentoring nurses, developing research infrastructure, advancing the role of clinically based nurse scientists, and helping nurses translate important clinical questions into evidence that can improve care.

What inspired you to enter your field?

I began as a licensed practical nurse and advanced to an acute care nurse practitioner. Clinical practice has always been the foundation of my work.

My involvement in heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support exposed me to extraordinarily complex patients and families and to questions that we simply could not answer with the evidence available at the time.

That curiosity led me toward research. I wanted to understand the biological bases for why some patients experienced different outcomes, how biology and genetics might contribute, how we could better support families, and how nurses could generate the evidence needed to improve care.

Over time, my career evolved from asking those questions at the bedside to building research programs and helping other nurses ask and answer their own important clinical questions.

Which accomplishments or experiences have been most meaningful to you?

The most meaningful accomplishments are those where I can see that the work has opened a door for someone else or has the potential to change care.

My research in heart transplantation and genomics has been important to me because it grew directly from a brother-in-law who died after his heart transplant, and clinical questions about differences in patient outcomes.

My work supporting caregivers of patients living with mechanical circulatory support is equally meaningful because these families assume enormous responsibilities that healthcare systems do not always adequately recognize.

I am also very proud of the work we have done to advance clinically based nurse scientists and to create opportunities for nurses to conduct, present and publish their work. Helping create national Nurse Scientist Day, which launched in June 2026, was especially meaningful because it celebrates an entire profession of scientists across the United States whose contributions deserve greater visibility.

How does your current role connect with the mission of the New York Academy of Medicine?

There is a very natural connection. The academy emphasizes using evidence, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation to improve population health and help people live healthier, longer lives.

In my current role, I am trying to do those same things within a healthcare system—identify important clinical problems, generate evidence, translate that evidence into practice, develop the next generation of nurse scientists through supporting PhD nurses at Cedars-Sinai in a research fellowship, and bring disciplines together around problems that cannot be solved by one profession alone.

Whether the issue is health disparities, transplantation, genomics, caregiver wellbeing or artificial intelligence, the ultimate question is always: How can this work improve health and healthcare?

What impact do you hope your work will have?

Ultimately, I hope my work demonstrates that research can be both scientifically rigorous and immediately relevant to the people we care for.

For patients and families, I hope it leads to more individualized, equitable and supportive care. For Cedars-Sinai, I hope it strengthens a culture in which clinical questions become opportunities for inquiry and improvement.

And for nursing, I want nurses and nurse scientists to recognize that their perspective is essential and valuable in solving some of healthcare’s most difficult problems and that they should have a seat at every table where those solutions are being developed.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

More than 7 million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, which predicts that number will nearly double by 2050.

“I don’t know too many people whose lives have not been touched by memory loss or dementia in some way,” he told the Los Angeles Times.

As director of the Memory and Healthy Aging Program, Tan helps patients assess their risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia and develop strategies to lower that risk. In his new book, What to Remember When You Are Forgetting: How to Live and Thrive With Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s, and Other Dementias, Tan draws on decades of clinical practice and research to explain the many types of memory loss and how they can progress over time.

His goal in writing the book was to help readers understand when forgetfulness isn’t cause for worry, and when it is the right time to seek help.

For those who need help, Tan says an early evaluation is key—not only to guide treatment but also to identify reversible causes of memory problems, including depression, lack of sleep, an underactive thyroid and vitamin B12 deficiency.

Tan also recently wrote articles for Time and Oprah Daily about what comes after a diagnosis: living with dementia and planning for the future.

In the Time article, he noted that although shame often accompanies a dementia diagnosis, he encourages his patients to maintain social connections and relationships.

“I tell them that even with cognitive changes, there is still a lot of life left to be lived—new places to see, new people to meet, new experiences to enjoy,” he wrote.

In the Oprah Daily piece, Tan focused on the importance of communicating and documenting one’s wishes for future care, particularly during the early stages of memory loss.

He wrote that “by investing in some honest introspection, candid communication, and appropriate documentation of one’s wishes, the likelihood of one’s wishes being fulfilled increases, while the risk of future conflict between family members is significantly reduced.”

Read the complete articles from the Los Angeles Times, Time and Oprah Daily.

Dr. Shin will lead the continued development of an integrated congenital heart program spanning fetal diagnosis through childhood, adolescence and adulthood.

“We are delighted to have Dr. Shin working across the Smidt Heart Institute, Guerin Children’s and our multidisciplinary programs,” said Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, executive director of the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai.

Susan Cheng, MD, MMSc, MPH, chair of the Department of Cardiology in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, said Dr. Shin will “advance clinical excellence, programmatic growth, research and education while strengthening the connections and continuum of care for all our patients affected by fetal, pediatric or adult congenital heart disease.”

Dr. Shin joins Cedars-Sinai from Stanford University, where he is clinical professor of Pediatrics. As a Stanford faculty member, he spent nearly two decades building programs at the intersection of pediatric and adult congenital heart care. Dr. Shin served as executive medical director for Innovations and Clinical Effectiveness, medical director for Quality and Outcomes in the Moore Children’s Heart Center, and medical director of Systems Utilization Research.

“Dr. Shin is widely respected by colleagues across the field not only for his academic and clinical accomplishments but also for his generous and thoughtful mentorship of students, medical trainees and faculty,” said Ophir Klein, MD, PhD, executive director of Guerin Children’s and executive vice dean of Children’s Health. “We are eager for him to lead the next chapter of our growth and impact in congenital heart care.”

Beyond his prominent roles at Stanford, Dr. Shin also is recognized nationally for his leadership as an investigator, educator and innovator in congenital heart disease.

He has led a multicenter consortium of hospitals across North America investigating interventions aimed at reducing variation in hospital length of stay. His scholarship has addressed outcomes following congenital heart surgery, pediatric cardiac critical care, clinical decision support, and the use of mathematical modeling and systems engineering to address complex challenges in healthcare delivery.

Dr. Shin earned his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and completed his pediatrics residency, chief residency and fellowship training in pediatric cardiology and pediatric critical care medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

“I look forward to partnering with Cedars-Sinai leadership to develop a vanguard integrated, lifespan model of congenital heart care,” Dr. Shin said.

Dr. Shin said the Cedars-Sinai program will accelerate the translation of innovation into better patient outcomes by integrating exceptional clinical care with data science, advanced analytics and emerging technologies.

The program will draw on the broader capabilities of the Smidt Heart Institute, Guerin Children’s and Cedars-Sinai to create a comprehensive approach to congenital cardiovascular disease across the lifespan.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Smartwatches and other wearable trackers can be useful for monitoring heart rate, step count and workout patterns. However, their estimates of calories burned are less reliable.

A study recently published in PLOS One examined how accurately smartwatches from four major brands estimated calories burned. Investigators found that the devices deviated by an average of 15% to 25% from participants’ actual energy expenditure, with the error rate increasing as participants’ body fat percentage increased.

Velazquez, who was not involved in the study, told Prevention she is wary of fixating on calories burned or eaten.

“I caution patients about becoming too focused on calorie tracking and advise them to take a step back, and view nutrition more holistically and focus more so on nutrition quality,” she said.

Velazquez told Prevention she encourages patients to focus on sustainable nutrition habits, including following a balanced, diverse nutrition plan, eating at consistent times and staying adequately hydrated.

For people with an eating disorder, she said, calorie tracking can worsen “anxiety, restriction, and lead to undernourishment.”

Velazquez also discussed two oral GLP-1 medications used for weight management: the Wegovy pill and Foundayo. Both offer alternatives to injectable medications, but they differ in how they act in the body and how they must be taken.

“You can take Foundayo any time of day, with or without food or water,” she told Prevention, noting that people seeking greater overall weight loss to improve obesity-related health conditions may benefit more from oral Wegovy.

For patients considering their options, Velazquez recommended discussing cost, convenience and health goals with a healthcare provider.

She emphasized that GLP-1 medications are generally intended for long-term use and should be combined with lifestyle support and comprehensive care from dietitians, exercise professionals, social workers and psychologists.

Read the complete articles from Prevention here and here.

Cedars-Sinai in the News

Professional Dancer Shares Story of Surviving Sudden Cardiac Arrest | KTLA 5
Pedro Catarino, MD 

Walking Faster May Help Reverse Frailty | TIME
Sara Espinoza, MD 

Scientists Discover Women Who Engage in Harder Workouts Also Have This One Trait in Common | Women's Health
Bert Mandelbaum, MD 

Ultra–Low-Dose Radiation Therapy May Relieve Bone Pain From Multiple Myeloma | The ASCO Post
Leslie Ballas, MD 

Jayden Daniels Not Expected To Have Surgery or Go on IR, Will Be ‘Week to Week’ | The New York Times: The Athletic
Carlos Uquillas, MD 

Vibe Coding Moves Beyond the Proteomics Prototype | The Analytical Scientist
Jesse Meyer, PhD 

Oral L-Glutamine Could Be Pancreatic Cancer's Most Accessible Treatment Advance: Q&A With Dr. Jun Gong | Pharmaceutical Executive
Jun Gong, MD

Enzalutamide Plus Salvage Radiotherapy Associated With Improved PFS in High-Risk BCR | Urology Times
Edwin Posadas, MD

Faculty Publications

Biomedical Sciences

At-Home Point-of-Care Urine Tenofovir Testing for Adherence Monitoring: Feasibility and Comparison With Adherence Metrics in Dried Blood Spots. Buccheri, Renata, Matthew A. Spinelli, Parya Saberi, Torsten B. Neilands, Stefany Coxe, David V. Glidden, Monica Gandhi, and Judy Y. Tan. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, September.

Epicardial Adipose Tissue Attenuation as an Independent Marker of Cardiovascular Outcomes in de Novo Heart Failure (RECOVER-EAT). Khanna, Shaun, Nicholas McLellan, Sheran Vasanthakumar, Cheng Hwee Soh, Aditya Bhat, Andrew Lin, Damini Dey, Sriram Rao, Stephen J. Nicholls, Thomas H. Marwick, Clare Arnott, and Nitesh Nerlekar. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, September, S0033-0620(26)00103-9.

EZH2-Dependent Phenotypic Plasticity Reveals TTP-Associated and mTORC1 Therapeutic Vulnerabilities in Lethal Prostate Cancer. German, Beatriz, Katherine L. Morel, Teia Noel, Nadia Boufaied, Deborah L. Burkhart, Sujun Chen, Felipe Dezem, Xintao Qiu, Henry W. Long, Kun-Lin Ho, Stefan DiFazio, Sylvan Baca, Ayesha A. Shafi, Matthew L. Freedman, Himisha Beltran, Christopher J. Sweeney, Housheng Hansen He, Myles Brown, Jasmine T. Plummer, Simon R. V. Knott, David P. Labbé, and Leigh Ellis. Cell Reports. Medicine, September, 103083.

Long-Term Reprogramming of Classical Monocytes With Altered Ontogeny Mediates Enhanced Lung Injury in Sepsis Survivors. Denstaedt, Scott J., Breanna McBean, Alan P. Boyle, Brett C. Arenberg, Matthias Mack, Bethany B. Moore, Michael W. Newstead, Yamei Deng, Alexey I. Nesvizhskii, Benjamin H. Singer, Jennifer Cano, Hallie C. Prescott, Helen S. Goodridge, and Rachel L. Zemans. JCI Insight, September, e198551.

Proximal Tubule ACE2 Mediates Early Responses to Hypertension by Regulating Intrarenal RAS and Sodium Homeostasis. Emathinger, Jacqueline M., Zhidan Xiang, Jonathan W. Nelson, Matthew W. Hagen, Nakyung Kim, David I. Ortiz-Melo, Natalie Mattocks, Jorge F. Giani, Dexter L. Lee, Hannah Hartman-Houstman, Donna L. Ralph, Alicia A. McDonough, Brianna Chen, Stan G. Louie, Thomas M. Coffman, and Susan B. Gurley. JCI Insight 11 (18): e179960.

Temporal Trends in Absolute Iron Deficiency Among US Adults. Tawfik, Yahya Mk, Iman Af Aboelsaad, Michael D. Nelson, Hsin-Jun Yang, and Leo F. Buckley. The American Journal of Medicine, September, S0002-9343(26)00688-1.

Cardiac Surgery

Baseline Lung Allograft Dysfunction: Definition, Timing, and Implications for Outcomes-Perspective on the ISHLT Consensus Document. Gottlieb, Jens, Tereza Martinu, Merel Hellemons, David R. Darley, Laurie Snyder, Laura DiChiacchio, Miranda Paraskeva, Christian Benden, Berta Saez-Gimenez, Anoop Mohandas, Letizia Corinna Morlacchi, Joshua M. Diamond, Saskia Bos, Erika D. Lease, Geert Verleden, Allan Glanville, and Kieran Halloran. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, 45 (10): 1529–31.

Cardiology

Adipocyte Gata3 Is a Diet-Inducible Driver of Pathological Adipose Remodeling and Systemic Metabolic Disease. Qin, Minghui, Fuqiang Li, Mingjie Yang, Lai Wang, Behrooz G. Sharifi, and Prediman K. Shah. Cells 15 (18): 1644.

Cross the Road Early: More Intensive Lipid-Lowering Earlier Along the Atherosclerotic Disease Continuum in VESALIUS-CV. Peng, Allison W., Anum S. Minhas, Alexander C. Razavi, Sanjay Kaul, and Roger S. Blumenthal. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, September, S0735-1097(26)07647-3.

Educating Patients at Discharge: Perceived Responsibilities Among Nurses and Residents at an Academic Medical Center. Yang, Annie W., Rongzi Shan, Hunter Launer, Jiwen Li, Eve Emmanouilidou, Dhwani Krishnan, Anna Dermenchyan, Linda Czypinski, and Wendy Simon. Patient Education and Counseling 154 (September): 109871.

Evaluating Intracoronary Imaging-Guided PCI: Balancing Evidence Synthesis and Exploration of Heterogeneity. Tanboga, Ibrahim Halil, and Sanjay Kaul. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, September, S0735-1097(26)07639-4.

From Task-Specific AI to Cardiovascular Foundation Models: A New Era of Multimodal Interpretation. Ieki, Hirotaka, Paul Cheng, Andrew P. Ambrosy, Alan C. Kwan, Bryan He, Themistocles L. Assimes, James Y. Zou, and David Ouyang. Heart, September, heartjnl-2026-328835.

Hemodynamic Flow Signatures: A Novel Paradigm for the Evaluation of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Performance. Maznyczka, Annette, Ole De Backer, Vinayak N. Bapat, Charanjit S. Rihal, Amar Krishnaswamy, Hasan Jilaihawi, Imran Rashid, Alexander M. K. Rothman, Arif A. Khokhar, Niels Vejlstrup, Bernard Prendergast, Stephan Windecker, Guilherme F. Attizzani, João L. Cavalcante, and Pankaj Garg. Circulation. Cardiovascular Interventions, September, e017313.

Post-Heart Transplantation Immunosuppression and Rejection: What the General Cardiologist Needs to Know. Jain, Rashmi, and Michelle M. Kittleson. Heart, September, heartjnl-2026-328009.

Procedural and Functional Outcomes After Computer Assisted Vacuum Thrombectomy With the 16F Catheter System for Treatment of Pulmonary Embolism: A Subanalysis of the STRIKE-PE Study. Moriarty, John M., Brian J. Schiro, Ido Weinberg, Suhail Y. Dohad, Hugh C. Davis, David M. Shavelle, George S. Chrysant, Paul E. Perkowski, Patrick E. Muck, Vivian L. Bishay, Andrew Holden, Frances M. West, Matthew J. Scheidt, Sanjum S. Sethi, W. Brent Keeling, and Aleksander Araszkiewicz. Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology: JVIR, September, 109100.

Role of Inflammatory Markers in the Progression of Arterial Stiffness and Mortality: A Multicenter Longitudinal Cohort Study. Kim, Kyung An, Hae-Ok Jung, So-Young Lee, Dong-Hyeon Lee, Donghee Han, Su-Yeon Choi, Jidong Sung, Eun Ju Chun, and Hyuk-Jae Chang. Journal of the American Heart Association, September, e049194.

Computational Biomedicine

A Pre-Train and Fine-Tune Framework for Adaptive Boosting of Pre-Trained Polygenic Risk Scores. Hu, Jie, Raelynn Chen, Maxwell Salvatore, Olivia Wu, Okan Bilge Ozdemir, Yiwen Lu, Shawn N. Murphy, Elizabeth W. Karlson, Atlas Khan, Krzysztof Kiryluk, Iftikhar J. Kullo, Johanna L. Smith, Eimear E. Kenny, Yuan Luo, Zaldy S. Tan, William G. La Cava, Marylyn D. Ritchie, Yong Chen, and Ruowang Li. Nature Communications 17 (1): 10327.

Balancing Benefits, Costs, and Harms: Policy Implications of Expanding Cancer Susceptibility Testing From Genetics Clinics to the General Population. Turnbull, Clare, Sandra Perdomo, Susan Domchek, William D. Foulkes, Paul Pharoah, Patricia Ashton-Prolla, Bhawna Sirohi, Joaquin Mateo, Hilary A. Robbins, Richard Sullivan, Mark Lawler, and Raffaella Casolino. The Lancet. Oncology 27 (10): e508–18.

Evaluating Student Use, Access, and Perceptions of a Campus Sexual Health Vending Machine. Sheng, Grace, and Lisa Gualtieri. Frontiers in Public Health 14: 1916539.

Germline Homologous Recombination Deficiency Influences TP53-Mutant Clonal Hematopoiesis Fitness During Platinum and PARP Inhibitor Treatment. Baeten, Jeremy T., Irenaeus C. C. Chan, Lea Moukarzel, Giulia E. M. Petrone, Jie Liu, Duc Tran, Jacob Tabs, Imene Tabet, Sumedha Agashe, Elaheh Nasrollahzadeh, Ankush Vasireddy, Amber Carter, Minal Patel, Konrad H. Stopsack, Philip W. Kantoff, Weiyin Zhou, Armel L. Batchi-Bouyou, J. Scott Beeler, Griffen Mustion, Paul Pharoah, James Brenton, Kenneth Offit, Ethan Barnett, Bob Li, Wassim Abida, Alison M. Schram, Britta Weigelt, David Mutch, Alessandro Vindigni, Mary Mullen, Carlos Cruchaga, Howard Scher, Ross Levine, Elli Papaemmanuil, Mitchell J. Machiela, Karen Cadoo, Daniel C. Link, and Kelly L. Bolton. Nature Genetics, September.

Recurrent Deletions and Regulatory Disruption of the Y Chromosome in Cancer. Nguyen, Trini, Aditi Kuchi, Hongyu Liu, Nicholas Tatonetti, and Dan Theodorescu. Communications Biology 9 (1): 1226.

Imaging

Spine MRI in Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension: A Survey of Current State of Practice. Mark, Ian T., Timothy J. Amrhein, Andrew Callen, Peter G. Kranz, Ajay A. Madhavan, Ananth J. Madhuranthakam, Mark D. Mamlouk, Marcel M. Maya, Gayle Salama, Kimberly Seifert, Vinil Shah, and Miriam E. Peckham. AJNR. American Journal of Neuroradiology, September, ajnr.A9648.

Uniform Quantification of Hepatic Fat Fraction Across Body Sizes Using Photon-Counting CT. Li, Xinhua, Cindy Kallman, Di Zhang, Chao Guo, and Yifang Zhou. European Journal of Radiology 205 (September): 113245.

Medicine

A Scoping Review and Meta-Analysis of Proportions of Central Nervous System Manifestations Reported in Patients With Sjögren’s Disease. Varadhachary, Arun, Ghaith Noaiseh, Julie Frantsve-Hawley, Frederick B. Vivino, Jennifer A. McCombe, Shamik Bhattacharyya, E. Sherwood Brown, Andrew R. Carey, Robert Fox, Thomas Grader-Beck, Janet E. Lewis, Stephen Maitz, Steven Mandel, Astrid Rasmussen, George Sarka, R. Hal Scofield, Daniel J. Wallace, Rochelle Zak, Kristie Cox, Katherine M. Hammitt, Steven Carsons, and Nancy Carteron. Arthritis Care & Research, September.

Dietary α-Ketoglutarate Modulates Lung Adenocarcinoma Growth and Epigenetic Remodeling in a Sex-Dependent Fashion. Alcaraz, Martín, Aparamita Pandey, Mia Santiago, Camelia Dumitras, Leilani Pradis, Estefany Gomez, Adriana Soto, Pasquale Saggese, Abigail S. Krall, Bin Liu, Heather R. Christofk, Steven M. Dubinett, Xue Li, and Claudio Scafoglio. Cell Reports 45 (10): 118052.

Disease Modification Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes: A Modified Delphi. Khunti, Kamlesh, Mark P. Funnell, Patrick J. Highton, Ashkon Ardavani, Javed Butler, Jon Campbell, Melanie J. Davies, Rachel Evley, Jose C. Florez, Jason Gaglia, Rohit N. Kulkarni, Nicolas Musi, Leigh Perreault, Bryce B. Reeve, Sylvia E. Rosas, Ash Routen, Zobair Younossi, and Nuha El Sayed. The Lancet. Diabetes & Endocrinology, September, S2213-8587(26)00243-3.

Global Paid and Unpaid Productivity Losses Due to Gastrointestinal Cancer Mortality. Danpanichkul, Pojsakorn, Yanfang Pang, Krittameth Rakwong, Nut Chotkijnanthakul, Donghee Kim, Matheus Souza, Ahmad Anouti, Andrea Ortiz Maldonado, Nikki Duong, Rashid N. Lui, Tarek Sawas, Suthat Liangpunsakul, Michael B. Wallace, Ju Dong Yang, and Amit G. Singal. The American Journal of Gastroenterology, September.

Longitudinal Study on the Influence of Physical Activity in Managing Fatigue in Patients With Colorectal Cancer. Liu, Louisa, Elham Kazemian, Nicole C. Loroña, Celina Shirazipour, Jun Gong, Sylvia L. Crowder, Nathalie Nguyen, Victoria Damerell, Kathi Mooney, Mary C. Playdon, Cornelia M. Ulrich, Christopher I. Li, David Shibata, Adetunji T. Toriola, Jennifer Ose, Anita R. Peoples, Sheetal Hardikar, Erin M. Siegel, Julienne E. Bower, Biljana Gigic, Aasha I. Hoogland, Xiaoyin Li, Brent J. Small, Howard Kaufman, Heather S. L. Jim, and Jane C. Figueiredo. Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network: JNCCN, September, 1–8.

Multidimensional Aging Trajectories Preceding Cardiovascular Events. Phyo, Aung Zaw Zaw, Zimu Wu, Andrew M. Tonkin, Swarna Vishwanath, Sara E. Espinoza, Rory Wolfe, Suzanne G. Orchard, Robyn L. Woods, David Gonzalez-Chica, Nigel Stocks, and Joanne Ryan. JAMA Cardiology, September, e263597.

Multi-Target Blood Test for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Early Detection: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Prospective ALTUS Study. John, Binu V., Mark Camardo, Amit G. Singal, Neehar D. Parikh, Ju Dong Yang, Lewis R. Roberts, Alvin C. Silva, Naga Chalasani, Reena Salgia, John B. Kisiel, Kyle Porter, Paul Z. Elias, Elle Kielar-Grevstad, Janelle J. Bruinsma, Marilyn C. Olson, Jorge Garces, and Paul J. Limburg. Journal of Hepatology, September, S0168-8278(26)02904-1.

Overcoming Cellular Barriers With Cell-Penetrating Peptides: Functional Roles of Individual Amino Acids. Akinsola, Rasaq Olajide, and Kumaran Narayanan. Journal of Drug Targeting, September, 1–22.

Pharmacy-Led Transition of Care Services With Positive Readmissions Impact in an Acute Care Hospital. Shane, Rita, Jackie Ho, Donna Leang, Sarah Stephens, Joshua Pevnick, Hai Tran, Vipul Patel, and Steven M. Simons. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy: AJHP, September, zxag291.

Pituitary Society Delphi Consensus on the Role of Radiotherapy for Pituitary Adenomas. Castinetti, Frederic, Cecilia Piazzola, John Ayuk, Michael Kosmin, Marco Losa, Hani J. Marcus, Alberto M. Pereira, Shlomo Melmed, Maria Fleseriu, and Pituitary Society Radiation Therapy for Pituitary Adenomas Delphi Consortium. Pituitary 29 (5): 158.

Rosacea in Patients With Skin of Color: Diagnosis and Management. Lohani, Devina, Justin W. Marson, and Hilary E. Baldwin. American Journal of Clinical Dermatology, September.

Surgery and Tile-Based Radiation Therapy Versus Surgery and Stereotactic Radiation for Newly Diagnosed Brain Metastases (ROADS): A Randomized, Open-Label, Phase 3 Trial. Weinberg, Jeffrey S., Brandon S. Imber, Vincent DiNapoli, Nelson S. Moss, Kimberly B. Hoang, Fen Wang, Imran Mohiuddin, Akshitkumar M. Mistry, Michael A. Garcia, Hussein Tawbi, Nitesh V. Patel, Huong Pham, Robert Ryan, John Wanebo, Kris Smith, Clark C. Chen, Alexandra Paul, Lindsey Sloan, Matthew J. Shepard, Ken Tatebe, Colette J. Shen, David G. Brachman, Angela M. Richardson, Linton T. Evans, Gregory B. Biedermann, Adam Robin, Toral R. Patel, Aristotelis Filippidis, Heather Lin, Lola B. Chambless, John Dombrowski, Akash J. Patel, Sajeel Chowdhary, K. Stuart Lee, M. Sean Peach, Adam Nowlan, David J. McCracken, John Floyd, Fen Xia, Jeremy Rudnick, Jing Li, Debra Nana Yeboa, Frederick F. Lang, Rajat J. Kudchadker, Mary Frances McAleer, Jeffrey Wefel, Sherise Desiree Ferguson, Ying Yuan, Simon Hanft, and Thomas H. Beckham. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 101200JCO2601894.

Valorization of Sardinian Grapevine Leaves as a Sustainable Source of Flavonols With Anticancer Potential. Spissu, Ylenia, Maria Lauda Tomasi, Carla Cossu, Andrea Floris, Emanuela Azara, Gavina Rita Serra, Irene Marchesi, Francesco Paolo Fiorentino, Gaia Rocchitta, Riccarda Zappino, and Antonio Barberis. Antioxidants 15 (9): 1153.

Neurology

DNL343 and Disease Progression in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Paganoni, Sabrina, Lori B. Chibnik, Melanie Quintana, Eric A. Macklin, Michelle A. Detry, Matteo Vestrucci, Giorgio Paulon, Anna McGlothlin, Jianing Wang, David Walk, Lauren Elman, Marianne Chase, HEALEY ALS Platform Trial Study Group, et al. JAMA Network Open 9 (9): e2634809.

Experimental Model of Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury Induces Proteomic Signatures of Neurodegeneration in the Hippocampus. Winzey, Kevin D., Samuel Guzman, Edward Yang, Debbie Moreira, Xingyu Wang, Xuesong Gu, Simon T. Dillon, E. Wesley Ely, S. Ananth Karumanchi, Towia A. Libermann, and Shouri Lahiri. Intensive Care Medicine Experimental 14 (1): 128.

Reduced Paramagnetic Rim Visibility Signals Lesion Aging and Tissue Degeneration in Progressive Multiple Sclerosis: Impact on Clinical Trials. Sacco, Simone, Haojun Zhao, Shuiting Cheng, Amit Vijay Akula, Elaina Luskin, Jiuyi Zhang, Olga Manouvakhova, Tiffany P. Cooper, William Stern, Valerie J. Block, Akash Virupakshaiah, Refujia Gomez, Adam Santaniello, Pascal Sati, Nico Papinutto, Riley Bove, Jeffrey M. Gelfand, Douglas S. Goodin, Ari J. Green, Jorge Oksenberg, Emmanuelle Waubant, Michael R. Wilson, Scott S. Zamvil, as the University of California, San Francisco MS-EPIC Team, Bruce A. C. Cree, Stephen L. Hauser, and Roland G. Henry. Neurology(R) Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation 13 (6): e200655.

Neurosurgery

Neurosurgical Management of Achondroplasia: A Systematic Review. Tatit, Rafael T., Caroline P. Tatit, Nir Shimony, Moise Danielpour, and George I. Jallo. Journal of Neurosurgery. Pediatrics, September, 1–13.

Tozuleristide Fluorescence-Guided Resection of Gliomas: Results of a Phase II Investigator-Initiated Study. Fox, Rachel C., Xuemo Fan, Adam N. Mamelak, Daniel Gomez, Chirag Patil, Ray M. Chu, Jeremy Rudnick, Jethro Hu, Elliott M. Sina, Keith L. Black, Kristi Harrington, and John S. Yu. Operative Neurosurgery, September.

OBGYN

Repeat Administration of Magnesium for an Exacerbation of Postpartum Preeclampsia: A National Survey. Dellapiana, Gabriela, Keona Thompson, and Kimberly D. Gregory. The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, the International Society of Perinatal Obstetricians 39 (1): 2738315.

Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine

Best Practice Guidelines for the Execution of Intraoperative Neuromonitoring in Spine Deformity Surgery. Anari, Jason B., Alexander M. Park, Michael W. Brown, Mehdi M. Elfilali, Katerina M. Kourpas, Benjamin B. Bruins, Alier Franco, Anil Mendiratta, Teeda Pinyavat, Jonathan Umina, Samuel Strantzas, Rajiv Sethi, Stephen Lewis, Rajiv R. Iyer, Richard Menger, Daniel J. Sucato, Kenneth D. Illingworth, Amer F. Samdani, Lawrence G. Lenke, and Michael G. Vitale. Spine Deformity, September.

Clinical and Radiographic Outcomes of Robotic-Assisted Direct Pars Repairs for Spondylolysis. Snyder, Samantha, Vivien Chan, James Caruso, Elaine Butterworth, Paal Nilssen, Kenneth D. Illingworth, Corey T. Walker, and David L. Skaggs. Spine Deformity, September.

CORR Insights®: Radial Head Fractures Cluster in the Anterolateral and Anteromedial Quadrants and Do Not Correlate With Coronoid Fracture Types. Itamura, John M. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, September.

Evaluating Reasoning-Tuned Large Language Models for Clinical Decision-Making in Spine Surgery. Lam, Chuck H., Conor T. Boylan, Adit Ravishankar, Alex Bulloso, George McKay, David L. Skaggs, and Morgan Jones. Spine Deformity, September.

Osteochondral Fragment Fixation: Proceedings of the International Congress on Cartilage Repair of the Ankle. Tham, Alexander, Jared Rubin, James J. Butler, Paloma Gauthier, John G. Kennedy, Samuel B. Adams, Carol L. Andrews, Chayanin Angthong, Jorge P. Batista, Onno L. Baur, Steven Bayer, Christoph Becher, Zijun Zhang, et al. Foot & Ankle Specialist, October, 19386400261485740.

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Carbamylation as a Novel Marker of Coronary Artery Calcification in People With CKD: Findings From a Phenome-Wide Association Study in CRIC. Awwad, Aya, Pranav Garimella, Eugene P. Rhee, Joachim Janowski, S. Ananth Karumanchi, Sagar Nigwekar, Andrew S. Allegretti, Anders H. Berg, James P. Lash, Alba Gutiérrez-Sacristán, Mengyao Tang, and Sahir Kalim. American Journal of Kidney Diseases, September, S0272-6386(26)01120-0.

Challenges in Establishing Epidemiological Cut-off Values for the Burkholderia Cepacia Complex. Huse, Holly K., Carmila Manuel, Tracy McLemore, Romney M. Humphries, Anna Clara Milesi Galdino, Diana Celedonio, John J. LiPuma, Daniel A. Green, James E. A. Zlosnik, Maria Traczewski, Audrey Schuetz, John Turnidge, Mandy Wootton, Darcie Carpenter, Michael Huband, Chris Pillar, Marguerite L. Monogue, and Peter A. Jorth. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September, e0073026.

Individual Income and Blood Pressure Control After Antihypertensive Treatment Initiation Accounting for Regional Variation: A Japanese Nationwide Study. Satoh, Michihiro, Yutaro Iwabe, Kosuke Inoue, Hiroki Nobayashi, Seiya Izumi, Takahisa Murakami, Maya Toyama, Yuya Suzuki, Tomoko Muroya, Shingo Nakayama, Takayoshi Ohkubo, and Hirohito Metoki. Hypertension Research, September.

Inter-Organelle Membrane Contact Sites as Physiological Regulatory Hubs in the Brain: From Neurons to Glial Cells. Wu, Yuchen, Ginam Cho, and Youngshin Lim. Biomolecules 16 (9): 1257.

Landscape of Approaches for Streamlining Pre-Analytical and Early Analytical Variables for Solid Tumor Next-Generation Sequencing: A Genomics Organization for Academic Laboratories Consortium Report. David, Marjorie P., Jennifer J. D. Morrissette, Noah Brown, Georgios Deftereos, Fei Dong, Karin E. Finberg, Yulong Fu, Jeffrey Gagan, Christopher D. Gocke, Audrey N. Jajosky, Eric Konnick, Thomas D. Lee, David B. Lieberman, Deqin Ma, Laura MacConaill, Christopher Mignogna, Andrew C. Nelson, Erik Nohr, Megan Parilla, Adam D. Pfefferle, Somak Roy, Pamela Snyder, Eric Vail, Peng Wang, Liqiang Xi, Daniel Jones, and Dara L. Aisner. Academic Pathology 13 (4): 100299.

Pediatrics

LLM and CQL Computable Phenotypes for Myocarditis Adverse Event Feature and Outcome Determinations Using Patient FHIR Data: A Feasibility Study. Gaspar, Fraser W., Seth B. Roberts, Francis X. Campion, Lynda Hoeksema, Jessica Kasirsky, Raymond Duncan, Matthew Sonesen, Renier Estiandan, Khyzer B. Aziz, Julie A. Riddler, Jessica Zhou, and Hussein Ezzeldin. Frontiers in Digital Health 8: 1903755.

Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences

Approved Medications for Substance Use Disorders: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Completed Phase 3 Randomized Controlled Trials. Danovitch, Itai, Kyla Truman, Haze Brown, Macie Miller, Shaishav Shah, Jayant Totlani, Daniel N. Kaidbay, Kaleab K. Tessema, Zholi Minasyan, Waguih William IsHak, Samuel Miles, and Robert N. Pechnick. CNS Drugs, September.

Radiation Oncology

A Technology-Specific Risk Analysis of Surface Guided Radiation Therapy. Bry, Victoria, Angelia Tran, Tamara Egan, Eric Ford, and Juergen Meyer. Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics 27 (10): e70837.

More for Some, Less for Others: Refining Treatment for Anorectal Cancers. Ashman, Jonathan B., Luca Boldrini, Eric D. Miller, Krishan R. Jethwa, Katelyn Atkins, Aisling Barry, Randa Tao, and Michael D. Chuong. International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics 126 (3): 607–15.

Surgery

A Machine Learning Framework Enables Supervised Treatment Response Prediction From Tumor Transcriptomics Across Cancer Types. Pal, Lipika R., E. Michael Gertz, Nishanth Ulhas Nair, Sumit Mukherjee, Sumeet Patiyal, Thomas Cantore, Emma M. Campagnolo, Tian-Gen Chang, Saugato Rahman Dhruba, Yewon Kim, Eldad D. Shulman, Padma Sheila Rajagopal, Danh-Tai Hoang, Sridhar Hannenhalli, Alejandro A. Schäffer, and Eytan Ruppin. Cancer Research, September.

Automated Assessment of Aesthetic Outcomes Following Combined Facial Aesthetic Surgery – a Pilot Study. Sherwani, Khalil, Leonard Knoedler, Thomas Schaschinger, Tobias Niederegger, Jakob Fenske, Kevin Sadati, Max Heiland, Rainer Pooth, Theodore Brown, Curtis L. Cetrulo, Raffaele Aguglia, and Alexandre G. Lellouch. BMC Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 2 (1): 27.

Delayed Lymphatic Reconstruction for Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema. Monzy, Judith, Jocelyn Lu, Ara A. Salibian, Philip S. Brazio, and Ketan M. Patel. Cancers 18 (18): 2934.

Dual Effects of β-TrCP2 Deletion in Bone Homeostasis: Suppression of Osteoclastogenesis and Enhancement of Osteoblast Activity. Kim, Woo Jung, Sora Han, Hye In Ka, Sun Young Lee, Jiwon Kim, Hyunjeong Joo, Sujung Soh, Gaeun Oh, Kyung Hyun Yoo, Seung Hyun Han, Yeongkag Kwon, Choogon Lee, Kyung-Hyun Park-Min, Se Hwan Mun, and Young Yang. Arthritis & Rheumatology, September.

Engagement of Social Support Systems in Patients Being Considered for and Following Advanced Heart and Lung Surgical Therapies: An ISHLT Expert Consensus Statement. McIlvennan, Colleen K., Samantha J. Anthony, Fabienne Dobbels, Cassie C. Kennedy, Michael Petty, null Melissa Sanchez, Martha Abshire Saylor, Nancy Blumenthal, Khadijah Breathett, Malachy Clancy, Bernice Coleman, Melissa K. Cousino, Kavita Dave, Hilary DuBrock, Nathalie Duerinckx, Meg Fregoso, Kathleen L. Grady, Brittany Koons, Christiane Kugler, Angela Lorts, Federica Meloni, Desiree Robson, Thomas Schlöglhofer, Andrew Morley Smith, Manu Varma, Angela Velleca, Andrew Woods, and Jo Wray. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, September, S1053-2498(26)02037-1.

Expanding the Donor Pool: Successful Single Lung Transplant of a Hepatitis C Seropositive Donor to a Recipient With HIV and Pulmonary Fibrosis. Whiteson, Harris Z., Sangita Goel, Melissa Lesko, Bonnie E. Lonze, and Sapna A. Mehta. Transplant Infectious Disease, September, e70327.

Factors Associated With Surgical Faculty’s Desire to Leave or Stay at Their Jobs. Sarkissyan, Marianna, Christian de Virgilio, Farin Amersi, Sarah L. Blair, Lisa A. Cunningham, Henry R. Govekar, Maheswari Senthil, Saad Shebrain, Anaar Siletz, Brian T. Valerian, Steven D. Wexner, and Alexander C. Schwed. JAMA Surgery, September, e264382.

Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Before Kidney Transplantation: Referral Considerations, Access Outcomes, Procedure Choice, Safety, and Evidence Gaps—A Systematic Review and Exploratory Meta-Analysis. Argaman, Moshe, Chen Klechevski, Aviad Gravetz, Yael Ben Avraham, Nadav Vaknin, Rotem Horowitz, Ali Safadi, Ali Mousa Saida, Murtaja Satea, Alexandre G. Lellouch, Mordechai Shimonov, Eviatar Nesher, and Fahim Kanani. Gastrointestinal Disorders 8 (3): 57.

Propensity Score-Matched Comparison of Normothermic Machine Perfusion and Normothermic Regional Perfusion in Donation After Circulatory Death Liver Transplant. Wisel, Steven A., Tiffany Y. Lim, Michael Luu, Georgios Voidonikolas, Todd V. Brennan, Kambiz Kosari, Tsuyoshi Todo, Nicholas N. Nissen, David C. H. Kwon, Irene K. Kim, and Justin A. Steggerda. Transplantation, September.

Satisfaction With Anaplastology and Willingness for Face Transplantation in Patients With Facial Epitheses: A Pretest Study. Mansoor, Mohammad, Thomas Schaschinger, Tobias Niederegger, Raffaele Aguglia, Kerstin Menzel, Yvonne Motzkus, Jakob Fenske, Max Heiland, Alexandre G. Lellouch, Rainer Schliermann, Steffen Koerdt, and Leonard Knoedler. The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, September.

The EnDuring Purpose of Women in Thoracic Surgery. Antonoff, Mara B. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, September, S0003-4975(26)00964-1.

Urology

Language as a Powerful ‘Influencer’ in Prostate Cancer. Weiner, Adam B., Jessica Rett, and Scott E. Eggener. The Journal of Urology, September, 101097JU0000000000005330.

Variation in Quality of Physician Communication in Prostate Cancer Consultations. Friedrich, Nadine A., Michael Luu, Renning Zheng, Alexander Hernandez-Tirado, Stephen J. Freedland, Brennan Spiegel, Paul Kokorowski, and Timothy J. Daskivich. Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases, September.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Radiation Therapy Dose Linked to High Blood Pressure in the Lungs

Lung cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment may be at higher risk for developing pulmonary hypertension, a type of high blood pressure that affects the arteries that carry blood from the right side of the heart to the lungs. Over time, that heightened pressure can lead to right-sided heart failure.

The study evaluated how exposure of the heart and lungs to radiation—such as during treatment for lung cancer—contributes to the development of pulmonary hypertension. The research was published in Thorax and led by investigators from Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University.

“Our findings represent the first clinical evidence linking cardiopulmonary radiation dose to pulmonary hypertension in humans,” said Katelyn Atkins, MD, PhD, interim chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Cedars-Sinai and corresponding author of the study.  “We found that pulmonary hypertension was associated with radiation dose to the pulmonary artery, but not other areas of the heart or lungs.”

Investigators looked at data on patients from Cedars-Sinai, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute receiving radiation therapy to the chest for lung cancer.

The study found that 12% of these patients experienced pulmonary hypertension, which can cause heart strain and shortness of breath.

Atkins said these findings highlight pulmonary hypertension as a potentially under-recognized outcome after cardiopulmonary radiation therapy, and that they support the need for increased awareness, new guidelines for assessing at-risk patients, and further study.

Additional Cedars-Sinai authors include Samuel C Zhang, Katrina D Silos, Olivia Peony, Maria Oorloff, Asneh Singh, Cody Ramin, and Andriana P Nikolova.

Other authors include Christopher E Kehayias, Christian Guthier, Andrew Warrington, Mina Bakhtiar, Cosmin Ciausu, John He, David E Kozono, David C Christiani, Anju Nohria, Aaron B Waxman, and Raymond H Mak.

Funding: This study was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award number 2U01CA209414-07 (JH, RM, DCC) and the Cedars-Sinai Garber Award for Cancer Research (no award/grant number).

Cedars-Sinai Analysis Links Prior Stroke to Sudden Cardiac Death

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University investigators have identified evidence showing that having a stroke could increase a person’s risk for sudden cardiac death, an electrical malfunction that causes the heart to stop beating. Their study was published in Nature Cardiovascular Research.

“A growing body of data suggests that a stroke may predispose patients to sudden cardiac death, which can occur well after they are hospitalized for the stroke,” said Sumeet Chugh, MD, director of the Center for Cardiac Arrest Prevention in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai and corresponding author of the study.

Based on their own prior research as well as studies published by others, investigators found evidence linking strokes to development of lethal rhythms in the heart’s pumping chambers, a leading cause of sudden cardiac deaths. The data also associated strokes with abnormal electrocardiograms and disruptions of the autonomic nervous system, which controls functioning of the heart and other organs.

The review also pointed to elevated risk for takotsubo syndrome, which weakens the heart’s left pumping chamber, among stroke survivors.

Investigators said rigorous research is needed to confirm the link between strokes and sudden cardiac deaths and to determine whether interventions might prevent these fatalities.

The first author of this study is Vishnu Kadiyala and Kyndaron Reinier is a co-author.

Funding: This work was funded by an American Heart Association Rapid Impact Research Award to Dr. Reinier. Chugh holds the Pauline and Harold Price Chair in Cardiac Electrophysiology at Cedars-Sinai Health System, Los Angeles.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

pediatric specialists will join child-health experts from across the country at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2026 National Conference and Exhibition Oct. 2–6 in San Diego.

“The pediatric physicians, scientists and caregivers of Guerin Children’s are committed to transforming children’s health,” said Ophir Klein, MD, PhD, executive director of Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s and executive vice dean of Children’s Health. “By combining outstanding multidisciplinary care with leading-edge research and education, we are building new approaches to some of the most complex challenges in pediatric medicine.”

A Guerin Children’s booth in the exhibit hall—Booth 2330—will showcase the institution’s research, pediatric and specialty care, medical education programs, and clinical innovations. Cedars-Sinai pediatric experts attending the conference are available to comment on emerging children’s health issues and new research findings.

Guerin Children’s Experts Available for Interviews

Pooja Nawathe, MD, assistant director of Healthcare Simulation at Guerin Children’s, is the incoming chair of the AAP Section on Critical Care Quality Improvement Committee. She is part of conference sessions on “Simulation is a Mindset” for the AAP Section on Critical Care and Simulation and Innovative Learning Methods and can discuss the ways simulation enhances patient safety and serves as a valuable tool for clinical training and medical education.

Rangasamy Ramanathan, MD, MBBS, director of Neonatology at Guerin Children’s, can discuss Cedars-Sinai’s launch of the first Neuro Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Los Angeles. He can also comment on the upcoming NICU fellowship at Guerin Children’s and other advances in neonatology.

Kurlen Payton, MD, assistant director of Quality and Safety at Guerin Children’s, will present research on a quality improvement study in a high-volume delivery center.

Theodora Stavroudis, MD, neonatologist, and Allison Henry, MD, director of newborn care, will present research on neonatal resuscitations that require additional team members. Henry can also discuss the importance of vitamin K shots for newborns and the potential downsides of refusing them.

Scheduling Interviews

To arrange an interview with a Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s expert, contact Shishira Sreenivas at Shishira.sreenivas@cshs.org or 202-297-0220.

“The last cough she had scared me. She woke up and she couldn’t breathe,” said Anita Sanchez, Angela’s mother.

Sanchez rushed Angela to a physician in her hometown of Sinaloa, Mexico. After initial scans were inconclusive, she brought Angela to Los Angeles for further testing. When a CT scan revealed a small white patch on her left lung, Angela was referred to Leo Mascarenhas, MD, director of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s.

When Mascarenhas took a close look at Angela’s scans, he suspected it to be an exceptionally rare lung tumor.

“I examined her scans and noticed the tumor was arising out of one of the branches of the windpipe called a bronchus. It looked like bronchopulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma,” he said. “It’s really seen in adults. But I’ve taken care of a few cases over the years, and it can occur in children even though it’s very, very rare.”

Bronchopulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma is an ultra-rare form of lung cancer that arises in the mucus-producing glands of the airways and is typically seen in adults. In children, it is exceedingly rare, accounting for fewer than 0.2 cases per million pediatric tumors.

The next day, Andrew Brownlee, MD, an adult thoracic surgeon who primarily cares for adults at the Jim and Eleanor Randall Department of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai, collaborated with Eugene Kim, MD, surgeon-in-chief at Guerin Children’s, to perform a robotic bronchoscopy.

This minimally invasive technology allows physicians to biopsy tumors and examine nearby lymph nodes through the airway without opening the chest.

The biopsy confirmed Mascarenhas’ suspicions. Angela had a 3-centimeter tumor lodged by the branch of the windpipe in her left lung. Fortunately, the cancer hadn’t spread elsewhere in the body. Surgery was the only option to remove the tumor. 

“As a mother, I think I could feel something was wrong, but I never imagined it would be this bad,” Sanchez said. “But Dr. Brownlee was confident he could take out the tumor, so I was grateful she was in good hands.”

Traditional open-chest surgery can mean a longer recovery, time away from school and potential chest wall deformities as children grow. Brownlee instead suggested a minimally invasive robot-assisted surgery. Angela was just above the weight threshold needed for the procedure.

“One of the unique things that we can offer here at Cedars-Sinai is that this is a children's hospital within an adult medical center,” Brownlee said. “We perform robotic thoracic surgery in adults multiple times per week. That experience allows us to bring this highly specialized expertise to a child when appropriate.”  

The surgery was successful. Within a week after receiving the devastating diagnosis, Angela had the tumor removed along with the lower left lobe of her lung. Just two days later, she was discharged from the hospital. 

Two years later, Angela, now 14, remains cancer-free. She returns to Los Angeles every six months for follow-up visits with Mascarenhas. Back home in Sinaloa, she’s busy being a teenager, spending time with her siblings and navigating high school.

“When I was first told I had lung cancer, I felt nervous and scared. But since everything is fine now, I feel much better. I feel like everything is still going to be OK,” Angela said.

Mascarenhas credits Angela’s outcome to the multidisciplinary team he was able to quickly assemble to care for her—an approach Kim says sets Guerin Children’s apart.

“We’ve been building a collaboration among pediatric surgery, oncology and thoracic surgery for many years now,” Kim said. “The goal has always been to bring together the best aspects of each division to offer something truly unique to our patients. Much of that expertise involves minimally invasive techniques that may not be readily available at dedicated children’s hospitals.”

Sanchez is grateful she brought her daughter to Los Angeles for care.

“I think that she couldn’t have had this type of care anywhere else,” Sanchez said. “We had the best doctors and nurses. They’re the people who saved my daughter’s life. And I’m always going to be thankful for that.” 

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: The "Unscreenable" Cancers

Banffy told CBS LA Mornings anchors Sheba Turk and Jamie Yuccas that many athletes now compete into their late 30s and 40s largely because they better understand what the body needs to stay healthy.

“We know how to take care of ourselves better,” he said. “We know the importance of recovery, of sleep, of rest.”

Athletes who compete at this stage of their careers, Banffy told Turk and Yuccas, are “the elite of the elite” and have “harnessed that ability to increase their capacity, their tolerance. They’ve adapted to the physical forces that they put themselves through to be able to continue their career.”

Mental preparation also plays an important role, he said. Older athletes must recognize that they may not perform exactly as they did earlier in their careers, while also considering the physical toll of competition and time away from their families.

Banffy also pointed to training load management: tracking how much stress an athlete’s body experiences and adjusting workouts accordingly. Improved techniques and technology allow teams to measure that strain and identify when an athlete needs to rest and recover.

“We don’t need to go into the gym seven days a week and work out for three hours a day,” he said. “All it’s going to do is lead to injury.”

Banffy told Turk and Yuccas the same principles apply to recreational athletes, who should avoid overtraining and prioritize recovery rather than chasing shortcuts.

“Peptides are all the rage,” he said. “That’s not the answer. The answer is nutrition and recovery.”

Watch the complete segment from CBS 2.

Cedars-Sinai and the Los Angeles Rams will bring their S.T.E.A.M. Squad program to King/Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science for an immersive day of hands-on learning and career exploration. The event is presented as part of the Rams and Hollywood Park S.T.E.A.M. education program, presented by Cedars-Sinai.

Approximately 600 students will participate in interactive experiences led by professionals from Cedars-Sinai, the Rams and Hollywood Park. Rams safety and captain Quentin Lake also will be in attendance. 

The immersive experience will show students how science, technology, engineering, art and math connect to careers in healthcare, sports and entertainment.

Students will rotate through interactive stations including:

• S.T.E.A.M. career panel featuring Cedars-Sinai, Rams and Hollywood Park professionals, who will discuss their career paths and how they use S.T.E.A.M. in their work
• Cedars-Sinai ambulance simulation and walk-through featuring emergency-care equipment
• Stop the Bleed workshop where students will practice lifesaving bleeding-control skills
• Hands-on activities exploring DNA extraction and microscopy, healthcare technology, and the role of movement and physical skills in sports
• A public health simulation, using data and epidemiology to investigate a fictional disease outbreak

In addition, ALL students will be invited to a Rams S.T.E.A.M. activation with interactive tables, giveaways and a DJ.

WHEN

Tuesday, Sept. 29
11:45 a.m.–2:30 p.m. PDT

WHERE

King/Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science
1601 E. 120th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90059

MEDIA RSVP

Melissa Vizcarra, Cedars-Sinai, 719-502-5001 | melissa.vizcarra@cshs.org
Mara Powner, Los Angeles Rams, mpowner@rams.nfl.com

High blood pressure now affects about 1 in 10 pregnancies, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gestational hypertension—high blood pressure that develops for the first time during pregnancy—also has been increasing for decades.

Kilpatrick told Scientific American several factors are driving the increase.

“We’ve known it’s been increasing partially because of better recognition and diagnosis,” she said, emphasizing the importance of awareness. “It should be something women know about.”

Beyond better recognition and diagnosis, Kilpatrick pointed to several demographic and health trends. Women are having their first pregnancies later in life, and more are having babies after age 40. Multiple births, such as twins and triplets, also have become more common, in part because of in vitro fertilization. Also, body mass index—an estimate of body fat—continues to climb. Each of these factors can raise the risk of high blood pressure, and the risk factors can overlap.

Gestational hypertension can progress to preeclampsia, a condition marked by high blood pressure and organ damage that can affect the liver and kidneys. Pregnancy-related blood pressure disorders are among the leading causes of illness and death among mothers in the U.S., and serious problems can develop suddenly.

Kilpatrick told Scientific American that preeclampsia results from a systemic response to the placenta. An abnormal increase in a protein called sFlt-1, which slows placental growth, appears to help trigger the condition.

In 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first blood test to help diagnose preeclampsia by measuring the ratio of sFlt-1 to another placental protein that remains stable. Kilpatrick co-authored research that led to the test’s approval.

“If we don’t diagnose it soon enough or women stay pregnant too long, they can get really sick and, in the extreme, of course, die,” she told Scientific American. “That’s the problem with the disease—it can be very insidious.”

Read the complete article from Scientific American.