Brain & Life® announces new Editor-in-Chief

Sarah Song, MD, MPH, FAAN, to Succeed Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN

2024-07-08

(Press-News.org) MINNEAPOLIS – The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) has named a new editor-in-chief of Brain & Life®, its free patient and caregiver magazine, website and podcast. Sarah Song, MD, MPH, FAAN, an associate professor in the department of neurological sciences at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, will succeed Editor-in-Chief Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN, who will complete her 10-year term on December 31, 2024.

Song, a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, will be the third editor-in-chief of Brain & Life since the publication began in 2005 and will begin her new role on January 1, 2025.

Brain & Life provides tips, research and inspiring personal stories connecting people with the voices, answers and expert advice to help keep their brains healthy.

“Dr. Avitzur has taken Brain & Life to an incredible height—I feel lucky to be stepping into this great situation where she has forged ahead on so many levels,” Song said. “Brain & Life is the most reliable, trustworthy source of all things brain health. Given all the misinformation out there, and the desire for accurate health knowledge, Brain & Life can bridge that gap and be the resource that people rely on.”

Song received her medical degree from the University of Illinois. In addition to her professorship at Rush University Medical Center, Song also serves as the director of the Rush TeleStroke Program. Song has served as the associate editor of Brain & Life since 2022 and has been on the editorial board since 2015. She is vice chair for the American Academy of Neurology Advocacy Engagement Subcommittee and serves on the AAN Brain Health Committee. She has also served on the editorial board for the Residents and Fellows Section of the AAN’s medical journal Neurology. Song is the co-founder and past president of the Illinois State Neurological Society.

Learn more about brain health at BrainandLife.org. Follow Brain & Life® on Facebook, X and Instagram.

The American Academy of Neurology is the world's largest association of neurologists and neuroscience professionals, with over 40,000 members. The AAN’s mission is to enhance member career fulfillment and promote brain health for all. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, concussion, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, headache and migraine.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit AAN.com or find us on Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

University of Cincinnati study: Brain organ plays key role in adult neurogenesis

2024-07-08

University of Cincinnati researchers have pioneered an animal model that sheds light on the role an understudied organ in the brain has in repairing damage caused by stroke. The research was published July 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and sought to learn more about how the adult brain generates new neurons to repair damaged tissue. The research team focused on the choroid plexus, a small organ within brain ventricles that produces the brain’s cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). CSF circulates throughout ...

Small molecules induce trained immunity, opening a new approach to fighting disease

2024-07-08

Vaccines provide a front-line defense against dangerous viruses, training adaptive immune cells to identify and fight specific pathogens. But innate immune cells — the first responders to any bodily invader — have no such specific long-term memory. Still, scientists have found that they can reprogram these cells to be even better at their jobs, potentially fighting off seasonal scourges like the common cold or even new viral diseases for which vaccines have not yet been developed. A University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) team has found several small molecule candidates that induce this trained immunity without the ...

Erasing “bad memories” to improve long term Parkinson’s disease treatment

2024-07-08

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Common treatments for Parkinson’s disease can address short-term symptoms but can also cause extensive problems for patients in the long run. Namely, treatments can cause dyskinesia, a form of uncontrollable movements and postures. In a recent study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham took a different approach to dyskinesia and treated it like a “bad motor memory.” They found that blocking a protein called Activin A could halt dyskinesia symptoms ...

Restored oyster sanctuaries host more marine life

2024-07-08

In the campaign to restore Chesapeake Bay, oyster sanctuaries rank among the most hotly contested strategies. But new research suggests these no-harvest areas are working, and not only for the oysters. In a new study published July 4 in Marine Ecology Progress Series, Smithsonian biologists discovered oyster sanctuaries contain more abundant populations of oysters and other animal life—and the presence of two common parasites is not preventing that. Oysters form the backbone of Chesapeake Bay. Besides injecting millions of dollars into the regional economy each year, they also act as vital habitat and filter feeders that clean the water. But their populations ...

Research spotlight: Machine learning helps identify patients at varying levels of risk for opioid use disorder

2024-07-08

Ronen Rozenblum, PhD, MPH, director of the Unit for Innovative Healthcare Practice & Technology and director of Business Development of the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, is the principal investigator and senior author of a new study published in JMIR Medical Informatics, “A Machine Learning Application to Classify Patients at Differing Levels of Risk of Opioid Use Disorder: Clinician Based ...

Detroit researchers receive Department of Defense grant to assist in discovering new treatments for ovarian cancer

2024-07-08

DETROIT — Gen Sheng Wu, Ph.D., professor of oncology in the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, recently received a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. This four-year, $924,000 grant will benefit Wu’s study, “Targeting Dual-Specificity Phosphatase 1 in Platinum Resistance in Ovarian Cancer,” which aims to discover improved treatments for ovarian cancer. “Ovarian cancer ...

Acupuncture reduces methadone dose and opioid cravings in patients undergoing methadone maintenance therapy

2024-07-08

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 8 July 2024 Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet @Annalsofim Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of ...

Novel compound offers improved defense against fentanyl overdoses

2024-07-08

Scientists at the University of Florida have identified a novel compound aimed at improving the treatment of opioid overdoses, which claimed the lives of more than 81,000 Americans last year. The discovery could combat the devastating epidemic of opioid-related deaths, driven predominantly by the proliferation of fentanyl. The highly potent synthetic opioid is a pain reliever and among the nation’s most abused substances. “Fentanyl is driving the need to find better treatments for opioid overdoses,” said Jay McLaughlin, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacodynamics in the UF College of Pharmacy. “Every opioid death is preventable, highlighting ...

NIH awards Wake Forest University School of Medicine $27 million to study vascular health and its impact on cognition

2024-07-08

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – July 8, 2024 – Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have been awarded a five-year, $27 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to renew funding for MESA-MIND, an ancillary study to the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). In 2018, researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine received more than $18 million from the NIA to launch MESA-MIND to study the connections between heart health and brain health. “In MESA-MIND, we are studying how heart health contributes to brain health in diverse groups of people,” said Timothy Hughes, Ph.D., ...

College of Public Health receives NIH grant to pilot AI chatbot for African Americans with depression

2024-07-08

As a leader in innovative health solutions, George Mason University’s College of Public Health received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) AIM-AHEAD program grant to pilot an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for Black and African Americans with depression. Health Informatics Professor Farrokh Alemi will enhance his first-of-its-kind, evidence-based artificial intelligence tool to address the medication needs of African Americans with depression. The existing AI tool recommends antidepressants for 16,775 general-population patient subgroups, each representing a unique combination of medical history. For each of ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Development of a novel modified selective medium cefixime–tellurite-phosphate-xylose-rhamnose MacConkey agar for isolation of Escherichia albertii and its evaluation with food samples

KIST develops full-color-emitting upconversion nanoparticle technology for color displays with ultra-high color reproducibility

Crystal L. Mackall, MD, FAACR, recognized with the 2025 AACR-Cancer Research Institute Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology

A novel strategy for detecting trace-level nanoplastics in aquatic environments: Multi-feature machine learning-enhanced SERS quantification leveraging the coffee ring effect