When COVID-19 restrictions reduced his work schedule, Sam Smith turned to another time-consuming task: applying to medical school.

Hed always wanted to go into medicine, Smith said. But what was happening in the world had a big impact on the kind of medicine he hopes to practice. Now, Smith said, he wants to specialize in infectious diseases.

The experience of the last year makes me think, theres probably going to be another pandemic in the future, said Smith, 25, who has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder and moved to Somerville, Massachusetts when his girlfriend started Harvard Law School. So I want to be on the front lines of the next one.

Even as college and university enrollment overall has dropped this fall, Smith is part of a wave of what officials say is an all-time record number of applicants to medical school.

The number of medical school applicants is up 18 percent this year over last year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, or AAMC, driven by the example of front-line medical workers and high-profile public health figures such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Renewed attention to inequities in the delivery of health care has also played a role.

Its unprecedented, said Geoffrey Young, the AAMCs senior director for student affairs and programs, who compares it to the response to another traumatic moment in American history: the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

After 9/11, there was a huge increase in the number of men and women that were entering into the military, Young said. So far in my lifetime, at least, and for as long as Ive been in medical education, thats the only comparison that I could make.

The Stanford University School of Medicine reports a 50 percent jump in the number of applications it received this year over last year, or 11,000 applications for 90 seats. New York Universitys Grossman School of Medicine says its seen a 4 percent increase, but that comes on top of a 47 percent rise last year after the medical school made tuition free; this year, it has more than 9,600 applications for 102 spots. The Boston University School of Medicine says applications are up 27 percent, to 12,024 for about 110 seats.

Whats been happening this year is that more of the people who had at some point thought about medical school decided to stick with it, said Dr. Kristen Goodell, associate dean of admissions at the BU School of Medicine. And that, I think, may have a lot to do with the fact that people look at Anthony Fauci, look at the doctors in their community and say, You know, that is amazing. This is a way for me to make a difference.

Medical school admissions officers have come up with a name for this. They call it the "Fauci Effect."

Ryan Chahal, who is also applying to medical school, is among those inspired by Fauci, he said.

"There definitely was a Fauci Effect for me, said Chahal, 25, who lives in Tampa, Florida. People who are interested in medicine are interested in evidence and evidence-based approaches to things, and he has been very evidence-based.

Fauci said hes gotten hundreds of letters from people telling him they want to practice medicine.

Its very flattering, he said in an interview via Zoom with GBH News. I think probably a more realistic assessment is that, rather than the Fauci Effect, its the effect of a physician who is trying to and hopefully succeeding in having an important impact on an individuals health, as well as on global health. So if it works to get more young individuals into medical school, go ahead and use my name. Be my guest.

Among other reasons admissions officials cite for the increase in prospective medical school students is that the pandemic has given many people more free time to complete the arduous application process.

Normally, before applying to medical school, nearly half of all applicants first spend a year or two after college working, traveling, doing research, pursuing masters degrees or volunteering, Young said.

But this year, a lot of the plans they made post-grad honestly fell through, said Dr. Sahil Mehta, founder of MedSchoolCoach, which prepares students for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).

We saw a lot of students who said, You know what? Im going to apply this year, Mehta said. Maybe they were on the fence and they saw what was happening. They saw that health care workers were really at the forefront of trying to solve this. It really lit a fire under people.

When the dermatology practice where she was working as a medical assistant shut down temporarily because of COVID-19, Mary Grace Kelley had the chance to retake the MCAT, and she significantly improved her score.

This is a perfect time of no distractions, said Kelley, 23, who lives in the Boston suburb of Natick and is applying to medical schools this year from her childhood bedroom in her parents house, which is decorated with team photos and varsity letters from her time as an undergraduate Division I hockey forward. Im not very good at sitting still.

Meredith Nierman / The Hechinger Report

Some institutions also waived the requirement that applicants submit results from the MCAT, which canceled several test dates in the spring. Stanford, which is among the schools that made the MCAT optional, reports that 5 percent of applicants did not submit a score.

Medical schools have received so many applications that admissions officers many of them working remotely are struggling to keep up with the volume. My mailbox is almost full with emails apologizing for the delays, Chahal said. Theyve just had a huge number of applications.

This deluge comes as the nation faces a projected shortage of physicians, and its aging population is requiring more specialty care.

The United States will be short 54,100 to 139,000 physicians by 2033, the AAMC estimates, while the proportion of people who are over 65 is expected to grow by 45 percent. More than two out of every five doctors now practicing will reach retirement age in the next 10 years.

Already, there are fewer primary care providers than is needed internal medicine doctors, family physicians and pediatricians in nearly 7,200 areas of the United States with a combined population of roughly 82 million people, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Thirty-five percent of registered voters in a survey last year said theyd had trouble finding a doctor, up from 25 percent in 2015.

The bad news for the surge of applicants is that medical schools arent likely to expand to accommodate them next fall, meaning that the odds of getting in this year will be much lower than usual.

Its discouraging a little bit, to be honest, Smith said.

And while 30 new medical schools have been accredited since 2002 bringing the total to 155 and increasing enrollment by 33 percent there has been almost no increase since 1997 in Medicare payments for residency training, which costs an average of $171,855 per year, leaving hospitals to either limit the number of residents or cover the cost themselves.

Medical school graduates finish with a staggering $241,560 of student loan debt, on average, according to the latest available data from the National Center for Education Statistics, discouraging many would-be doctors, including those from low-income and ethnic and racial minority groups.

Eight percent of medical students are Black and 7 percent are Hispanic, both proportions smaller than their share of the population. (Ten percent of medical students identify themselves as multiracial.)

I do think that the debt probably scares off some people, said Goodell, who is also a former chair of the Council on Graduate Medical Education.

Managed health care and more red tape and bureaucracy have also soured some people on careers in medicine, said Mehta, a practicing radiologist.

That really started to disenfranchise the ways physicians practiced medicine. They were getting burned out, he said.

This years many medical school applicants appear undeterred, however.

Everyone feels some sort of responsibility, Kelley said. We are basically the next generation. Were going to be taking care of our parents, grandparents. So theres definitely a call to arms thinking that, if theres another pandemic, itll be up to us.

Mehta expects the trend to continue.

Given that about 60 percent of people [applying this year] wont get in, youre probably only going to see an increase in competitiveness next year, he said. The bigger thing is you now have people who are freshmen in college, sophomores in college, juniors in college, or even in high school, who for the last few months have been watching Dr. Fauci on TV and thinking, Maybe this is for me.

Fauci said he sees the flood of medical school applicants as a sign that people are thinking about social justice that you have responsibility not only to yourself, but as an integral part of society, he said.

He added that he hopes the trend will counterbalance and maybe would even overcome the other side of the coin, which is the really somewhat stunning and disturbing fact that people have no regard at all for society, only just focusing very selfishly on themselves.

This story about medical school applications was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education, in collaboration with GBH News.

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Med Schools Are Seeing A Surge Of Applications. It's Called The 'Fauci Effect' - wgbh.org

A team of researchers at Harvard Medical School has found that the success of a COVID-19 vaccine will depend on not only its efficacy, but also the pace at which it is delivered, the severity of the pandemic, and the publics acceptance of immunization.

Three major pharmaceutical companies released phase three clinical trial results for their COVID-19 vaccine candidates in November, reporting vaccine efficacy rates the percentage reduction of disease in the vaccinated group compared to the unvaccinated group well above 50 percent, the threshold for approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

The study, published in Health Affairs on Nov. 19, was a collaboration with researchers at Yale School of Public Health led by Rochelle P. Walensky, a Harvard Medical School professor and the Chief of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital a Medical School affiliate.

Walensky said the group was motivated by a desire to understand how these vaccine efficacy rates translate and contribute to their true effectiveness in the general population.

There's a lot of different definitions to vaccine efficacy, Walensky said. What does that mean? Does that mean that the person who receives the vaccine doesn't get the disease? Does that mean they can't transmit disease? Does that mean they don't get severe disease?

The team sought to understand true vaccine effectiveness how well a vaccine works in the population by accounting for factors in the current backdrop of the pandemic which affect vaccine implementation, according to Walensky.

We combined all those parameters in this model that we were building to look at not only efficacy, but also parameters of effectiveness like coverage, pace, and how bad the pandemic is at the time you're trying to do a vaccination strategy, Walensky said.

Walensky said the researchers also considered the Americans willingness to get vaccinated a key factor in planning, given that recent surveys have found many would not seek vaccination if a COVID-19 shot were to become available.

The proportion of the population that receives a vaccination is just as important as the vaccines efficacy, Walensky said.

Say you have for all intents and purposes a 100 percent efficacious vaccine but it takes six months to roll out to 50 percent of the population, she said. If you only get it to 50 percent of the population, your coverage drops to 50 percent immediately.

Though the federal government has invested billions in vaccine development through its Operation Warp Speed program, only millions have been invested in implementation and scale-up, according to Walensky.

The investments in development have not nearly been matched by orders of magnitude in the investment in deployment and communication, Walensky said.While there have been a lot of plans that have been drafted, they're not necessarily funded plans, and those plans really need to have money behind them.

Walensky also said that even a highly effective vaccine will struggle to control the pandemic if infection rates continue to rise.

If you have a cup of water and it can put out a fire on your stove, that same cup of water can't put out a forest fire, Walensky said. It really may work very well, but it's only as good as the backdrop in which it is trying to work.

Practicing social distancing and mask wearing is key to lowering infection rates and creating the best environment for maximizing vaccine effectiveness, according to Walensky.

We should not be giving this vaccine more work than it already has to do, and by putting it in the backdrop of a lot of cases, we are doing that, she said.

Staff writer Virginia L. Ma can be reached at virginia.ma@thecrimson.com.

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COVID-19 Vaccine Success Will Depend On Factors Beyond Efficacy Rate, Harvard Medical School Study Finds | News - Harvard Crimson

What motivates medical students to pursue a certain career path?The answers are both complex and individualized.

Recent data on specialty choicelooks at the question from a broad vantage point.The Association of American Medical Colleges 2019 Graduation Questionnaire asked students why they chose a specialty. The 16,000 plus respondents offered insight on how influentialvariousfactors were in choosing their specialty.

For those considering their steps after medical school,FREIDAs Specialty Guideand correspondingseries of videosoffering expert insight on specialty choiceprovidesa clear, approachable overview ofmedicalspecialties and subspecialties and canhelpyou choosea career path. Its designed to simplify medical students specialty selection process, highlightmajor specialties, detail training information and provide access torelated association information.

Learnaboutthe right time to choose a medical specialty.

Top factors

A career path is a matter of personal preference and interest. In ranking 11 factors that influence specialty choice, student respondents made that very clear.

When asked about the importance of a specialtys fitwith personality, interests, and skills, 87% of respondents indicated that it had a strong influence. Similarly, contentof specialty was selected by 83% of respondents as having a strong influence. The third most frequently cited strong influence on specialty choice by 2019 graduates was rolemodel influence at 50%.

In each of the past five years, according the AAMC, personal fit, content and role modeling were the top three choices among medical school graduates.

Learn ifresidency training length should influence specialty choice.

All 11 factors

Combining the factors that either a strong or moderate influence the entire list reads:

Otherfindings

In terms of the resources students used to research their specialty, the top picks among student respondents were advising and mentoring, which 47% of respondents found very useful and 27% found moderately useful; and participation in in-house and extramural electivesvery useful for 44% and moderately useful for 26%.

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The 11 factors that influence med student specialty choice - American Medical Association

MANKATO A long-standing family medicine residency program in Mankato will transition to a new educational affiliation in 2022, while continuing to bring up-and-coming physicians to the area.

The University of Minnesota medical school has sponsored the Mankato Family Medicine Residency Program since it started in the mid-1990s. Mayo Clinic Health Systems Eastridge clinic has been the site for the residents since 2005.

Eastridge will remain the site, but the program will switch to a Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education sponsorship in July 2022.

The move to bring the program under the Mayo Clinic umbrella will allow the health system to expand its educational capabilities in the southwest Minnesota region. The Mankato residency will join three other existing family medicine programs established in other regions in the health system.

The transition of the family medicine residency program further advances our Mayo Clinic Health System region into a three-shield organization that focuses on clinical care, research and education, said Dr. James Hebl, the health systems regional vice president, in a statement. The newly acquired residency program will allow us to pursue new and innovative educational opportunities while forming a deeper connection with our residents.

The partnership with the University of Minnesota is ending on a good note, said Dr. John McCabe, Mankatos residency program director.

Its just helpful to have one sponsoring institution and make it completely clear to all that our graduates are graduating from a Mayo program with training in a Mayo facility, McCabe said.

The University of Minnesotas release on what the transition will mean states itll lead to easier day-to-day functions because only one organization will be running it rather than two. The transition began with university residency faculty becoming Mayo Clinic employees in the summer.

The summer 2022 date is when the transition will be complete. Graduates after July 1, 2022 will then receive their completion certificate from Mayo Clinics graduate medical school.

The residency will remain a three-year program with five spots per year. More than 100 residents graduated from the program since it started, McCabe said, and the majority ended up working in southwest Minnesota or elsewhere in the state.

Physician shortages have long been a concern in rural areas, and residency programs can play an important role in retention. McCabe said the hope going forward will continue to be for residents to stay in the region once they finish the program.

Most of the time the majority of trainees end up in and around the region they train in, he said. That was one of the reasons the university had a program down here for such a long time.

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

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Mayo takes over sponsorship of residency in Mankato - Mankato Free Press

Dr. Alan Koffron joins Erlanger Kidney Transplant Center as its new surgical director. Dr. Koffron works alongside Dr. Kenneth Kokko, kidney transplant center program and medical director. Dr. Koffron earned his medical degree from the University of Iowa College of Medicine. Following medical school, he completed residency training in general surgery at Chicago Medical School University of Health Sciences. Dr. Koffron completed two fellowships a multiple-organ transplant surgery and hepatobiliary surgery fellowship at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago and a pediatric liver transplant surgery and hepatobiliary surgery fellowship at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Matthew McKenney joins HHM Wealth Advisors, LLC as client service administrator. With deep roots in the community, McKenney joined HHM Wealth Advisors after earning a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Rhodes College. He had several internships over the last four years, preparing him to serve as client service administrator. Matthew supports HHM Wealth's lead advisors with research, trading, and retirement analysis. He is also dedicated to ensuring customer satisfaction in every encounter he has with clients.

E'tienne Easley joins Family Promise of Greater Chattanooga as the director of development. Easley leads the work of fundraising and grant writing, as well as managing communication efforts. Family Promise is a nonprofit organization that offers four programs to prevent, reduce and end family homelessness in the Chattanooga area. Easely has extensive experience in leadership, managing grant funds, strategic planning and implementation, volunteer recruitment and building effective and long-standing community partnerships. She is a certified grant writer, and her background includes being Hamilton County Department of Education's family partnership specialist, community engagement manager and health program manager, as well as the employment career specialist at Signal Centers.

Joel Henderson is named as the new executive director for Volunteers In Medicine of Chattanooga. VIM serves the health and wellness needs of the medically underserved by providing quality, compassionate, personal care in a faith-based environment. Henderson previously served as director of communications and marketing since 2017 at the Cleveland/Bradley County Chamber of Commerce and previously served as vice president of communications at North American Credit Services Inc. Henderson is a 1994 graduate from Southern Adventist University and a 2013 graduate of Leadership Chattanooga.

Anne Najjar joins the team at Second Story Real Estate Management, Chattanooga's full-service property management group. A skilled negotiator with a reputation for creating successful outcomes for investors, tenants and landlords alike, Anne Najjar brings over 15 years of commercial investment, development and brokerage experience. In 2018, CoStar awarded Najjar their Power Broker award for being a top broker for the Chattanooga MSA area. Her experience ranges from acquisitions and dispositions to leasing and financial and market analysis for clients. She played an integral part in the redevelopment of the Southside from acquisitions of historical buildings, becoming knowledgeable on grants, understanding the conservation of buildings and finding tenants to fill the newly refurbished buildings. Najjar will be mainly working on retail, restaurant, medical and office representation, as well as investment, acquisition and disposition with Second Story.

Kira Wheat joins HHM Certified Public Accountants, a CPA and consulting firm with locations in Chattanooga and Memphis. Wheat brings more than 16 years of experience to the firm's tax practice. As a senior tax manager, Wheat will assist high net worth and closely held business clients in the areas of tax compliance, tax planning and staff and project management. Wheat comes to Chattanooga from a Chicago-based public accounting firm where she worked her way up to Senior Tax Manager. Wheat is a graduate of North Central College and is a Quickbooks Proadvisor.

Tim Cook, who joined the Legacy Senior Living family as director of chaplaincy earlier this year, is promoted to executive director of its hometown facility, Legacy Village of Cleveland, after a successful expansion of the network's chaplaincy program this summer. In his new role, Cook oversees the day-to-day operations of Legacy Village of Cleveland, which provides a home-like environment to more than 70 Bradley County seniors and is part of a network of 14 senior living communities based in Cleveland.

Amir Hamad, BSN, MHA, RN, CCRN, is named chief nursing officer of Parkridge East Hospital. Hamad brings 12 years of healthcare experience to the position, including nursing roles in emergency medicine and cardiac critical care. Most recently, Hamad served as associate chief nursing officer at Reston Hospital Center, in Reston, Virginia. Prior to that, he served as director of the cardiac and medical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at LewisGale Medical Center, in Salem, Virginia, where he also served as clinical team lead in the cardiac ICU and as clinical coordinator of the Emergency Department. Hamad earned a master's in healthcare administration from Grantham University, in Lenexa, Kansas, and a bachelor's in nursing from Radford University, in Radford, Virginia. He also earned a bachelor's in biology from Virginia Tech University.

Sam Montgomery, a certified financial planner and certified Kingdom advisor, is promoted from paraplanner to associate financial advisor. at Riggs & Associates, a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. that is led by Jody B. Riggs. Montgomery started working for Riggs & Associates in July 2017. As an associate financial advisor, he will provide comprehensive financial planning services to clients, and provide investment solutions to meet clients' financial needs. Montgomery holds a bachelor's in Financial Planning from Liberty University.

Tony Sanders joins the board of Habitat for Humanity in Chattanooga, which works to provide affordable housing in the area. Sanders is a certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner with more than 30 years of experience in the public and private sectors. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and an MBA from Tennessee Tech University. He currently works for Unum as a manager in the Benefits Financial Services area. Sanders serves a commissioner for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

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EDGE: On the Move - Chattanooga Times Free Press

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In mouse study, loss of molecule contributes to disease while surplus reduces symptoms

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found, working in mice, that when the FoxO1 gene is knocked out, the animals develop osteoarthritis. But when levels of the FoxO1 molecule are increased, the animals exhibit less cartilage damage.

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common problems associated with aging, and although there are therapies to treat the pain that results from the breakdown of the cartilage that cushions joints, there are no available therapies to modify the course of the disease.

However, working in a mouse model of the disorder, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that a molecule previously linked to diabetes, cancer and muscle atrophy also seems to be involved in the development of osteoarthritis and may be a useful treatment target.

When the gene involved, FoxO1, is knocked out in mice, the animals develop osteoarthritis. But when the researchers increase the levels of the FoxO1 molecule in mice that are developing osteoarthritis, the animals exhibit less cartilage damage.

The study is available online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Osteoarthritis, or joint degeneration, is a disease that affects more than 32 million people in the U.S. alone but that does not have a medical therapy to alter its progression, said senior investigator Regis J. OKeefe, MD, PhD, the Fred C. Reynolds Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and head of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. A better understanding of the fundamental processes involved in osteoarthritis and the degeneration of cartilage is required if were going to be more successful in treating this very common and very expensive disorder.

OKeefe said that commonly, people with osteoarthritis have suffered knee injuries that damaged the knees meniscus. Over time, arthritis then can develop in the joint.

Unlike skin or bone or other organs that can regenerate in response to injury, cartilage has very little regenerative potential, he said.

However, when the mice in these experiments had elevated levels of the FoxO1 molecule, osteoarthritiss progress was slowed or even reversed. The researchers believe the molecule interferes with cartilage damage and the development of arthritis by enhancing a process called autophagy in the arthritic joint. Autophagy is the bodys way of clearing out damaged tissue. In these experiments, the researchers found that autophagy was disrupted in the mice with reduced levels of FoxO1 and that the process was enhanced in animals with higher levels of the molecule.

In other words, maintaining a higher level of autophagy seemed to be beneficial to maintaining these cartilage cells and, thus, maintaining a healthy knee joint, said co-corresponding author Jie Shen, PhD, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery.

OKeefe said that raises the possibility of delivering FoxO1 to arthritic joints through nanotechnology as a way to regulate autophagy and keep joints healthier.

In mice with injuries that typically progress to become osteoarthritis, the knee joints still appear normal about a week after injury, OKeefe explained. But when we measure autophagy in the cartilage after injury to those same knee joints, although the joints themselves look fine, the autophagy process already is shut off. The injury completely turns it off, and once autophagy is off, the cartilage begins to degenerate.

He said if FoxO1 can alter that process in people, protecting cartilage from damage as it does in mice, it eventually may be possible to prevent or delay millions of future knee and hip replacement surgeries.

Wang C, Shen J, Ying J, Xiao D, OKeefe RJ. FoxO1 is a crucial mediator of TGFB/TAK1 signaling and protects against osteoarthritis by maintaining articular cartilage homeostasis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nov. 16, 2020.

This work was supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Grant numbers R01 AR069605, T32 AR060719 and P30 AR057235.

Washington University School of Medicines 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

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Gene that protects against osteoarthritis identified Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis - Washington University School of Medicine...

Doctors are taught an average of 1percent of their total lecture time in medical school learning about nutrition, and now one doctor, Dr. Michael Greger, is out to change that by encouraging students toenroll in an extra outside course in nutrition. The average time spent learning about "food as medicine" falls far short of the National Research Councils recommendation for a baseline nutrition curriculum, according to anew reportpublished by The Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, which has acknowledged: "Nutrition plays a critical role in the prevention and treatment of many chronic diseases, and diet is one of the most significant risk factors for disability and premature death in the United States." Neither the federal government, which helps fund medical schools nor accreditation organizationswhich validates themenforce any minimum level of diet instruction, so Greger decided to do something about it, by launching a course to teach med students how to talk to patients about the importance of nutrition in disease prevention and cure.

Given to students in Germany, the 11-part nutrition course, which Dr. Michael Gregeris an advisor to, is called ThePhysicians Association for Nutrition(PAN) International. The purpose of PAN is to teach medical students nutrition and increase awareness in the medical community of the power ofplant-based nutritionfor treating and preventing diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Taking place in Munich, the online course hasmore than 2,700 medical students signing up for the 11-part series so far. The organizers are hoping to expand it to the rest of the world.

The firsttime the course was offered, nearly2,500 people attended, mostlymedical students from Germany. The event's Medical Director, Niklas Oppenrieder MD, says: This record number of attendees shows us that nutrition and nutritional medicine need to be a much more central part of medical education and healthcare. Thats what we are working for at PAN.

The 11-partIss Das!(Eat That!) series has been organized almost exclusively by volunteers from the PAN University Groups and brings together renowned experts from diverse specialties of medicine and nutritional science. The online talks will take place between November 2020 and January 2021 and will cover topics such asnutritional medicine in cardiology,food and the climate crisis, andgastroenterology and the microbiome.

A patient who presents with heart disease, type 2 diabetes or even some forms of cancer (such as colon, or hormonally linked cancers such as breast and prostate) are likely to never hear a word about how changing their diet can help them get healthier, along with taking vital life-saving medicine, according to research. As prevention and intervention, doctors like Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn have used dietary changes to help treat patients facing heart surgery, to the point where signs of the disease have been reversed by adopting a whole-foods plant-based diet.

How does this affect you? The next time a doctor tells you that you need to go on medication, ask about nutrition. No one is suggesting we turn our backs on science, medicine and life-saving drugs or medical progress, but "Let thy Food Be thy Medicine" is as old as theHippocratic Oath. Food should be a tool in the kit of all doctors facing lifestyle-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and chronic inflammation. Studies have shown a whole-food plant-based diet low in oil can reverse symptoms of heart disease. Ask your doctor if this is an option for you.

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Doctors Don't Learn Nutrition. One MD is Out to Change That - The Beet

Joel Goodnough freely admits he wasnt always philanthropic.Im not a naturally giving person, he says. But I found that if I take that first step and start giving, it changes your heart, and your actions follow your heart. You become more interested in the people youre giving to, and it just makes you look beyond yourself.

Goodnough, 75, 79 MD, and his wife, Brenda, have found numerous ways to impact the lives of others through giving to The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. They gave to The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC James), after a family member of Dr. Goodnoughs was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

An additional motivation for their giving emerged after Dr. Goodnough retired from his Ob/Gyn practice in Chicago about 10 years ago. He and Brenda moved to her hometown of Jackson, in the Appalachian region of southern Ohio. There, the Goodnoughs have seen firsthand how challenging it can be for students to pursue a career in medicine.

The Goodnoughs have established a scholarship fund to cover the costs of one student per year from an Ohio Appalachian county to attend The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Its one way they hope to improve access to care in areas where there are few medical providers.

These counties are underrepresented in medical school, as most rural areas are, but especially in Appalachia, Dr. Goodnough says.

They also support the Ohio State College of Medicines Medical Careers Pathway Post Baccalaureate Program (MEDPATH), which provides an additional year of instruction to students before medical school. MEDPATH is designed to increase the number of students from underrepresented populations in medicine, including those from economically and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds who benefit from the preparatory coursework.

This is particularly good for students coming from some of these smaller high schools in Appalachia, where the graduating class may be 100 to 200 students and the schools just arent as good as you're going to find in some of the Columbus metropolitan areas, so they come out of school already behind the eight ball, Dr. Goodnough says.

Most recently, the Goodnoughs provided funding for the new home that those students will utilizethe Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Center. This reimagined Hamilton Hall will foster the experiences and opportunities necessary for future physicians and health science professionals to grow and become tomorrows health care leaders.

Were placed on this earth to add value to other people, Dr. Goodnough says. Its always good to surround yourself with good people. It makes you a better person, but adding value to others makes you a better person as well.

Read more stories of impact in the 2020 College of Medicine Annual Report.

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Adding Value to Others - Wexner Medical Center - The Ohio State University

Lobe Sciences Ltd. is pleased to announce the launch of preclinical research studies using psilocybin and N-Acetylcysteine for the treatment of mild traumatic brain injuryconcussion with post-traumatic stress disorder . The study is in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of scientists and physicians at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine under the lead of Michael E. Hoffer, M.D., professor of

Lobe Sciences Ltd. (CSE: LOBE) (OTC Pink: GTSIF) (Lobe or the Company) is pleased to announce the launch of preclinical research studies using psilocybin and N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) for the treatment of mild traumatic brain injuryconcussion (mTBI) with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study is in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of scientists and physicians at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine under the lead of Michael E. Hoffer, M.D., professor of otolaryngology and neurological surgery.

NAC has been shown to be safe and efficacious in a phase I human clinical study in treating military personnel who had suffered mTBI. The initial research focus is to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the combination of psilocybin and NAC using broadly accepted rodent models. Final results are expected in 2021. Once this is established, more specific work can examine dose response, medicine uptake, and medicine levels. The research team at the Miller School of Medicine has conducted prior studies involving NAC with mTBI and has a license from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration to conduct research using Schedule I controlled substances, which includes psilocybin.

The Miller School of Medicine is an internationally recognized leader in medical research, ranked No. 39 among the top medical schools in the nation by Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. In 2019, the medical school submitted 1,968 research proposals and was awarded $149 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Advances in neuro-diagnostic assessment have revealed mild traumatic brain injury (concussion) is more common than previously thought and potentially associated with a host of negative health outcomes. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that there are 3 million emergency room visits and over 230,000 hospitalizations due to TBI in any given year in the United States alone. Also, at the same time there are 5.3 million Americans living with the effects of mTBI (a 53% increase over ten years ago). The World Health Organization calls traumatic brain injury a silent epidemic that affects over 70 million individuals across the world. The United States Department of Defense estimates that over 345,000 individuals are affected by mTBI and that 20% of all service members who deploy suffer mTBI. mTBI and PTSD are significant health care issues that often co-occur and impact each other.

Dr. Hoffer, the principal investigator on the study, said, This a very important extension of our work with NAC and other medicines to identify new treatments for mTBI and PTSD. We are hopeful that this new combination of psilocybin with NAC will lead us to better solutions for those suffering from mTBI and/or PTSD.

Maghsoud Dariani, Chief Science Officer of Lobe said, We are very excited to begin the preclinical studies in collaboration with Dr. Hoffer and his team at the University of Miami. They have made significant in-roads studying psychedelic medicine specifically as it relates to mTBI and PTSD. NAC has been shown as the only compound that has adequate pre-clinical studies to validate use and, to date, remains the only compound that has successfully completed a phase 1 equivalent trial in a population of individuals who had acute mTBI. Given there are currently no proven effective medical treatments for the treatment of mTBI and PTSD, we feel this is an important study that can lead to human clinical trials and eventually therapeutics to make a positive impact in the physical and mental wellbeing of millions of people.

About Lobe Sciences Ltd.

Lobe Sciences is a life sciences company focused on psychedelic medicines. Lobe conducts drug research and development using psychedelic compounds as well as development of innovative delivery mechanisms to improve mental health and wellness.

For further information please contact:

Lobe Sciences Ltd.Thomas Baird, CEOinfo@lobesciences.comTel: (949) 505-5623

THE CSE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Disclaimer for Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to the future operations of the Company and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as will, may, should, anticipate, expects and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including statements regarding the future plans and objectives of the Company, the Companys expectations surrounding its development of treatments and/or therapeutics for mTBI and PTSD, goals and results of the preclinical research studies with the Miller School of Medicine and future expectations surrounding additional studies, research and development using NAC and psilocybin, are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Companys expectations are risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations. Readers are cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of the forward-looking statements may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including changes to the regulatory environment; and that the current Board and management may not be able to attain the Companys corporate goals and objectives. As a result, the Company cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made only as of the date of this news release and the Company does not intend to update any of the included forward-looking statements except as expressly required by applicable Canadian securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/69106

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Lobe Sciences Announces Launch of Preclinical Study in Collaboration with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine - Investing News Network

The Yale-Jefferson Awards are presented annually, recognizing sustained public service that is individual, innovative, impactful, and inspiring. The recipients are three Yalies a Yale College student, a graduate or professional school student, and a member of the alumni body all of whom have demonstrated service that draws on the Yale community and benefits the world beyond Yale.

By those and all measures, the 2020 honorees are most deserving. They have made an impact for minorities in STEM, for those in need, and for those with special needs improving the lives of their communities and those within them.

Here are your 2020 Yale-Jefferson Award recipients: Robert Fernandez 20 PhD, Scott Morris 80 MDiv, and Megan Sardis 21.

Yale is honoring Fernandez for his dedication to transforming and building programs to improve the diversity of STEM education at Yale and beyond, helping to shape the minds of future scientists within the university undergraduate and graduate communities. A dedicated mentor, Fernandez serves as a coordinator for Yales Science, Technology, and Research Scholars program (known as STARS II), which is committed to supporting women, minorities, the economically underprivileged, and historically underrepresented students in the sciences, engineering, and math. He also co-founded Cientfico Latino, a STEM organization that works to bolster the pipeline of underrepresented students in higher education in the sciences.

Fernandez is a decorated scientist, having been named a 2014 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow and as one of the 100 most inspiring Hispanic/Latinx scientists in America by Cell Mentor. He received his PhD from the Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry Department at Yale and is currently a postdoctoral scientist at Columbia University.

When I came to Yale, I didnt know how to navigate undergrad to grad school, and I didnt know how different it was a lot of self-learning and asking questions on topics youre not familiar with. Also, pretty much at the time I was the only Latino on my track and one of three in the entire department, Fernandez said. Through that experience, I learned that grad school isnt something you do by yourself; its something you do as a community. It taught me that sometimes under-represented students are pretty isolated in higher education. So, I wanted to do something to help the community, to work with undergraduates and prepare them for the next step.

Yale is honoring Morris for his dedication and tireless efforts to provide healthcare for those in need. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Church Health in Memphis, Tennessee, which provides quality, affordable healthcare for working, uninsured people and their families. A board-certified family practice physician and an ordained United Methodist minister, Morris has revolutionized healthcare for the working poor in Memphis, recruiting doctors, nurses, dentists, and more to volunteer, all while securing a broad base of financial support from the faith community. Buoyed by those efforts, Church Health has grown to become the largest faith-based, privately funded health center in the nation, serving more than 75,000 patients and handling approximately 44,000 patient visits annually.

For his efforts and great work, Morris has been recognized by a number of major organizations,including the American Medical Association,which awarded him its Excellence in Medicine Award in 2008.

I started Church Health after going to Yale Divinity School and then going to medical school and doing a residency in family medicine, Morris said. I came to Memphis to start the work we did in 1987, so Ive never had a real job. But for 34 years, Church Health has existed in order to provide healthcare under the umbrella of the faith community to the people who work to make our lives comfortable. We take care of those people who wash our dishes, who cut our grass, who take care of our children, who will one day dig our graves. They dont complain, yet when they get sick, their options are very few.

Yale is honoring Sardis for her work providing innovative healthcare solutions for children with disabilities. A believer in the power of community to help vulnerable children reach their full potential, Sardis co-founded the nonprofit organization SNUGS National, which has developed free aquatic clinics for special needs children at eight locations across the U.S. That includes Yales Payne Whitney gymnasium, where the sessions are run by Yale student volunteers. To date, SNUGS National has served more than 150 families and has raised more than $15,000 in donations, and it has cultivated a 13-member board with teams in finance, communications, marketing, and development.

As a student of Global Affairs, Sardis is on pace to graduate in May 2021. She has a specific interest in health initiatives on the African continent and hopes to attend medical school and pursue a career in pediatric global health after her time at Yale.

When I got to Yale, I noticed that there werent any real programs for children with special needs, and no program for swim lessons for children with special needs, Sardis said. So, I talked to the swim coach and we worked together to get this program off the ground. We started off with six Autistic girls who we got connected with through the Yale Child Study Center. And since then its taken off. As of last year, we had 150 kids of all different sorts of intellectual and developmental disabilities come be part of our program. Its been really, really great. Every time I go there, I fall even more in love with it.

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Three Yalies honored for their impact on and beyond Yale with 2020 Yale-Jefferson Awards | Yale Alumni - Yale News

Annie Griebie and Aubrey Immelman have established a true mutual admiration.

So its hard to say who holds who in the higher regard.

Griebie, a College of Saint Benedict senior psychology major from Minnetonka, Minnesota, considers Immelman to be her mentor, someone who has encouraged and supported her research and made her a better student.

Immelman, an associate professor of psychology at CSB and Saint Johns University, considers Griebie to be one of the most talented students hes had the privilege of teaching in his nearly 30 years at CSB and SJU.

Griebie came to CSB as a chemistry major and switched to biology during her first year, but that changed during her sophomore year.

I took introductory psych with Dr. Immelman just by chance in the fall of my sophomore year (in 2018), Griebie said. She followed that up with Immelmans evolutionary psychology course during spring semester 2019 and personality psychology in the fall.

I quickly realized I loved psychology, that I had a real passion for this field, she said. So, I changed my major at the end of my sophomore year to psychology, and I began research with him that summer.

I think one of the advantages of schools like Saint Bens and Saint Johns is getting to take courses in different subjects, and find out if you have a passion for a field or a discipline. I really didnt know anything about (psychology) until I took those classes.

Her research the past two summers involved assisting Immelman, who directs the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics. Established in 1999, it is a collaborative faculty-student research program in the psychology of politics at CSB and SJU and specializes in the psychological assessment of presidential candidates and world leaders.

Over the years, the unit has conducted psychological assessments of presidents (George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump), presidential candidates (Al Gore, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Hillary Clinton) and President-elect Joe Biden, among others.

My first summer, my primary responsibility was to collect diagnostically relevant data for our profiles. We collected those from media reports and other sources, and used them to supplement the leader profiles we were working on, said Griebie, a graduate of Benilde-St. Margarets School.

It soon became evident that she had developed a sophisticated understanding of personality dynamics, so I increasingly relied on her to assist with the more complex coding and classification decisions involved in developing the personality profiles of presidential candidates, Immelman said.

This past summer, he (Immelman) gave me a lot more independence in the research and responsibility. He allowed me to advise the other two student researchers who worked with us this past summer, and he also trusted me to train a psychology student at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada, said Griebie, noting that collaboration produced an analysis of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

During that second summer, Annie continued with data collection but completed coding and classification tasks more or less independently, operating more as a colleague than as a research assistant, Immelman said, noting that Griebie assisted him in training an additional two graduate students at Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russias top-ranked university.

Griebie also co-authored a paper with Immelman on Trump, which was presented at the annual scientific meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, and papers on Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

The research process includes much deliberation among Immelmans team of student researchers. It truly is a team, Griebie said.

He has deliberately told me in the past that he sees us (students) as collaborators, and always urges me to express my own opinion, even when my opinion contradicts his own, Griebie said. Part of our research does involve that deliberation process, and within that process, he constantly encourages me to share my own thoughts on how I think the items should be categorized before even offering his own professional insights.

So, his encouragement and mentorship has really helped me to gain confidence in articulating my thoughts as well as help me feel like Im a valuable member of his research team, Griebie said.

Within that team setting, hes also helped me grow my own ability to do independent research as well, she said. Hes encouraged me to do an all-college thesis. Im working on elaborating the conceptual links between presidential leadership style and the personality-in-politics model that Dr. Immelman created and used in our research. So, hes really pushed me to become better as an independent researcher and student in general.

I do not believe in using students as mere data collectors doing the heavy lifting; I try to establish a collaborative, collegial relationship, Immelman said. Students play a significant role in helping me determine the personality profiles of the public figures under investigation by conducting targeted searches for specific life history and behavioral data I need for psychodiagnostic purposes.

Immelman is also helping Griebie take the next step toward post-baccalaureate studies, be it graduate programs in psychology or medical school.

No matter what program or school Ive told him Im thinking about, he always believes in it and believes in me, Griebie said. He is my adviser as well, and he has helped me take the right undergraduate classes as well as helped get a position as a teaching assistant and research experience, which is always super important when applying to the next step after Saint Bens.

I dont know if I would even consider applying to some of the programs that Im thinking about if he hadnt been so encouraging, Griebie added.

Immelman passed on his opening paragraph from Griebies medical school recommendation.

Among the scores of students for whom I have written recommendations for medical school or graduate programs in psychology, Anne Marie Griebie receives my strongest recommendation, easily ranking in the top 10%, he wrote.

In short, I consider Annie the best all-around, most talented student I have taught in my 30-year career; she possesses a rare combination of superior intellectual ability, high emotional intelligence, academic competence across the curriculum, genuine compassion, impeccable character and indefatigable conscientiousness, Immelman added.

Although Griebie says there are other professors at CSB and SJU who have helped mentor her, Immelman stands out.

Dr. Immelman has really, I believe, gone above and beyond. Hes been incredibly supportive. Hes given me such unparalleled opportunities and really fostered my entire education here, Griebie said.

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Immelman, Griebie have mutual admiration for each other - CSB/SJU