The School of Medicine moves up in national Blue Ridge rankings, landing among the top 10 public medical schools.

A large, multi-center study recently published online in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (JNCCN) provides new insight into the long-term health effects of contemporary chemotherapy regimens used to treat testicular cancer, highlighting differences in renal function, cardiovascular risk, and the overall burden of chronic health conditions among survivors.

Stanford Medicine researchers and their colleagues invented a new vaccine that protects mice from respiratory viruses, bacteria and allergens — the closest yet to a universal vaccine.

Qiang Li and colleagues have created “cyborg” pancreatic organoids that combine stretchy miniature electronics with stem cell-derived pancreatic islets, using the implanted electronics to monitor electrical activity related to glucose regulation in maturing α and β cells. Islet α and β cells secrete glucagon and insulin hormones, in response to electrical changes in the cell membrane. The researchers also used the electronics to stimulate the cells to enhance their glucose responsiveness and show how that responsiveness changes as the cells mature, how it is affected by different chemical compounds and circadian hormones, and how it is related to gene expression. Together, the cyborg organoids offer a path to study the biology and trace the maturation of α and β cells at the single-cell level, with an eye toward potentially treating or engineering new pancreatic islets in people with diabetes. In a related Perspective, Jochen Lang and Matthieu Raoux discuss how the cyborgs could be used to guide the growth of mature human pancreatic organoids for regenerative medicine and other applications.

Although cancer is a common cause of death in domestic cats, little is known about the range of cancer genes in cat tumors, and how this range might compare with the oncogenome in people. Now, Bailey Francis and colleagues have sequenced cancer genes in 493 samples from 13 different types of feline cancer and matched healthy control tissue,  gaining a clearer picture of the cat oncogenome and comparing the genes to known cancer-causing mutations in humans. Under the “One Medicine” approach, where cross-species comparisons aid both human and animal medicine, the researchers suggest several future research directions based on their findings. For instance, the cat oncogenome can be used to identify and test potentially actionable mutations for veterinary cancer treatments, but may also offer insights that could improve human cancer medicine. Domestic cats share the same environment and often share non-cancer comorbidities such as diabetes with their human companions, making them an important but underused resource for tumor research. In their comparison of nearly 1,000 human cancer genes with their feline versions, Francis et al. show that there are some similarly prevalent oncogenes in both species, such as TP53. The researchers also identified cancer-driving genes, tumor-predisposing genes, and some evidence for viral sequences in the cat oncogenome.