Researchers from Tulane School of Medicine authored a study in the Journal of Cell Biology that suggests some cancer cells survive chemotherapy by eating their neighboring tumor cells. The study suggests the act of cannibalism provides the treated cancer cells with energy to stay alive and initiate tumor relapse after the course of treatment is complete.

“I remember Katrina, we did not have enough psychiatrists and people to provide mental health care.” DR. ANAND IRIMPEN, professor of medicine at Tulane, said in an American Heart Association News article about hurricane preparedness and the toll a hurricane can have on one’s health.

James Zadina, professor of medicine, and other researchers have developed a new kind of opioid, called ZH853, that accelerates the recovery time from pain and does not have the side effects morphine does.

The National Institutes of Health awarded Tulane School of Medicine a contract for up to $8.5 million over five years to develop a more effective and longer-lasting vaccine against pertussis, more commonly known as “whooping cough.” Microbiologist Lisa Morici, PhD, and immunologist James McLachlan, PhD, will lead the project to use outer membrane vesicles, which are nanoparticles shed by bacteria as they grow, to stimulate a more potent immune response than current vaccines against the disease. Worldwide, there are an estimated 24.1 million cases of pertussis and about 160,700 deaths per yea

Dr. Jessica Shank, associate professor of gynecologic oncology at the School of Medicine, is on a mission to raise awareness that cervical cancer is preventable. “This is a cancer that can be prevented with regular Pap smear screening and the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine,” she said.