| ALAN SZEFTEL, MD
Dr. Szeftel received his Medical Degree from the University of Cape Town Medical School in South Africa. His clinical training was at Groote Schuur Hospital. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard University. Dr. Szeftel received specialty training in Allergy and Immunology, Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care at the UCLA Medical Center. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Allergy and Immunology. Dr. Szeftel is active in the fields of Allergy and Immunology and Pulmonary Diseases at the Asthma and Allergy Center in Santa Monica, California. He is currently an active Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA where he supervises trainees in clinics. Residents and medical students from UCLA also rotate through his office.
Speaker Biographies
Michael Novak is a theologian, author, and former U.S. ambassador who holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy at the AEI. He is the 1994 recipient of the million-dollar Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. Mr. Novak has written twenty-six influential books on the philosophy and theology of culture, especially the essential elements of a free society. His writings have appeared in every major Western language, and in Bengali, Korean, and Japanese. His masterpiece, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (Madison, 1982), was published underground in Poland in 1984, and after 1989 in Czechoslovakia, Germany, China, Hungary, Bangladesh, Korea, and many countries in Latin America. His latest book is Washingtons God: Religion, Liberty, and the Father of our Country (Basic Books, 2006).
Significance And Limitations Of New Lupus Gene Expression Research
ScienceDaily (Jan. 21, 2008) Some 1.5 million Americans, most of them women, suffer from lupus, a disease where the person's immune system attacks the body's own tissue. This week marks a significant step forward in understanding how the disease works with the online publication of four new studies identifying genes involved in this often debilitating chronic disease. .
Morris Animal Foundation Featured on NASCAR Racecar to Raise Awareness ...
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The Morris Animal Foundation is dedicated to funding research studies to protect, treat and cure animals. The Foundation launched a five-year, $30-million global campaign to cure canine cancer in April of this year. Pets Best Insurance has pledged one million dollars towards this goal to help fund clinical trials to develop treatments to help dogs suffering from cancer now, as well as fund genetic, environmental and other studies to find cures. World-renowned scientists and cancer specialists agree that this MAF-led effort will not only save countless dogs from suffering and premature death, but should also help produce breakthroughs in the prevention, treatment, and cures of human cancers -- in particular, childhood cancers. Pets Best announced that the Morris Animal Foundation Canine Cancer Campaign will be featured on the hood of the Pets Best #61 ShelterBest, Racing to Save Pets NASCAR.
Nutrigenomics: The Genome–Food Interface
Efforts to unveil the etiology of human disease often recapitulate the nature versus nurture debate. But today's biologists concede that neither nature nor nurture alone can explain the molecular processes that ultimately govern human health. The presence of a particular gene or mutation in most cases merely connotes a predisposition to a particular disease process. Whether that genetic potential will eventually manifest as a disease depends on a complex interplay between the human genome and environmental and behavioral factors. This understanding has helped spawn numerous multidisciplinary gene-based approaches to the study of health and disease. One such endeavor is nutrigenomics, the integration of genomic science with nutrition and, when possible, other lifestyle variables such as cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption.
Organon's Asenapine Further Demonstrates Efficacy in Reducing Mania ...
VIENNA, Austria, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- New data show that asenapine -- a psychopharmacologic agent being developed by Organon -- is effective in treating acute manic episodes associated with bipolar I disorder. These results, from two Phase III clinical studies, were presented this week at the 20th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) Congress. "The results of these clinical trials add to the body of evidence supporting the clinical efficacy and safety of asenapine," said Roger S. McIntyre, M.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at the University of Toronto and Head of the Mood Disorders Psychopharmacology Unit at the University Health Network, Toronto, Canada. "The complex nature of bipolar disorders suggests that we should have many treatment options available to physicians and patients.
Deficient Regulators In The Immune System Responsible For Type 1 ...
The main regulators of the immune system, called CD4+Treg cells, are thought to be highly involved in a large range of immune diseases. The gradual reduction in their regulating capacity seems to play a critical role in the onset of type 1 diabetes, as demonstrated in the latest study by Dr. Ciriaco Piccirillo, a researcher in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and the principal investigator for this project. This study was published this month in the journal Diabetes.
The immune system needs to be regulated so that it attacks only the site of an inflammation and focuses its attack on pathogens rather than on the body tissues, causing an autoimmune disease.
In a healthy patient, CD4+Treg cells deactivate any T lymphocytes, a type of immune cell, that are misprogrammed and could attack the body.
American College Of Physicians To Present James D. Bruce Memorial ...
In recognition of his distinguished contributions in preventive medicine, epidemiologist Dr. Lewis Drusin of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center has been selected by the American College of Physicians to receive the prestigious James D. Bruce Memorial Award, one of 17 awards in internal medicine for 2008.
The convocation ceremony will take place on May 15, 2008, at the annual meeting of the American College of Physicians in Washington, D.C.
Past recipients include such notables as Nobel Prize winner Dr. Jonas Salk (polio vaccine), Dr. Donald Henderson (smallpox) and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell's Dr. Walsh McDermott, who served as a mentor to Dr. Drusin.
Dr. Drusin is professor of clinical medicine and professor of clinical public health at Weill Cornell Medical College, and attending physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, where he was formerly director of the Division of Epidemiology.
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