In continued news coverage of a Phase I/II clinical trial evaluating an investigational CRISPR-based gene editing technology designed to treat a form of inherited blindness, Mark Pennesi, M.D., Ph.D., says: "This is just a start and more work is needed, but the proof of concept is exciting."

In an Associated Press story about a long-term study evaluating the health effects of the west Maui wildfires last summer, Gopal Allada, M.D., says most studies have examined the effect of wildfires over a few days as opposed to months or years: “This is important work that hopefully influences policymakers and people who control budgets.”

OHSU is participating in an international clinical trial involving a new drug for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Results recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveal the drug successfully increases oxygen use during exercise, making everyday tasks easier for people with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Ahmad Masri, M.D., says: “By having more oxygen available during exercise, patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy can more easily walk, perform household chores, and do other everyday tasks.”

HealthGrades ranks OHSU among the best hospitals and health systems in Oregon for cardiac surgery, based on "superior patient outcomes in heart bypass surgery and heart valve surgery."

OHSU study finds combined cannabis and nicotine use during pregnancy is associated with significantly higher risk of poor health outcomes for newborns compared with use of either substance alone.

In a KPTV story about an increase in allergy and asthma symptoms as the weather warms, Shyam Joshi, M.D., says rainy weather can be beneficial: “It’s been a little bit wetter, a little bit rainier, which prevents the pollen from really getting into the air kind of knocks it down."

An article in the ASCO Post on the phase III COMPASSION-15 trial, which is investigating a treatment for advanced gastric cancer gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, includes comments from Shivaani Kummar, M.D., who moderated the press conference where trial data were presented. Kummar says: “It is interesting data, especially for patients with a PD-L1 expression level of [combined positive score] < 5. Data would need to be confirmed in additional patient trials before this would be considered standard of care in the United States.”

An OHSU study finds about 79% of clinical trial participants with leber congenital amaurosis experienced measurable improvement after receiving experimental, CRISPR-based gene editing: “This [is] a blinding disease with no treatments ... an enormous burden on patients [due] to their vision loss,” says Mark Pennesi, M.D., Ph.D.

Calls to poison centers, including the Oregon Poison Center at OHSU, for illicit fentanyl exposures in kids younger than 6 increased from 10 cases in 2016 to 539 in 2023. Rob Hendrickson, M.D., says: "It is imperative that the community provides resources to end the fentanyl epidemic and that people who use illicit drugs secure them from children by using opaque child-resistant lockable containers. We are extremely concerned about what we are seeing in the community and will continue to bring the issue to the forefront to raise awareness about how to prevent unintentional exposures among children."

In a The New York Times article about a new variant called KP.2, Fikadu Taffese, Ph.D., says researchers are still trying to determine to what degree repeat infections raise the risk of developing long COVID, as the pandemic continues to evolve. “That’s the nature of the virus. It keeps mutating," Tafesse says.