Bob Gulberg discusses the new design of the second science building on the UO Knight Campus in a story for KLCC-Radio. He mentions the UO’s collaboration with the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute on a joint biomedical center for data science. “There are lots of opportunities to combine our complimentary areas of strength and also be able to compete for larger funding opportunities from the federal government and elsewhere. We’re definitely embracing the partnership approach rather than building redundancies,” he says.

Having a heart attack may put you at risk of accelerated cognitive decline in later years, above and beyond what is considered appropriate for the aging mind, according to a new study, but the increase in the annual rate of decline for people who had heart attacks was small, writes Lisa Silbert, M.D., and her co-author in an editorial that accompanies the study.

Axios Portland notes a 210% increase in fentanyl-related fatalities in Oregon since 2020. Todd Korthuis, M.D., M.P.H., calls for a statewide real-time tracking system for nonfatal drug overdoses, saying, “Fentanyl won’t be the last thing in the drug supply. We need to build infrastructure for testing quickly, because more people are going to die if we can’t figure out a way to have less fentanyl around and prevent people from starting it.”

CNN reports on a new study that found having a heart attack may put you at risk of accelerated cognitive decline in later years. Lisa Silbert, M.D., co-wrote an accompanying editorial to the study suggesting: “It is possible that accruing subclinical decline over years or decades could eventually impair function or decrease cognitive reserve, making the person more vulnerable to the effects of age-related neurodegenerative pathologies.”

KGW-TV previews a multi-media lecture by Larry Sherman, Ph.D., on the effects of music and the brain.

In a Discover Magazine article about aging in place, Jeffrey Kaye, M.D., says the ultimate goal of these initiatives and technology development is to keep people independent as long as possible as they age.

Foundation Medicine announces the company will present 21 abstracts at the American Society for Clinical Oncology annual meeting, including one presentation featuring data from the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute on the clinical utility of liquid-based comprehensive genomic profiling in Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors, or GIST.

Julie Graff, M.D., and Alexandra Sokolova, M.D., publish a JAMA Oncology invited commentary on a study looking at the toxic effects of newer prostate cancer therapies. They urge clinicians to “carefully consider the risks and benefits when prescribing these therapies for individual patients.”

In a HuffPost article about whether ashwagandha can help treat symptoms of stress, Amala Soumyanath, Ph.D., says, “I would say that there’s some reasonably sound clinical evidence for effects on stress and sleep. There’s a lot of pre-clinical evidence for its efficacy in anxiety, but maybe less by way of clinical evidence for it.”

Chemical & Engineering News reports on scientific advancements to repair or replace disease-causing mutations in the DNA of mitochondria, the energy-producing organelle in most cells of the body. The story notes that Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., is a leader in developing a therapy to prevent mitochondrial disease by replacing mutated mtDNA with donor mtDNA in human eggs.