Meet Physicians and Scientists

The lives of three men were honored recently through a $1.5 million gift to establish the Stewart, Hughes, and Wendt ALS Research Endowment. The endowment supports amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research at Duke and acknowledges D. Loy Stewart, Larry V. Hughes, and George C. Wendt, three individuals who died of the disease.

Thanks to the support of philanthropic partners, in 2019 Duke launched the Center for Misophonia & Emotion Regulation, the only center of its kind in the U.S.

Duke Children’s Hospital once again ranked among the top 50 children’s medical centers nationally and retained its position at No. 1 in North Carolina, according to this year’s annual list from U.S. News & World Report.

From frontline health workers helping patients, to staff and faculty members figuring out everything from surveillance testing to remote teaching, everyone at Duke responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in their own way.

The Duke Endowment of Charlotte, N.C., is supporting Duke University’s efforts to expand its faculty in computation, materials science and the resilience of the body and brain by completing the second phase of a $100 million investment.

More than 5.3 million individuals — children and adults — permanently live with a brain injury-related disability, according to the Brain Injury Association of America. Two researchers from the Duke University School of Nursing, Tolu O. Oyesanya, PhD, RN, and  Karin Reuter-Rice, PhD, CPNP-AC, FCCM, FAAN, have devoted an aspect of their research toward better understanding the ramifications that brain injuries inflict on patients and their loved ones and how to give them the best health care possible.

Answering a long-standing need in the community for enhanced behavioral health services, Duke Health is opening a newly built center at Duke Regional Hospital that will provide a setting specifically designed for the comfort and care of these patients.

We’re thrilled to announce the April 2021 opening of the Duke Behavioral Health Center North Durham at Duke Regional Hospital. Part of the largest construction project in the history of Duke Regional Hospital, the center brings together Duke emergency, outpatient, inpatient and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) behavioral health services in one spectacular new building.

Duke's Ed Miao, MD, PhD, a professor in the Departments of Immunology, Molecular Genetics, and Biology, was the first to demonstrate that pyroptosis (cellular suicide) is real and clears intracellular bacteria. More basic science research is needed, however, to understand why pyroptosis can occur in normal, non-infected cells, which could be implicated for sepsis.

As the COVID-19 pandemic shines a light on health disparities, efforts to find new ways to reduce them get a boost.