The Portland Business Journal talks with Lisa Coussens, M.D., Shivaani Kummar, M.D., and Shannon McWeeney, Ph.D., about the challenges and opportunities impacting our state’s cancer research ecosystem and what is needed to maintain and accelerate the pace of innovation. “Health care in this country is facing obstacles like never before,” Coussens says. “The attack on biomedical research funding is unprecedented. We’re struggling to keep some of the most brilliant minds employed.”

STAT News covers a report from the Vaccine Integrity Project that urges against delaying the newborn dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, warning that postponing it could increase lifetime risk of chronic infection and liver disease. Eric Hall, Ph.D., says “The striking thing to me is this set of results indicates that even short delays in vaccination are substantially going to lead to more infections, more severe long-term health complications, and sharp increases in health care spending.”

Science News Explores reports that OHSU researchers have created human eggs from skin cells for the first time — though most of the lab-grown eggs showed chromosomal abnormalities and are not yet viable for reproduction. “It was not the outcome we wanted,” says Paula Amato, M.D. “But it was more proof-of-concept: ‘Hey, we can kind of make this process happen now.’”

A new study led by Saurabh Thosar, Ph.D., finds that going to bed at the same time each night significantly lowers blood pressure, especially overnight.

MedPage Today reports that some studies suggest GLP-1 drugs might reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration, but there are also hints that they could make progression to advanced AMD more likely. "In truth, it's all still a mystery," Abhimanyu Ahuja, M.D., says. So far "findings are observational. So while the association appears very strong and consistent, the biological mechanism and whether the relationship is causal remain unknown."

Lorne Walker, M.D., talks with PBS Newshour about the rise in cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, across the country. He says, “Unfortunately, the rates of vaccination against whooping cough have been falling for years, even going back prior to the COVID pandemic. Currently in Oregon, one out of every five two-year-olds hasn’t completed their whooping cough series of vaccinations, and one out of every ten kindergarteners, who are starting school and being exposed to lots of other kids and people, are not up to date on their whooping cough vaccines. We’re pretty confident that the low rates of vaccination are the key risk factor for having this high number of cases.”

The Scientist reports on OHSU research that aims to understand how amniotic fluid changes through pregnancy and what advancements it could support in prenatal and preterm care. Jamie Lo, M.D., says, “We all understand how important the placenta is in terms of that prenatal environment and shaping fetal development. What we haven't really delved into is the amniotic fluid, which is kind of equally important in its role in shaping fetal development.”

A new study led by Saurabh Thosar, Ph.D., finds that going to bed at the same time each night significantly lowers blood pressure, especially overnight.

In a story about “bike buses” — groups of kids biking together to school — Willamette Week mentions that OHSU rolled out its first employee bike bus in May.

OHSU announces that Tarek Salaway, M.H.A, M.P.H., M.A., is the new executive vice president and chief executive officer of the OHSU Health system.