The mouth is widely considered the dirtiest part of the human body, yet babies have surprisingly low infection rates following cleft lip and palate surgery. Now, researchers have the first evidence that one reason may be the presence of what they...
In this week’s Medical Minute, Dr. Joseph Hobbs, chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, discusses a new treatment option that is in the works for babies born infected with HPV and...
In this week’s Medical Minute, Dr. Joseph Hobbs, chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, discusses a category of prescription sleep aids, known as “hypnotics,” that...
A clinical trial at the Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University featuring a homegrown discovery is drawing kids from other prestigious cancer centers across the country. These children are being treated with Indoximod, an inhibitor of the enzyme...
Scientists want to know if even a modest decrease in how much salt you eat means you also have less inflammation and oxidative stress, both key factors for cardiovascular disease and stroke. Inflammation and oxidative stress can make blood vessels...
A poorly understood gene that appears super-suppressed in African-Americans with kidney cancer may be a biomarker of a patient’s prognosis and a new target for improving it, researchers say. Renal cell carcinoma is the most common type of kidney...
Prescription sleep aids appear to carry a rare risk of suicide, most typically when they cause the unexpected response of stimulating rather than quietening patients, researchers say. “These medications can have a rare paradoxical effect like...
More than half of the second-year class at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University spent their only free summer during medical school doing research, both on and off campus. One hundred twenty participants from MCG’s home base in...
In this week’s Medical Minute, Dr. Joseph Hobbs, chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, discusses a potential new way to rejuvenate heart muscle affected by heart attack that...
Recent neuroscience PhD program graduate Dr. Arnab Barik and the Xiong and Mei Labs were featured on the cover of the Journal of Neuroscience. The Journal of Neuroscience is an official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, publishing papers on a...
With age, the chromosomes of our cardiac stem cells compress as they move into a state of safe, semiretirement. The typically long, coiled strand of DNA inside each youthful stem cell gets shorter and dense as we age, literally leaving less room for...
One way chronic stress appears to cause depression is by increasing levels of a protein in the brain that decreases the availability of an important chemical that regulates our mood, scientists report. They have found elevated levels of...
In this week’s Medical Minute, Dr. Joseph Hobbs, chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, discusses little fluid-filled vesicles, called exosomes that trap amyloid protein in the...
Scientists are trying to turn up the heat-burning ability of brown fat with the long-term goal of combatting obesity. Babies and hibernating bears have brown fat to help stay warm and some adults also are lucky enough to have this fat that helps...
In this week’s Medical Minute, Dr. Joseph Hobbs, chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, discusses the potential danger of “Mitochondria,” the powerhouses that drive...
In this week’s Medical Minute, Dr. Joseph Hobbs, chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, discusses the effects of a gene that, in one form, protects our eyes, but in another is...
Vesicles, fluid-filled sacs that brain cells make to trap amyloid, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s, appear to also contribute to the disease, scientists report. Reducing the production of these vesicles, called exosomes, could help reduce the amount of...
Fall sports kick off next month and Augusta University is staying ahead of the game with the opening of its Fall Sports Injury Clinic. The clinic is designed to treat all types of non-emergent, sports-related injuries. Patients will be evaluated by...
Dr. Robin H. Schwartz recruited as first director Dr. Robin H. Schwartz, an anesthesiologist with extensive experience in operating room management and ambulatory anesthesia, is the inaugural Perioperative Surgical Home Director for the Department...
In this week’s Medical Minute, Dr. Joseph Hobbs, chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, discusses a sort of “biological barbell” created by Augusta research scientists...

