Research

BRINGING RESEARCH TO LIFE

RESEARCH SEMINAR PROGRAM

The Department of Surgery conducts a broad range of both basic and clinical research aimed at bringing medical problems found in patient care to the research lab and returning research advances to patient care.

Among current research projects are studies addressing how surgery and trauma affect the body's ability to compensate for such stress; when carotid endarterectomy is best performed in order to reduce the risk of stroke during/after coronary bypass surgery; how to improve the body's response to cardiopulmonary bypass surgery; and the effectiveness of new therapies for lung cancer.

The research conducted by the Department's faculty is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in addition to other public sources—and also private sources—of funds for biomedical research. Our faculty collaborate with Stony Brook's General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) in multidisciplinary efforts to speed basic research into better patient care; unique on Long Island and one of only 74 centers nationwide supported by the NIH, the GCRC was federally funded in 1998, and facilitates patient-focused "translational" research.

As the regional center for numerous clinical trials in cancer, Stony Brook uses the latest in therapeutic advances for the care of different cancers—and this gives our patients the only opportunity available in Suffolk County to benefit from such studies. Indeed, innovative use of technology has put Stony Brook at the forefront of cancer research and treatments, and the Department of Surgery contributes to this distinction in both basic and clinical sciences.

In 1997, a multidisciplinary team of Stony Brook researchers including a member of our faculty announced the exciting new discovery of a key abnormality—elevated MAP kinase—thought to trigger human breast cancer; this finding laid the foundation for subsequent research aimed at identifying ways to control the growth of cancers by turning their biological "switches" on and off. Since 1999, our thoracic surgery section has been an active member of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG), participating in multi-center clinical trials of thoracic surgery for the treatment of lung cancer and other cancers in the chest.

The following list of selected research projects now underway in the Department makes clear our commitment to excellence in research—and to advancing patient care with it:

n Myocardial mechanics and energetics
n Myocardial protection by cardioplegia
n New endogenous myoprotective strategies utilizing preconditioning
n Immunomodulation during cardiopulmonary bypass
n Mechanism, treatment, and prevention of atrial fibrillation
n Mediastinal lymph node sampling versus complete lymphadenectomy during pulmonary resection for lung cancer
n Prognostic significance and incidence of occult distant disease in resectable lung cancer
n Positron emission tomography in the staging of potentially operable non-small lung carcinoma
n Positron emission tomography in the staging of potentially operable esophageal carcinoma
n Cultured autograft keratinocytes in the treatment of burns
n Cultured allograft keratinocytes in surgical wounds
n Growth hormones in cultured keratinocytes
n Factors enhancing collateral circulation in ischemic vascular disease
n Endothelial cell expression of tissue factor during hypothermia
n Roles of endothelium-derived relaxing factor and nitric oxide in cerebral vasospasm
n Endothelial and smooth muscle physiology in response to thrombosis/aneurysm
n Cellular mechanisms of metabolic dysfunction
n Muscle wasting in HIV patients and impact of growth hormone treatment
n Control of muscle protein synthesis by insulin and amino acids
n Role of arginine in modulating tumor growth in cancer patients and animal models of cancer
n Regulation of serum albumin synthesis by nutritional, physiological and pathological factors
n Protein metabolism and growth during introduction of enteral feeding in preterm infants
n Importance of pH in regulation of protein metabolism
n Glucose-6-phosphatase gene expression and activity in hemorrhagic shock

Click here to see selected faculty publications which reflect the breadth and depth of our basic/clinical research.