Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have created synthetic nanoparticles that target lymph nodes and greatly boost vaccine responses, said lead author Ashley St. John, PhD, a researcher at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School . The paper was published online in the journal Nature Materials on Jan.

Tuning in to tune out may be just what’s needed for men undergoing a prostate biopsy, according to researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute .

In choosing where they get treatment, prostate cancer patients tend to opt for a major cancer center if they have severe disease, but stick closer to home for less complicated cases, even when offered a model of care that taps numerous experts. The findings by Duke Cancer Institute researchers, published in the January issue of the Journal of Urology, are the first large analysis of the so-called multidisciplinary care strategy that gives prostate cancer patients access to a surgeon, a medical oncologists and a radiation oncologist – all in a single visit. The care team then decides as a group what’s best for the patient, easing the bias for any one specialty.

Five scientists from Duke University Medical Center and three from Duke University have been chosen for the distinct honor of fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Gary H. Lyman, MD, MPH , a professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center, has been elected to the board of directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology , which is the leading professional organization representing more than 30,000 oncologists and others who care for people with cancer. Lyman will begin his four-year appointment in June 2012

A protein in the nucleus of breast cancer cells that plays a role in fueling the growth of aggressive tumors may be a good target for new drugs, reports a research team at the Duke Cancer Institute. The finding, published in the October 18, 2011, print issue of the journal Cancer Cell , presents a potential new way to inhibit breast cancer growth among so-called estrogen receptor negative cancers, which are especially lethal because they don’t respond to current hormone therapies. “This is validation of a new drug target for a subset of breast cancers that have poor treatment options,” said the study’s senior author, Donald McDonnell, PhD , chairman of the Duke Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology

In a first-ever demonstration of a two-way interaction between a primate brain and a virtual body, two monkeys trained at the Duke University Center for Neuroengineering learned to employ brain activity alone to move an avatar hand and identify the texture of virtual objects.