School Notes: School of Medicine
November/December 2008

Online course tackles weight biases in healthcare settings

The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has launched a web-based continuing medical education course to increase awareness of weight bias in healthcare settings and help clinicians improve care for overweight and obese patients. It is one of the first evidence-based online learning tools designed to address this topic. The free course, called "Weight Bias in Clinical Settings: Improving Health Care Delivery for Obese Patients," is accredited by the School of Medicine's Center for Continuing Medical Education. It may be accessed at http://learn.med.yale.edu/rudd/weightbias.

New research in autoimmune diseases

Yale researchers have shown that in systemic autoimmune diseases, B cells can be activated without the presence of T cells. This finding contradicts the long-held belief that B cells, the source of damaging autoantibodies, depend on T cells for their activation. The new finding, published in the August 7 online issue of the journal Immunity, suggests new ways to intervene in the immune system's chronic attacks on the body's own tissue. The findings came as a surprise, said Mark Shlomchik, professor of laboratory medicine and immunobiology and senior author of the study, and might explain why treatments that target T cells in autoimmune disease have fared relatively poorly, while newer treatments aimed at B cells have shown promise.

New evidence that BPA in clear plastics impairs brain function

The chemical bisphenol-A (BPA), present in the polycarbonate plastics found in many household items, causes the loss of connections between brain cells. This synaptic loss may cause memory/learning impairments and depression, according to study results published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Using a primate model, the research team tested lower levels of the chemical than in past studies. "Our goal was to more closely mimic the slow and continuous conditions under which humans would normally be exposed to BPA," said study author Csaba Leranth, professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and professor of neurology. "As a result, this study is more indicative than past research of how BPA may actually affect humans." (For a Yale Alumni Magazine report, see Findings.)