In the last month, Maria Daniela Martin, MD, Anand Narayan, MD, and Aaron LeBeau, PhD were featured in major news outlets. Dr. Martin and Dr. Narayan discussed the impacts of screening guidelines while Dr. LeBeau was featured for his innovative work on the ability of shark proteins to prevent COVID-19.
Dr. Martin was interviewed on NBC15 WMTV and Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) to discuss new guidelines for lung cancer screenings.
“The age limit has been brought down. Before, we would screen people aged 55 to 80; now, we have brought it down to 50 years old. The amount of smoking was also brought down. Before, we screened people who smoked about 30 packs a year; now, that number was brought down to 20 [packs a year],” Dr. Martin explains in her WPR interview. She continues, “Even though that does not seem like a big change, that doubles the amount of people that are eligible to be screened in the United States. It’s estimated 6.5 million people are now eligible with the new updated guidelines.”
Listen to more of Dr. Martin’s interview with WPR here: https://www.wpr.org/shows/more-smokers-urged-receive-lung-cancer-screenings and view her WMTV interview here: https://www.nbc15.com/video/2021/12/21/lung-cancer-segment/.
Dr. Narayan was featured on WPR and RSNA’s Radiology podcast, where he discussed his work on racial and ethnic disparities in lung cancer screening.
“Black individuals who have previously smoked or currently smoke are more likely to develop lung cancer at lower levels of cigarette smoke usage. If you create criteria that are exclusively based on this pack-year number, you may end up excluding patients, specifically Black patients who are at higher risk of developing lung cancer,” Narayan said.
Listen to more of Dr. Narayan’s interview with WPR here: https://www.wpr.org/uw-madison-research-shows-expanding-access-lung-cancer-screenings-doesnt-improve-equity and to his interview on the RSNA’s Radiology podcast here: https://rsnaradiology.libsyn.com/racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-lung-cancer-screening?tdest_id=2468192
Lastly, Aaron LeBeau, PhD was featured on WMTV and University of Wisconsin News for his research on the ability of VNAR, antibody-like proteins derived from the immune systems of sharks, to prevent the virus that causes COVID-19.
“These small antibody-like proteins can get into nooks and crannies that human antibodies cannot access. They can form these very unique geometries. This allows them to recognize structures in proteins that our human antibodies cannot,” says LeBeau.
You can view Dr. LeBeau’s interview with WMTV here: https://www.nbc15.com/2021/12/16/uw-madison-study-finds-shark-proteins-prevent-virus-that-causes-covid-19/ & https://www.nbc15.com/2022/01/14/uw-madison-expert-launches-cancer-research-using-sharks/?fbclid=IwAR2PWaVjczGa_qpXvsIeR4ID7198mDzr1_KZ3aIEKDqxIk3oQtbrIy4fap0 and his interview with University of Wisconsin News here: https://news.wisc.edu/shark-antibody-like-proteins-neutralize-covid-19-virus-help-prepare-for-future-coronaviruses/