Faculty Bibliography

Forensic use of DNA testing began in 1985 and has evolved into what law enforcement experts call the most powerful tool since the development of fingerprinting in the late 19th century. In the mid-1990's DNA testing was used to identify exhumed bones as those of Czar Nicholas II and members of his family who were executed in Russia in 1918. In 1998, DNA testing identified the ''unknown soldier'' killed in Vietnam. In 1996, Dr. [Charles Wetli] led the forensic investigation of the victims of the crash of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island. When terrorism was initially suspected, his team decided it could not rely on presumptive identifications and used DNA testing, Dr. Wetli said. DNA testing had been used in identifying more than 80 Branch Davidians who died during a standoff with F.B.I. agents in Waco, Tex., in 1993. DNA was also used to identify all but 2 of the 141 Ukrainians and Russians aboard a Russian airplane that crashed near Spitsbergen, Norway, in 1996. As of yesterday morning, 152 bodies had been identified and their relatives notified, the medical examiner's office said, and all identifications have been through traditional means like fingerprints and dental records. Dr. [Robert Shaler] said his laboratory had extracted DNA from 3,200 of the 3,600 tissues it has received and has produced DNA profiles of 839 among them. He added that this week he expected to send the extracted DNA to the private laboratories, where scientists will try to match them with DNA submitted by relatives or from personal items

Tom Christerson, 70, the second recipient of a self-contained artificial heart, is breathing on his own, taking daily walks in an intensive care unit, and otherwise recovering well at Jewish..

With the intention of becoming self-sufficient, the blood center has begun preparing to end by 2005 the importation of blood from Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. That effort became more urgent recently when the Food and Drug Administration issued rules that could soon ban the use of blood collected from people who spent three months or more in Britain from 1980 to 1996, or five years or more in Europe since 1980. The aim is to prevent the theoretical spread of the human form of mad cow disease. The fact that no blood could arrive from Europe last week underscored the fragility of depending on foreign supplies. The maximum shelf life for platelets is five days and for red cells 42 days. So until new preservatives are found, a steady flow of blood donors will be needed instead of the surge that followed last week's disaster. Though they are reluctant to admit it, some blood centers may have to discard some of the blood they collected last week because of its limited shelf life, [Robert L. Jones] said

Manufactured substitutes for red blood cells, which are being tested in clinical trials, have been hailed for their potential to relieve the blood shortage because they may be able to be used to provide transfusions for trauma patients and those undergoing certain kinds of surgery. But no substitute has been licensed in this country, and even the best would have limited use because the effectiveness generally is short-lived. Also, red cells cannot perform the function of blood products like platelets and other substances in the blood that allow it to clot when needed. Medical advances have increased the need for blood products and reduced the number of eligible donors. For example, cancer treatment has improved but transfusions are often needed to offset the unwanted effects of treatment and the disease. Also, the pool of potential donors has shrunk because scientists have developed tests to detect H.I.V., hepatitis C and other viruses that can be transmitted through blood products. Doctors have become more judicious in prescribing transfusions, and patients have been urged to self-donate blood before surgery. Self-donations account for 10 percent of New York City's supply, but much of what is not needed for donors cannot be given to other patients because the donors carry viruses or have ailments that could be dangerous

We health-care workers comfort and support one another, working as a unit. Firefighters and EMS workers ranging deeper into the rubble than they should have their eyes washed free of smoke by doting surgeons, and everyone who is injured in the cause is whisked away to St. Vincent's hospital or Bellevue for emergency treatment. Sign-up lists are filled with the names of nurses who work their regular shifts at the hospital and then volunteer to staff emergency centers in their free hours. Doctors fill the emergency rooms and help patrol Ground Zero without regard to previous rank or position in the medical community. There has been an overwhelming response to requests to the public to donate blood

Tom Christerson, 70, become the second recipient of a self-contained artificial heart at Jewish..

Nearly one million babies conceived in test tubes have been born since 1978 when the first was conceived through an in vitro fertilization technique developed by a British scientist, Dr. Robert G. Edwards. Yesterday, Dr. Edwards's success in making infertility treatable, made him one of five winners of this year's awards from the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. Infertility was virtually untreatable for men and women when Dr. Edwards of the University of Cambridge in England began his fertility research on mice in 1955. Today, through techniques spawned by Dr. Edwards's research, post-menopausal women and those with blocked fallopian tubes or nonfunctioning ovaries can become pregnant, and effective therapies exist for men. Dr. Edwards also found flaws in conventional wisdom about fertilization. By using slices of ovaries taken from women undergoing surgery, he found that eggs took 37 hours to mature, not 12 as then believed. And Dr. Edwards destroyed another myth -- that sperm needed to be exposed to secretions in the female reproductive tract before it was competent for fertilization -- by showing that freshly obtained sperm worked fine

The surgical team decided to delay the operation a day. The team wanted to give Dr. [Robert Dowling] time to rest, said his surgical partner, Dr. Laman A. Gray Jr. ''Also, no one was in the mood to take on a major task like an artificial heart implant under the circumstances,'' Dr. Gray said. ''It was so depressing.'' Mr. [Tom Christerson] ''is doing superbly,'' said Dr. Gray, who implanted the AbioCor artificial heart with Dr. Dowling. ''He looks absolutely wonderful,'' is awake and normal neurologically, and began drinking clear liquids on Saturday, Dr. Gray said. After a breathing tube was removed, Mr. Christerson talked with his doctors. So far, Dr. Gray said, Mr. Christerson's recovery is faster than Mr. Tools's, largely because Mr. Christerson ''was not as sick as Mr. Tools'' was before the implant

[Tom Christerson] 'is doing superbly,' said [Laman Gray Jr.], who implanted the AbioCor artificial heart with [Robert Dowling]. On Tuesday, an expert in mechanical heart devices from that institute, Dr. O.H. Frazier, was attending the same Washington meeting as Dowling. Frazier joined Dowling on his drive and observed the operation. Christerson is from Central City, Ky. His implant went quicker and more smoothly than the first one, which the same surgeons performed on Robert Tools on July 2. So far, Gray said, Christerson's recovery is faster than Tools', largely because Christerson 'was not as sick as Tools' was before the implant

[Tom Christerson] 'is doing superbly,' said [Laman A. Gray Jr.], who implanted the AbioCor artificial heart with [Robert Dowling]. 'He looks absolutely wonderful,' is awake and normal neurologically, Gray said