colleges

Tulane eyes a new police substation across from The Boot on Broadway

By |

By Sharon Lurye, Uptown Messenger

Students who like to party at The Boot on Saturday nights may have to deal with a new neighbor next year: the cops. The Tulane University Police Department wants to build a new station across from The Boot, a popular student bar at the corner of Zimpel Street and Broadway.  The station would serve as a command center for the department’s off-campus patrols, and would be open 24/7. Before the university can move forward with its plans, it must first ask for approval from the City Planning Commission, as the area is zoned residential. A public hearing is scheduled for Oct. 8 in City Hall.

crime

Tulane police shoot suspect who was resisting arrest on Uptown campus

By |

Tulane University police shot a former contract employee who was resisting arrest Friday afternoon, the Tulane University Police Department reported. NOPD’s Force Investigation Team is investigating the officer-involved shooting. New Orleans officers were not involved, the NOPD states. At about 1:10 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6, TUPD officers were investigating the presence on campus of a man wanted in reference to charges of indecent exposure and trespassing.

colleges

Tulane researcher to study trauma intervention in mothers and children

By |

By Barri Bronston, Tulane University

A Tulane University researcher will study the effectiveness of an intervention to address trauma in mothers and their children as part of a four-year grant that will bring the family-focused project to New Orleans area Head Start centers. Under the $500,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, assistant professor of psychology Sarah Gray and her team of graduate students and trainees will implement a program called Mom Power, an existing evidence-based intervention that aims to mitigate the negative impacts of trauma on physical and mental health across generations. Gray, director of the Tulane Child and Family Lab and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Tulane School of Medicine, said the project builds on the research she has been doing since arriving at Tulane in 2014. “In our work, we’ve seen that mothers’ experiences of early adversity have implications not only for their own physical and mental health, but also for their young children’s,” Gray said. “Existing research, including our own, shows that that the effects of trauma can extend across generations, and also that moms’ mental health and behavior affect their kids, and vice versa,” she said.

colleges

Tulane School of Medicine: New opioid speeds recovery with fewer risks

By |

By Keith Brannon, Tulane University

Morphine and other opioid-based painkillers are very effective at treating pain initially, but studies have shown that the drugs can make patients more pain-sensitive, prolonging their discomfort and increasing their risks of developing chronic pain. A new type of opioid developed by researchers at Tulane University and the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System doesn’t have this side effect and accelerates recovery time from pain compared to morphine, according to a new study published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation. Previous pre-clinical studies at Tulane have shown that the drug is as strong as morphine but isn’t addictive and causes fewer side effects. “A drug that prevents the transition from acute to chronic relapsing pain would represent a true breakthrough in drug development for pain management,” said senior study author James Zadina, professor of medicine, pharmacology and neuroscience at Tulane University School of Medicine and director of the neuroscience laboratory at the VA. “Not only have the mechanisms behind the shift from acute to chronic pain been elusive, but efforts to thwart this transition have been unsuccessful thus far.”

Scientists tested a novel opioid called ZH853 using rat models of inflammatory pain and pain after surgery.