Stony Brook University

Photo from SBUH
Stony Brook Medicine experts discuss diagnosis, treatment, support and more during livestream event

WHAT:

Tic disorders are common, affecting about 15 percent of the overall population. Tourette’s Disorder, a subtype of tic disorder, is estimated to affect 1 out of every 162 children (0.6%). The nervous system disorder involves repetitive movements or unwanted sounds, such as repeatedly blinking one’s eyes or unintentionally uttering words that might be inappropriate. The first symptoms usually occur between the ages of 5 and 10 years, generally in the head and neck area and may progress to include muscles of the trunk, arms and legs. Motor tics generally occur before the development of vocal tics and simple tics often precede complex tics.

​​The Stony Brook Center for Tics and Tourette’s Disorder provides a comprehensive evaluation to devise a developmentally appropriate treatment plan to address tics. Treatment varies from person to person but may include:

  • Oral Medication
  • Botulinum toxin injections
  • CBIT (Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics) — a structured therapy specific for tics
  • DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) — a surgical option for severe cases that don’t respond to other treatments

Experts from Stony Brook Medicine’s Center for Tics and Tourette’s Disorder will discuss treatments, diagnosis, support and more during a livestream event on Thursday, October 14, 2021 at 2pm EST. Viewers can submit questions via the comment section and have them answered by the experts.

To learn more about the Stony Brook Center for Tics and Tourette’s Disorder, visit:

https://neuro.stonybrookmedicine.edu/centers/movement/tics_tourette_center

WHEN:

Thursday, October 14, 2021 at 2PM EST

The livestream event can be seen on:

Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stonybrookmedicine/posts/4361066807282521

Or

Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsCjIRPv8g0

MODERATOR:

  • Wilfred Farquharson, IV, PhD, Licensed Psychologist, Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Outpatient Services, Stony Brook Medicine

PANELISTS:

  • Carine Maurer, MD, PhD, Movement Disorders Neurologist, Director of Stony Brook Tics and Tourette’s Disorder Center
  • Jenna Palladino, PsyD, Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT)-certified, Clinical Psychologist, Co-Director of Stony Brook Tics and Tourette’s Disorder Center

After 27 days in Stony Brook University Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Brianna Elizabeth Walters is heading home. On August 25, 2021 the baby girl was born premature at 32 weeks.

Before leaving the hospital on September 20, Brianna’s parents Edward and Anne Marie Walters had a special gift for the physicians and nurses who cared for their daughter for the past month. A wooden American flag, handmade by Edward and his uncle, now sits in Stony Brook’s NICU as a thank you. The NYPD police officer said he wanted to express his heartfelt thanks to the staff who supported his family.

“We just wanted to do something for the doctors and nurses who stood by our side during what was a rough time for my wife and I,” said Edward. “We thought about bringing donuts or bagels to show thanks but agreed this handmade gift was more special for the staff who went above and beyond for us.”

Edward, Anne Marie and their daughter are happy to be together at home. This is the first child for the new mom and dad.

The Center for Italian Studies at Stony Brook University will host its annual Robert D. Cess Concorso d’Eleganza XV, an annual Celebration of Italian Vehicle Excellence and Beauty:, on Sunday, Sept. 26 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. A display of “art forms on wheels” as a means of illustrating one form of Italian culture, the event will feature display vehicles on view at the Stony Brook University campus, 100 Nicolls Road, Stony Brook  on the lawn adjacent to the Graduate Physics Building and directly across from the Sports Complex off John S. Toll Drive.

Participation and viewing are free and open to the public.

Owners of Italian vehicles interested  in participating in this display,

please contact [email protected] or call 631-632-7444.

See also www.stonybrook.edu/italianstudies

From left, Tahmid Rahman, MD, Cardiologist and Associate Director, Center for Advanced Lipid (Cholesterol) Management and Associate Director, Quality and Safety in Cardiology; On Chen, MD, Interventional Cardiologist and Director, Center for Advanced Lipid (Cholesterol) Management; Director, Outpatient Services; and Director, Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) and Telemetry; and Sahana Choudhury, AGPCNP-C, MSN, CMSRN, Adult Cardiology Nurse Practitioner. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Specialty heart care is once again expanding at Stony Brook Medicine with the addition of the Center for Advanced Lipid (Cholesterol) Management at the Stony Brook University Heart Institute, the first of its kind in Suffolk County. Lipids are fatty substances in the blood that can lead to blockages in heart arteries. The new center will use testing tailored to each patient to get a complete understanding of inflammatory markers, lipid profile, apolipoprotein B levels and more. From there, Stony Brook experts can develop a cardiac disease prevention and cholesterol management plan.

“Our goal is to provide earlier diagnosis so that our patients can be proactive and prevent premature heart disease,” said Lipid Center Director On Chen, MD, who is also the Director of the Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) at Stony Brook Medicine. “As an interventional cardiologist, I treat patients with severe disease and blockages to the heart, and I’d much rather see patients early to be aggressive with prevention. Today, there is so much we can do to get ahead of heart disease.”

With clinic hours available in East Setauket and Commack, the Lipid Center is staffed with cardiologists who have specialized training and certification through the American Board of Clinical Lipidology. The opening coincides with September’s National Cholesterol Education Month, which aims to raise awareness about cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol levels, and stroke.

“At Stony Brook Heart Institute, our cardiac specialists work to fight heart disease from every angle, and the new Center for Lipid Management is an important part of bringing advanced management of cholesterol disorders to our patients in a holistic and comprehensive way,” said Hal A. Skopicki, MD, PhD, Co-Director, Stony Brook Heart Institute; Chief, Cardiology; and Ambassador Charles A. Gargano Chair, Cardiology, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. “Our clinicians are not only involved in the treatment but are also actively involved in the science of lipids and the role they play in our health and disease — so that we can be on the forefront of bringing best-in-class knowledge to our patients and community.”

High cholesterol is a major risk factor for heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States. High cholesterol has no symptoms, so patients might not know that their cholesterol is too high – unless it’s measured by a doctor with a blood test.

“While there are risk factors that are not within our control — such as age or family history — there are many crucial factors that we can influence,” said Tahmid Rahman, MD, Associate Director of the Center for Advanced Lipid (Cholesterol) Management. “Even if you already have cardiovascular disease, it’s not too late to lower your risk. In fact, an effective lipid-lowering treatment plan can be lifesaving.”

“For patients who have already suffered a heart attack, had coronary artery bypass surgery or received stenting of their arteries, the need for optimum cholesterol management may even be higher as the consequences of a heart attack in these patients may be even more dangerous,” adds Dr. Chen.

About Stony Brook University Heart Institute:

Stony Brook University Heart Institute is located within Stony Brook University Hospital as part of Long Island’s premier university-based medical center. The Heart Institute offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary program for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. The staff includes full-time and community-based, board-certified cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons, as well as specially trained anesthesiologists, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, surgical technologists, perfusionists, and other support staff. Their combined expertise provides state-of-the-art interventional and surgical capabilities in 24-hour cardiac catheterization labs and surgical suites. And while the Heart Institute clinical staff offers the latest advances in medicine, its physician-scientists are also actively enhancing knowledge of the heart and blood vessels through basic biomedical studies and clinical research. To learn more, visit www.heart.stonybrookmedicine.edu.

 

Ellen Pikitch. Photo from Stony Brook University

By Daniel Dunaief

Preserving the oceans of the world will take more than putting labels on sensitive areas or agreeing on an overall figure for how much area needs protection.

It will require consistent definitions, guidelines and enforcement across regions and a willingness to commit to common goals.

A group of 42 scientists including Ellen Pikitch, Endowed Professor of Ocean Conservation Sciences at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, recently published a new framework developed over more than 10 years in the journal Science to understand, plan, establish, evaluate and monitor ocean protection in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

“We’ve had MPAs for a long time,” said Pikitch. Some of them are not actively managed, with activities that aren’t allowed, such as fishing or mining, going on in them. “They may not be strongly set up in the first place to protect biodiversity. What this paper does is that it introduces a terminology with a lot of detail on when an MPA qualifies to be at a certain level of establishment and protection.”

These scientists, who work at 38 institutions around the world, created an approach that uses seven factors to derive four designations: fully protected, highly protected, lightly protected, and minimally protected.

If a site includes any mining at all, it is no longer considered a marine protected area.

Fully protected regions have minimal levels of anchoring, infrastructure, aquaculture and non-extractive activities. A minimally protected area, on the other hand, has high levels of anchoring, infrastructure, aquaculture and fishing, with moderate levels of non-extractive activities and dredging and dumping.

Using their own research and evidence from scientific literature, the researchers involved in this broad-based analysis wanted to ensure that MPAs “have quality protection,” Pikitch explained. “The quality is as important, if not moreso, than the quantity.”

The researchers are pleased with the timing of the release of this paper, which comes out just over a month before the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity, which will meet virtually in October. Over 50 countries, including the United States, have already agreed to protect 30 percent of the ocean by 2030.

Pikitch called this a “critical time to get this information in front of decision makers.” The meeting will occur in two parts, with the second one set for an in-person gathering in China in April.

The point of the paper is to “help clarify what is an MPA, how do we distinguish different types and their outcomes,” Pikitch added.

The people who attend the CBD meeting range from high level government officials all the way up to the president of small countries.

About a decade ago, an earlier convention targeted protecting 10 percent of the oceans by 2020. The world fell short of that goal, with the current protection reaching about 7.7 percent, according to Pikitch.

Indeed, amid discussions during the development of this new outcome-based approach to MPAs, some researchers wondered about the logic of creating a target of 30 percent within the next nine years even as the world fell short of the earlier goal.

Some people at the meetings wondered “should we be pushing these things when a lot of them are failing?” Pikitch recalled of a lively debate during a meeting in Borneo. “Part of the answer is in this paper. These [earlier efforts] are failing because they are not doing the things that need to be done to be effective. It definitely helped us inform what we should be thinking about.”

Enabling conditions for marine protected areas go well beyond setting up an area that prevents fishing. The MPA guidelines in the paper have four components, including stages of establishment, levels of protection, enabling conditions and outcomes.

The benefits of ensuring the quality of protecting marine life extends beyond sustaining biodiversity or making sure an area has larger or more plentiful marine life.

“More often than not, it’s the case that MPAs do double duty” by protecting an environment and providing a sustainable resource for people around the area, Pikitch said. Locally, she points to an effort in Shinnecock Bay that provided the same benefits of these ocean protection regions. 

In the western part of the bay, Pikitch said the program planted over 3.5 million hard clams into two areas. In the last decade, those regions have had an increase in the hard clam population of over 1,000 percent, which has provided numerous other benefits.

“It demonstrates the positive impact of having a no-take area,” Pikitch said.

At the same time, the bay hasn’t had any brown tides for four straight years. These brown tides and algal blooms can otherwise pose a danger to human health.

By filtering the water, the clams also make it easier for eel grass to grow, which was struggling to survive in cloudier waters that reduce their access to light. With four times as much eel grass as a decade ago, younger fish have a place to hide, grow and eat, increasing their abundance.

Being aware of the imperiled oceans and the threats humans and others face from a changing planet has sometimes been a struggle for Pikitch.

The marine researcher recalled a time when four hurricanes were churning at the same time in the Atlantic.

“I went to bed and I have to admit, I was really depressed,” Pikitch said.

When she woke up the next morning, she had to teach a class. She regrouped and decided on a strategic message.

“This is reality,” she told her class. “We have to accept this is the world we made. Everything we do that can make a positive difference, we do.”

Pikitch is encouraged by the work done to develop a new MPA framework.

These protected areas “provide a sustainable pathway to ensure a healthy ocean and to provide a home for future biodiversity,” she said.

From left, Dr. Korbin's wife, Seth Korbin, MD, and Legislator Bridget Fleming at the Suffolk County Legislature office in Riverside on Thursday, September 9th.
Seth Korbin, MD, joint reconstruction specialist at Stony Brook Orthopaedic Associates and clinical associate professor at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, was presented a Proclamation by Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming this week in acknowledgement of his rescue of a man, woman and her 7-year-old son from the waters in Hampton Bays on Wednesday, August 25.
After deciding to go surfing in the ocean off Dune Road, Dr. Korbin noticed three people clinging to a boogie board and realized that they were caught in a rip current. He first brought the 7-year-old boy to shore, and then went back out for the man and woman. Everyone was safe and no medical attention was needed, thanks to the quick and selfless actions of Dr. Korbin.

Maurie McInnis speaks at the Three Village Chamber of Commerce. Photo by Rita J. Egan

Stony Brook University’s new president wants to work with the community.

At its Sept. 15 breakfast, the Three Village Chamber of Commerce welcomed SBU President Maurie McInnis. While the members had participated in a Zoom meeting with her last year, this was the first time they had the opportunity to meet her in person. The university president took over the position July 1, 2020, after the departure of Dr. Samuel L. Stanley Jr.

“We have this sort of mutually reinforcing and synergistic positive relationship.”

— Maurie McInnis

McInnis said it was nice to be able to meet everyone during the breakfast instead of just seeing faces on a screen.

“I’m really happy to get a chance to meet with all of you,” she said. “The relationship between the university and its community is so vital, really, to the success of both in an ideal world. We have this sort of mutually reinforcing and synergistic positive relationship, and I’ve heard how much work you all have done to help us get to that place.”

After reviewing the history of SBU, the university president provided the attendees with some updates.

McInnis said the university and hospital have become the largest single site of employment on Long Island. There are 15,000 employees at Stony Brook which serves 26,000 students.

“That means we’re kind of a little city of 40,000 people right here in your backyard,” she said. “And, that means extraordinary opportunities for our community to be a really strong place working closely together.”

McInnis added the majority of students, 12,000, come from Long Island as well as nearly 7,000 from the five boroughs and 2,500 from other parts of New York state. SBU gives out 40% of degrees to STEM students and another 20% who majored in health studies.

“We were founded in many ways on the rise and excitement of science in the 1960s, and that has long been part of what this campus does,” she said.

McInnis said one of the challenges SBU and other universities face is having enough funds to educate students. Institutions have two primary sources, she said, tuition and — if it’s a public university — state support.

For SBU, she said state support has been flat for the last decade and is significantly lower from what New York provided before the 2008 recession.

“It went down, and then it’s been flat ever since,” she said. “And for the most part, our tuition has been flat in that decade as well. So, we continue to face funding challenges and continue to try to work with our partners in Albany to help them understand, for us to be great, we’re going to need additional support.”

During the presentation, McInnis announced that Dr. Harold Paz of Ohio State University has been named as the new executive vice president for Health Sciences and will start Oct. 4. She described him as “one of America’s leading health care experts.”

“He will be a transformational leader for the next chapter of Stony Brook Medicine,” she said.

During the pandemic, McInnis said, “Stony Brook really became the epicenter for COVID care in Suffolk County.” The university has also worked to help get Long Islanders vaccinated.

“We have been all over Long Island trying to make sure that all communities have access to vaccinations,” she said. “Not only did we run for this state one of the mass vaccination sites, which we did on our R&D campus — and in those early days when we still had a lot of people wanting to get vaccinations, we were vaccinating 3,000 people a day at the R&D Park — we’ve given over 350,000 vaccinations all over Long Island.”

She added Stony Brook Medicine also provided pop-up vaccination sites all over the Island to not only help people get vaccinated but to educate them on the importance of vaccines. She said one comment people would bring up is that the COVID-19 vaccine was created quickly.

“The technology for this vaccine had been in research and development at America’s leading research universities for over a decade,” she said.

McInnis said thousands of COVID-19 patients were treated at the hospital, and doctors continue to see people with the virus.

“Unfortunately, it continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” she said.

McInnis thanked community members who in the last year donated personal protection equipment, meals, iPads and more.

She said on the SBU campus there were no major outbreaks last academic year, partially because fewer students were on campus and due to precautions taken by the school. She added the fall semester is pretty much back to normal but everyone is wearing masks inside. As of Sept. 10, 99% of campus residents and 88% of in-person commuters have been fully vaccinated. The percentage of university employees vaccinated is 70%, while 77% of medical employees have received the full dose.

A few attendees asked McInnis questions at the end of the presentation.

Lee Krauer, chair of Friends of Stony Brook Road and a member of Stony Brook Concerned Homeowners, thanked McInnis for her presentation.

“I think that the university really is a wonderful place and is a tremendous asset to all of Suffolk County,” Krauer said.

She added that residents in her area off Stony Brook Road have had problems with traffic due to the university. In the past, the community groups have also cited issues with students living in houses and not taking care of them properly.

She said residents between Route 347 and 25A haven’t felt heard by past presidents and asked McInnis if she would be open to meet with members of the committees.

“People who live where I live can’t get out of our blocks,” Krauer said.

McInnis told Krauer who to contact to follow up so they could talk about the possibilities.

Earlier in her presentation, McInnis touched on college housing. There are more than 10,500 beds on campus, which is more than other SBU campuses, according to the SBU president. Recently, after Hurricane Ida, two dormitories had 7 feet of water in the basements and 400 students were relocated to other beds on campuses, many in the dining halls.

“I know that we will continue to work with you all to work with our community to make sure that for our students living on campus, that they are good neighbors,” McInnis said, “And, we will continue our partnership with the town and 6th Precinct and community leaders always to address any behavior or landlord issues that come our way.”

Wolfie

Already broadcasting all basketball games on the Worldwide Leader in Sports, Stony Brook University Athletics is set to announce its fall broadcast schedule, which includes the first-ever broadcasts of home men’s and women’s soccer, as well as volleyball, on ESPN platforms.

All three fall programs will be featured on ESPN3 and ESPN+ as part of an expanded broadcast schedule through the America East on ESPN.

“We’re excited to bring more of our outstanding programs to the ESPN platform,” Director of Athletics Shawn Heilbron said. “As we continue to expand our brand to a wider audience, our productions on ESPN play a vital role.”

Stony Brook’s 2021-22 television slate will include at least seven sports on ESPN platforms with the potential to add postseason games later.

Along with three of Stony Brook’s fall sports, the deal also includes both men’s and women’s basketball programs for the seventh season, and men’s and women’s lacrosse for their upcoming campaigns.

Stay tuned for specific dates, times, and locations for every Seawolves broadcast on StonyBrookAthletics.Com, as well as each team’s social media channels!

SBU President Maurie McInnis, SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras, Graduate Student Organization speaker Helena Van Nieuwenhuizen, Undergraduate Student Government President Manjot Singh, Kevin Law from the Stony Brook Council, and Dean of Students Ric McClendon join SBU mascot Wolfie to cut the ribbon. Photo by Kimberly Brown

Updated. The student union is currently closed due to damage after Hurricane Ida.

Stony Brook University officially opened the newest addition to its campus, the remodeled Stony Brook Union center, Wednesday, Aug. 25. With performances from the Seawolves Marching Band for the ribbon-cutting celebration, as well as free drinks and food, students were eager to explore the 177,000-square-foot building.

“We want students to consider this as a resource, to relax, to study, to learn, to perform, to meet new people and pursue new interests,” said Maurie McInnis, president of SBU. “There is so much to be discovered in this impressive space.”

The renovations for the Stony Brook Union center took three years to complete at $63.4 million. The finished building has three levels that include student services, an IT help desk, comfortable studying sections with couches and powered stations, as well as collaborative spaces.

SBU President Maurie McInnis. Photo by Kimberly Brown

“As we are fully reopening our campuses, we are feeling a renewed energy and optimism from everyone around,” said Jim Malatras, State University of New York chancellor. “Our students deserve this and it matches the outstanding education they receive from this university, one of the best in the world.”

The Stony Brook Union will be a central location for faculty and staff offices that will provide easy access for students to use at their convenience. Some of the new offices include Student Community Development, Student Engagement and Activities, Fraternity and Sorority Life, and Commuter Student Services. 

“I’m excited to see the new opening of the student union because I think it’s a great place to go to get some studying in, but also for socializing at club events,” said Jessie Lin, a SBU student.

The lower level of the building includes expanded space for the Stony Brook Food Pantry and resources such as the Interfaith Center, Club Hub, Esports Club and the Science Fiction Forum. 

With more than 26,000 students attending the university this year, the Stony Brook Union center will provide a large, welcoming space for undergraduates to enhance their studying practices. 

“Seeing the student union being built from my freshman year to now being fully completed as a senior gives me nostalgia,” said Tania Thomas, a SBU student. 

PSMA Riverhead Imaging. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes. Until now, conventional imaging, especially at low PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) levels, has not been able to identify the location and extent of the disease in the majority of cases of men with a suspected cancer recurrence. Now, Stony Brook University Cancer Center, in conjunction with Stony Brook Advanced Imaging, is the first on Long Island to offer men with prostate cancer targeted Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging with PYLARIFY® (piflufolastat F 18) Injection, a Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) imaging agent.

PSMA Riverhead Imaging. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Backed by the experts and state-of-the-art technology at Stony Brook Advanced Imaging Center, this type of imaging enables visualization of lymph nodes, bone and soft tissue metastasis to determine the presence or absence of recurrent and/or metastatic prostate cancer.

Dr. Dinko Franceschi, Chief of Nuclear Medicine and Director of Clinical PET in the Department of Radiology at the Renaissance School of Medicine, states, “For years, there has not been good imaging modalities for prostate cancer – now we have this tool to see exactly where the tumor is in a patient, which will help in determining the best approach going forward.”

Developed by Lantheus, PYLARIFY® was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (May 2021) as the first commercially available PSMA PET imaging agent for prostate cancer.  Those with suspected metastasis who are candidates for initial definitive therapy or those with suspected recurrence based on elevated serum PSA level are eligible for the scan.

PSMA scans are available at two Stony Brook Medicine imaging centers (Riverhead and Stony Brook) with more locations to follow.

For more information or to make an appointment, visit imaging.stonybrookmedicine.edu. To learn more about Stony Brook Cancer Center and prostate cancer treatment, visit cancer.stonybrookmedicine.edu.

About Stony Brook Medicine:

Stony Brook Medicine integrates and elevates all of Stony Brook University’s health-related initiatives: education, research and patient care. It includes five Health Sciences schools — Dental Medicine, Health Technology and Management, Medicine, Nursing and Social Welfare — as well as Stony Brook University Hospital, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital and more than 200 community-based healthcare settings throughout Suffolk County. To learn more, visit www.stonybrookmedicine.edu.

About PYLARIFY® 

PYLARIFY® (piflufolastat F 18) injection s a fluorinated small molecule PSMA-targeted PET imaging agent that enables visualization of lymph nodes, bone and soft tissue metastases to determine the presence or absence of recurrent and/or metastatic prostate cancer. For men with prostate cancer, PYLARIFY PET combines the accuracy of PET imaging, the precision of PSMA targeting and the clarity of an F 18 radioisotope5 for superior diagnostic performance. The recommended PYLARIFY dose is 333 MBq (9 mCi) with an acceptable range of 296 MBq to 370 MBq (8 mCi to 10 mCi), administered as a bolus intravenous injection.