Microbiologist Featured in Antibiotic Resistance Articles

Mar 21, 2023

As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued warnings about the antibiotic-resistant bacteria Shigella, insight from Associate Professor of Biological and Chemical Sciences Bryan Gibb, Ph.D., was featured in several outlets, including News Medical and AZO Life Sciences. Gibb, who is researching the therapeutic potential for viruses (phages) to treat antibiotic-resistant infections, tells News Medical that phages are “already working wonders in Eastern Europe,” where doctors in countries like the Republic of Georgia have successfully used phage cocktails to treat infections for decades. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) process for approving pharmaceuticals is not equipped to deal with bacterial agents like phages.

“They evolve quickly, just like the mutating bacteria they fight, giving them a major edge over antibiotics. But their flexible nature also makes phages difficult to evaluate in a traditional clinical trial setting,” says Gibb. To overcome this obstacle, he recommends a separate FDA approval track for phage therapy.

 

Long Island and Arkansas Media Cover NYITCOM Match Results

Mar 17, 2023

At this year’s Match Day, NYITCOM’s Class of 2023 achieved a 100 percent match rate, with all students in the class placed into residencies. Several outlets in both Long Island and Arkansas, where NYITCOM has medical school locations, covered this news, including KAIT-TV, Batesville Daily Guard, The Jonesboro Sun, The Island 360, Huntington Now, and Port Washington Patch.

 

Haar Quoted in Everyday Health

Mar 15, 2023

School of Health Professions Assistant Dean and Chairperson for the Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Mindy Haar, Ph.D., is quoted in an Everyday Health article about yogurt and gut microbiome. Haar notes that yogurts with added sugars still offer the potential benefits of probiotics, even if they’re a less healthy choice holistically. However, she still recommends that consumers start with plain yogurt and add a little sugar or fruit on their own. Haar advises consumers to always look at the “added sugar” line on a food label and note the amount. As 20 grams is equal to about five teaspoons of sugar, even if consumers add a teaspoon of sugar or honey to plain yogurt on their own, it will still be less sugar than the amount added to many flavored yogurts. 

 

Long Island Media Highlight Research Collaboration

Mar 07, 2023

As featured in InnovateLI and The Island 360, NYITCOM and St. Francis Hospital and Heart Center®’s DeMatteis Center for Cardiac Research and Education have launched a new collaboration. The initiative provides NYITCOM students the prestigious opportunity to shadow St. Francis Hospital’s world-renowned, innovative cardiovascular researchers and assist them in potentially life-saving studies. The Island 360 article notes that the research collaboration also furthers the medical school’s existing relationship with the Catholic Health system, of which St. Francis Hospital is a part, whose facilities serve as a vital training ground for NYITCOM students completing clinical rotations and graduates fulfilling residencies and fellowships.

 

Psychology Expert Featured in Lifewire

Mar 01, 2023

Melissa Huey, Ph.D., assistant professor of behavioral sciences, is quoted in the Lifewire story “Technology May Be Controlling Your Life—Here's How to Take it Back.” The article discusses a new report that finds technology is hindering decision-making, with smartphones driving technology dependence.

“The constant viewing of memes, tag lines, and clips creates a situation where our outsourcing of decision-making is not conscious,” says Huey, who studies the psychological impact of smartphones and technology. “Because of the subliminal messaging that comes through our technology, it is hard to know if your opinions are real and genuine or a product of what comes across our devices constantly.”

 

Nizich on Cobots: Communications of the ACM

Feb 28, 2023

Communications of the ACM addresses cyberattacks on collaborative robots, or cobots, and extensively quotes  Michael Nizich, Ph.D., ETIC director and adjunct associate professor of computer science. According to the story, cobots count on Internet of Things devices, various data and software programming, and remote control for operation, productivity, and safety. All of which present unique opportunities for attack.

Criminal hackers can live off the land, using remote control tools IT has already installed with the cobots, such as Secure Shell (SSH). Attackers can use cobots' SSH connections to reconfigure the cobot to perform all the wrong motions, Nizich explains. "Advanced SSH connection support provides an outside user full access to the robot's operating system and controls and the software and scripts on the system that control the cobot's behaviors," he says. Unfortunately, it is often trivial for criminal hackers to learn these connection options and find cobots to attack. "Many times, vendors publicly advertise the features of software and hardware systems to make them more attractive from a sales perspective. Users discuss the intricate details of the system's functionality on blogs and vlogs as they attempt to troubleshoot issues with the help of other system users," explains Nizich.

 

Jarkon Interviewed for News 12's The New Normal

Feb 28, 2023

News 12 interviewed Psychiatrist Liat Jarkon, D.O., director of the Center for Behavioral Health, for its live segment The New Normal. Jarkon responds to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which finds that teen girls across the United States are "engulfed in a growing wave of violence and trauma," and cites growing statistics of sexual assault. She advises K-12 schools to screen teens for mental health crises, much like NYITCOM does with its own medical students, noting that these screening tools can be extremely valuable in helping to identify at-risk students in need of support.

 

Rothstein Featured in Nike Blog

Feb 28, 2023

As seen in Nike’s coaching blog, Alex Rothstein, M.S., instructor for the Exercise Science program, discusses the benefits of light rest day workouts. He explains that gentle movement can boost circulation, helping remove waste and redistribute blood and nutrients to the muscles taxed during a previous, more challenging workout.

“The end goal is for the circulation to go where you want the healing or recovery to occur,” says Rothstein. “Moving blood and nutrients to target muscles also helps reduce the swelling and tenderness that occurs after an intense workout. This can prevent or ease muscle stiffness and soreness.”

 

Rothstein Quoted in Reader’s Digest Health Story

Feb 27, 2023

Alex Rothstein, M.S., instructor for the Exercise Science program, was quoted in an article about heart rate for the Reader's Digest wellness site The Healthy. He recommends that people follow the Karvonen Formula to calculate their fat-burning heart rate.

“An individual subtracts their age from 220 to get their ‘age-predicted heart rate max,’ and then subtracts their resting heart rate from this number to get their heart rate reserve. If you want to exercise at 75 percent of your heart rate reserve, you would multiply the heart rate reserve by 0.75 and then add back the resting heart rate. This new number would be the target heart rate to work at 75 percent of one’s heart rate reserve,” says Rothstein. He also adds that people are often surprised to learn that the fat-burning heart rate zone is less intense than the cardio zone, which burns carbohydrates at a higher rate.

 

Hometown News Outlets Highlight Student Achievements

Feb 24, 2023

Local media outlets featured the academic accomplishments of New York Tech students, including, among others, The Monmouth Journal, CentralMaine.com, and Hamlet Hub, which highlighted area students named to the Presidential Honor List and Dean’s List for fall 2022. In addition, NJ.com, Northeast Times, and others highlighted fall graduates of the Class of 2022.