As a neurosurgery resident, Dr. Tracey met an
11-month-old named Janice who arrived in
an ambulance with burns covering 75 percent
of her body. She was accidently burned by her
grandmother who was cooking, tripped and
doused Janice with a pot of boiling spaghetti.
Janice spent three weeks recovering in the
burn unit and eventually stabilized. At the
time, Dr. Tracey played with Janice, who was
happy, smiling and giggling. The next day,
her medical team was shocked to find her
dead. There was no medical explanation for
her death, Dr. Tracey was haunted by her
case and focused his career path toward
researching inflammation, which he believed
caused Janice's unexpected death.
BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE
Biomedical Science discovered
that the brain controls the
immune system--more
specifically, a nerve in the neck
signals the release of natural
chemicals the body needs to treat
disease. The center is pioneering
a new field of medicine called
bioelectronic medicine, which
uses small devices to tell the
body to treat itself without
manufactured drugs or their side
eff ects. Bioelectronic medicine
has the potential to treat a wide-
ranging number of diseases,
including arthritis, lupus, obesity,
type 2 diabetes, inflammatory
bowel disease and even
certain cancers.