The Oregon Poison Center warns against the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning when people use alternative heat sources during winter weather and power outages. Rob Hendrickson, M.D., says: “If you need to use a generator or alternative cooking source, it is extremely important to place them outside, well away from windows, doors and ventilation systems.”

Avi Gupta, a former Jeopardy! Teen Tournament champion who raised money for pancreatic cancer research at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute in honor of Alex Trebek, will participate in the game show’s High School Reunion Tournament in February 2023.

Oregonian Editor Therese Bottomly describes how the Portland community supported Pamela Kolden, who had cerebral palsy and died in July 2022, including how OHSU speech pathologists helped her connect with the world despite not being able to talk.

In a story about an Oregon woman’s life-saving decision to donate one of her kidneys to a stranger in 2008, Sheryl Williams, B.S.N., RN, says: “What a donation means to people on the receiving end has an impact that most people can’t imagine. It gives you hope and a future you could not have planned for previously. There are no words to describe how grateful you are.”

A 14-year-old Lebanon teen who has received care for metastatic alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital enjoys the holidays with his family.

In a fact-checking story evaluating online claims about mRNA-based COVID vaccines, Louis Picker, M.D., says the vaccines aren’t gene therapy. He adds gene therapy is a “multi-step process that’s very delibartate, it’s very different than just injecting RNA in a carrier that is designed to be picked up, expressed and elicit an immune response” as vaccines do.

A study by Alexander Witkowski, M.D., Ph.D., concluded dermatologists should consider ordering a 31-gene expression profile test to evaluate metastasis risk in patients with new cutaneous malignant melanoma.

Marissa Co, Ph.D., is named one of the 40 rising young star researchers working on autism-related science who are under 40 years old.

Lina Reiss, Ph.D., provides outside expert commentary on a study that concluded stimulating the brainstem’s locus coeruleus region could improve hearing for patients with cochlear implants. Reiss says the study “might pave the way for novel treatments or even behavioral training strategies to better engage the locus coeruleus to speed up re-learning auditory processing through a cochlear implant.”

Coverage of DoveLewis Portland Area Canine Therapy Teams comforting holiday travelers at Portland International Airport notes the dogs also visit OHSU.