Tulane University researchers have discovered that remnants of B. burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, may contribute to inflammation in both the central and peripheral nervous systems.

Manuel A. Ocasio of the School of Medicine and Jasper J. Privat of the Tulane Counseling Center were awarded a Center for Public Service grant of $10,000 for their project “Community Care Is Our Own Salvation: Community-Based Resilience and Healing for Trans Communities Surviving Natural Disasters in Louisiana.”The Center for Public Service (CPS) has announced the recipients for its 2022 CPS Faculty Community-Engaged Research Grant.

Manuel A. Ocasio and Jasper J. Privat were awarded a grant for $10,000 for their project “Community Care is Our Own Salvation: Community-Based Resilience and Healing for Trans Communities Surviving Natural Disasters in Louisiana.”

Ocasio (he/him) is an assistant professor at the School of Medicine, and Privat (they/them) is a staff psychologist at Tulane Counseling Center as well as an adjunct assistant professor at the School of Science and Engineering.
 
This project aims to leverage and strengthen an existing partnership with a community partner, TIDAL, a trans-led coalition of community members, healthcare providers, students and teachers in the Gulf South, united in their commitment to trans liberation through equitable healthcare. Ocasio and Privat’s project’s goal is to develop for TIDAL an innovative workshop tailored to the transgender and gender non-conforming community that will provide practical skills to promote and teach resilience in response to a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, tornado or flooding. The workshop will fill an important gap in tailored services for TGNC patients, empower communities during crises and inform the development of future workshops that can be scaled to increase impact for other geographic regions and TGNC populations.
 
“We are thrilled about this opportunity to uplift and celebrate trans resilience and healing,” Privat said. “Two-Spirit, trans and gender non-conforming folks are more likely to experience the traumatic stress of natural disasters in the context of cumulative and traumatizing systemic challenges, such as discrimination in medical settings and isolation from networks of support. We believe this community-based, trans-led project will cultivate a healing space for the trans folks involved and beyond.”

Two-Spirit is a term from indigenous American heritage and may be used as an indicator of gender identification.

The $10,000 award will be granted over 18 months. CPS Faculty Community-Engaged Research Grants are awarded annually to faculty whose research “engages community partners in reciprocal relationships to co-produce knowledge, resulting in public value and recognizable scholarly impacts in their field(s) of inquiry.”

Many species of morning glories contain elements of powerful psychedelic drugs, according to a new Tulane University study published in the journal Communications Biology.

Hannah Frank, a bat expert in the Tulane University School of Science and Engineering, will share in a $1.25 million award for new research in detecting and mitigating emerging animal-borne infectious diseases.

Tulane’s Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine provides recipes that incorporate festive fall flavors, such as a spaghetti squash dish and a cornbread dressing that are perfect additions to a Thanksgiving menu.

Could naturally occurring stem cells throughout the body hold the key to unlocking the next generation of advances in regenerative medicine? Absolutely, according to Tulane University Professor of Medicine Dr. Eckhard Alt, who recently published a perspective in the journal Cells that outlines how a type of adult stem cell holds tremendous promise to fuel advances in treating a variety of conditions.