People with inherited diseases of the blood and immune system can now receive treatment at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center through a new, streamlined program that integrates expertise from many medical specialties and related basic science disciplines. Immunologists, transplant specialists, geneticists and hematologists from across NIH are collaborating in the Blood and Immune Deficiency-Cellular Therapy Program (BID-CTP). These physicians will deliver state-of-the-art and experimental care to people with rare blood and immune system diseases through a unified approach to assessing, treating and monitoring patients and the centralized tracking of treatment outcomes. The initiative spans four NIH institutes: the

MADISON, Wis. — An internal memo from the giant student loan servicing corporation Navient, recently unsealed as part of a lawsuit brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, exposes how company policy pushed repayment options leaving borrowers with more debt. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Analiese Eicher said the memo shows yet again how borrowers caught in the $1.6 trillion student debt crisis have been treated unfairly by the system and the urgency to reform it. “Student loan borrowers worked hard to get their education and took on the personal responsibility to pay for it,” said Eicher. “This memo exposes

Milwaukee, Wis. – An in-depth investigative study by Better Business Bureau (BBB) finds that business email compromise scams are skyrocketing in frequency and have cost businesses and other organizations more than $3 billion since 2016. Business email compromise fraud is an email phishing scam that typically targets people who pay bills in businesses, government and nonprofit organizations. It affects both big and small organizations, and it has resulted in more losses than any other type of fraud in the U.S., according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). The investigative study – “Is That Email Really From ‘The Boss?’ The Explosion of Business Email Compromise

To reverse the opioid crisis that continues to grip the nation, the National Institutes of Health has awarded $945 million in total fiscal year 2019 funding for grants, contracts and cooperative agreements <https://heal.nih.gov/funding/awarded> across 41 states through the Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative or NIH HEAL Initiative <https://heal.nih.gov/>. The trans-NIH research effort aims to improve treatments for chronic pain, curb the rates of opioid use disorder (OUD) and overdose and achieve long-term recovery from opioid addiction. In 2016, an estimated 50 million U.S. adults suffered from chronic pain <https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6736a2.htm> and in 2018, an estimated 10.3 million people 12 years

The Janesville Rest Area – rest area 17 – along I-39/90 southbound (eastbound) in Rock County will be closed starting Monday, October 21 until Friday, November 15. Access at the WIS 26 and US 14 interchanges (Exit 171A-B) in Janesville will remain open to area restaurants, gas stations and lodging. Crews will complete the Interstate ramp connections to the rest area, as well as the expanded truck parking. Drivers are advised to plan ahead, obey the posted speed limit, eliminate distractions, and don’t tailgate in work zones. This closure and work operations are weather dependent and subject to change. Travel

A new study of African Americans with poorly controlled asthma, found differences in patients’ responses to commonly used treatments. Contrary to what researchers had expected, almost half of young children in the study responded differently than older children and adults, and than white children in prior studies. “We shouldn’t assume that current treatment strategies for asthma are ideal for all African Americans since for many years that population was not adequately represented in research,” said Elliot Israel, M.D., senior study author and director of clinical research in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “We