Pressure Point

Brown scientists have discovered a key driver of preeclampsia, which causes high blood pressure during pregnancy. By Dana Laverty

Researchers at Brown University have identified a protein in cerebrospinal fluid that’s a driver in preeclampsia, a dangerous pregnancy condition that affects between 5 to 8 percent of pregnancies and is a leading cause of maternal and fetal death.

Research led by Surendra Sharma and Sukanta Jash at Brown University and Kun Ping Lu and Xia Zhen Zhou at Western University in Canada found the protein, cis P-tau, in the blood and placentas of people with preeclampsia. They also found that depleting cis P-tau prevented mice from developing the condition. 

“Our study identifies cis P-tau as a culprit and biomarker for preeclampsia,” says Sharma, who until recently was a Brown professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and professor of pediatrics. “It can be used for early diagnosis of the complication and is a crucial therapeutic target.” (Sharma is now a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.)

Preeclampsia is a complication that results in high blood pressure during pregnancy. Untreated, it can lead to serious complications for both the mother and baby, and often leads to preterm labor and birth. 

The protein cis P-tau has mainly been associated with Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injuries and stroke. Lu and Zhou discovered the association in 2015.

Screening tests for the cis P-tau biomarker, combined with therapies involving the cis P-tau antibody, could change the outlook for pregnant people with preeclampsia, Jash says. The root cause of preeclampsia has so far remained unknown, Sharma says, and without a known cause there has been no cure.

The team at Brown is currently working on developing a lab test that can detect preeclampsia.

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Bridging the Gap

Researchers from Brown University and Lifespan are partnering on a device that could restore function for individuals with a spinal cord injury. By Lauren Clem

A clinician works with a participant in the trial. Photo courtesy of Lifespan

In an unassuming building on Allens Avenue in Providence, research is underway that could change the future of spinal cord injury treatment.

The Intelligent Spine Interface, led by researchers from Brown University and surgeons from Rhode Island Hospital, aims to restore limb motor function, sensation, autonomic function and bladder control for individuals paralyzed following a spinal cord injury. According to principal investigator David Borton, an associate professor of engineering and brain science at Brown University and biomedical engineer with the Department of Veterans Affairs, no technology currently exists to bridge the gap created by such an injury.

“There’s no tool or a magic fix that we have for someone who has a complete spinal cord injury,” he says. “There’s nothing available to help them regain functions that they have lost.”

Working with Dr. Jared Fridley, director of the Spinal Outcomes Laboratory at Lifespan and an associate professor of neurosurgery at Brown, the team is creating a device that would carry signals across the injury site and restore the connection between brain and limbs. The device uses artificial intelligence to interpret signals from the spinal cord and adapt to the needs of the wearer over time.

“These devices enable the person’s spinal cord and nervous system to modulate over time to hopefully recover function,” Fridley says. “For most people, we’re talking about weeks to months of rehabilitation, plus the device, to see if there’s recovery of function.”

David Borton and Dr. Jared Fridley, right, present their research to Yunyan “Jennifer” Wang and Jean-Paul Chretien of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of DARPA.

The study, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Department of Veterans Affairs at the Providence VA Medical Center, has the potential to restore movement to those with spinal cord injuries, including veterans paralyzed in combat situations. A clinical trial is underway at Lifespan’s Center for Innovative Neurotechnology for Neural Repair, where the researchers have enlisted two individuals to participate in phase one of the trial.

“This is a first in human clinical study for this type of technology,” Borton says. “No one’s ever done this before.”

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Vasectomy Victor

There may be a faster and easier way to perform a vasectomy. By Jamie Coelho

Imagine if men could get a vasectomy in five seconds. There may be a new, minimally invasive way to conduct the procedure in our near future. On the heels of its five-year anniversary, Providence-based Signati Medical earned FDA approval for clinical trials for a study of a minimally invasive surgical device to perform a sealed vasectomy procedure (SVP). 

Photo courtesy of Signati Medical.

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Signati Medical is a medical device company working to advance men’s health. Signati CEO William Prentice says the study kicked off this April with its first patient at Louisiana State University Medical Center, and they plan to have an additional seven people undergo the procedure by the end of the month. The device obstructs the vas deferens by sending a shock through the skin that seals the tubes, rather than a surgeon cutting and fusing. 

Prentice wants to undergo SVP on live TV to gain support, but he must wait until the procedure is fully approved. “I agreed to do it,” he says. “We should be doing this for women. There’s no reason women need to go in for tubal ligations and have major surgery, take birth control pills or get IUDs. Men think because they have a vasectomy, they are not going to get an erection. It really shouldn’t be that way.” 

Prentice says this is the first innovation in vasectomy in more than twenty years. 

“About twenty years ago, one thing changed and that was that they went from scalpel to no scalpel,” he says. “This procedure takes about five seconds. Bipolar sealing in the body is the best sealing you can get.” signatimed.com 

National Rescue Dog Day is May 20 — and in honor of the special occasion, the husband-and-wife team of SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt, co-founders of the Godwinks brands and based in Massachusetts, shared an engaging story of personal hope and a dog’s big heart with Fox News Digital.

It’s among the stories included in a forthcoming book the couple are writing.

“We all need more light. We need more positivity. We need family and faith, hope and strength — that’s what these stories are all about,” the couple told Fox News Digital in a phone interview. 

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They also said about the story at hand, “We can see why this one was destined to be a favorite family movie on Netflix — it begins with two main characters with their backs to the wall and ends with hope.”

SQuire Rushnell is the New York Times-bestselling author of 12 Godwinks books, six of them co-authored by the pair. 

The couple are executive producers of the popular Hallmark “Godwink” movie series, and their first film for Netflix, “Rescued by Ruby,” premiered as the network’s No. 1 family movie worldwide — recently ranking as the top “dog movie” of all time on Netflix.

Here, by special arrangement, is the story of a law enforcement officer and an incorrigible dog — or so everyone thought.

Last-chance pair

Rhode Island Trooper Dan O’Neil, struggling since childhood with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), was facing his last chance to get into the canine unit after he was rejected for seven years in a row.

The dog was playfully romping through the shelter yard, oblivious to her fate.

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At the same time, a rambunctious rescue dog named Ruby — returned by seven different adoptive families and labeled “unmanageable,” as well as having “legal liability” written into her record because of issues with nipping — was playfully romping through the shelter yard, oblivious to her fate. 

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In just two hours, she would be euthanized.

Pat Inman, a trainer at the Providence Animal Shelter, had been desperate to find Ruby a home before the clock ran out. She had exhausted appeals to her boss to give her 24 more hours. 

The rambunctious rescue dog named Ruby was returned by seven different adoptive families and labeled “unmanageable,” as well as having “legal liability” written into her record because of issues with nipping. (Dan O’Neill)

She’d also pleaded with her husband to let her bring the dog home. 

But he put his foot down. “No more stray animals, Pat,” he told her.

Inman felt heartsick. She’d grown to love Ruby.

“We are all looking for hope.”

Then, as these things tend to happen with divine alignment in life, the first “Godwink” unfolded at the 11th hour.

“Godwink means an event that seems like a coincidence, but you know it comes from a divine origin,” Rushnell and DuArt previously told Fox News Digital. “We are all looking for hope, and we all have doubts … that someone is paying attention to us.”

‘Could she be a K-9?’

State Trooper O’Neil walked through the door of the animal shelter, asking if they had any German shepherds, knowing the breed to be curious and energetic. 

Inman said no but introduced him to Ruby, a smart Australian shepherd/border collie pup.

The trooper and Ruby locked eyes. A secret communication was taking place.

Ruby was soon leaving the shelter straining the leash of Officer Dan, as he was known, as the shelter worker held her breath. (Dan O’Neil/RISP)

“Do you think she could be a K-9 dog?” asked O’Neil. 

“She could be anything,” replied Inman, feeling a glimmer of hope for the first time.

Minutes later, Ruby was leaving the shelter straining the leash of Officer Dan, as he was known, as Inman held her breath and attempted to stifle tears of joy.

“She hasn’t had a stable home for her first eight months of life and is in desperate need of love and stability.”

But for anyone who thought the happy ending had just arrived and that everything would be a piece of cake — think again. 

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The next six months were grueling for Officer Dan. Ruby, it appeared, was incorrigible.

“She’s an absolute wreck,” O’Neil told his wife, Melissa. “She hasn’t had a stable home for her first eight months of life and is in desperate need of love and stability.”

Melissa O’Neil, steady as a rock, was a constant source of encouragement. And prayer.

Officer Dan O’Neil and Ruby — who rose to become top dog in the Rhode Island State Police K-9 Unit. (Chris Roslan)

One day, the penny dropped for Ruby. She apparently decided that being a search and rescue dog was a job she liked. Moreover, she now had purpose. 

She received her State Police badge — and from that moment on, Ruby rose to be top dog in the Rhode Island State Police K-9 Unit.

As Pat Inman said earlier, “She can do anything.”

‘We hear Ruby barking’

Fast-forward several years. It was a cold October in Providence. The nights were freezing. 

A boy became lost in the dense woods near his home for 48 hours. 

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Local police searches were unsuccessful.

Running and trying to keep up, Officer Dan found Ruby at the bottom of a ravine. 

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It was nightfall when Officer Dan and Ruby were called to join the other K-9 partners and commence their search. Instantly, Ruby bolted into the darkness. 

Officer Dan, running and trying to keep up, found Ruby at the bottom of a ravine. 

She was curled up, trying to warm a boy with severe lacerations to the forehead and a faint pulse.

Ruby licked the boy’s face to open his breathing passages, filled with blood, as Officer Dan radioed the other first responders. He gave them GPS coordinates. 

Ruby, former shelter dog rejected by multiple families, is shown wearing a badge that reads, “Ruby: Rhode Island State Police K-9.” (Chris Roslan)

But soon they radioed that the coordinates were not working because they were in a ravine. So Officer Dan commanded Ruby to bark. 

A voice crackled from the radio, “We hear Ruby. Keep her barking!”

Before long, the boy was placed on a stretcher and rushed back to a waiting ambulance.

Their boy appeared to be stabilized and was en route to the hospital.

Ruby settled into her spot in Officer Dan’s police vehicle, and in the dim light of his truck’s headlights, the officer greeted the parents who came out to thank him.

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He advised them that their boy appeared to be stabilized and was en route to the hospital.

Through tears of gratitude, the mother earnestly thanked Officer Dan. 

Then, she asked, “Officer, have you ever heard of a dog named Ruby?”

Officer Dan paused and said, “Ma’am, Ruby’s my partner. She found your boy.”

Pat Inman together with Ruby, the former shelter dog who changed the lives of multiple people once she found her God-given purpose.   (Dan O’Neil)

The mother cried again and said, “I’m Pat Inman. I worked at the shelter and advocated for Ruby — but I never knew what happened after that.”

Officer Dan squinted to see her face in the faint light and finally recognized her.

“Oh my gosh, yes. That means the dog you saved just saved your son!”

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Ruby, meanwhile, was jumping up and down in the truck. She had caught the scent of her first love — Pat — from years before. The pair had a joyous reunion. 

Ruby’s ripple effect

In March 2022, the Netflix “Godwink” movie based on this story, “Rescued by Ruby,” premiered as the No. 1 family film in the world. By its first anniversary, the movie reached over 100 million viewers.

Sgt. Dan O’Neil, now the head of RISP K-9 Operations, reported that the number of young recruits who say they’ve been inspired to enlist in police academies because of “Rescued by Ruby” is extraordinary.

“Rescued by Ruby,” a Netflix film, premiered as the network’s No. 1 family movie worldwide — grabbing over 100 million viewers in its first 365 days. It recently ranked as the top “dog movie” of all time on Netflix. (Netflix)

After the movie’s release, Ruby loved the celebrity attention and was honored in many ways. She won an American Humane Hero Dog for Search & Rescue — and weeks after the film premiered, she and Sgt. Dan were honored at Fenway Park for the Opening Day of Baseball 2022.

“She continued to work daily as my K-9 State Police partner until the very day she graduated to dog heaven at 11.5 years old,” said Sgt. Dan. 

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“She showed us that we each can achieve great things no matter where we started out in life.”

Ruby’s story was first told nationally in SQuire Rushnell & Louise DuArt’s book “Dogwinks: True Stories of Dogs and the Blessings They Bring.” 

The book led to the Netflix film, “Rescued by Ruby.”

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DuArt was the one who advocated for Ruby to be played by another rescue dog. 

The trainers were hesitant. That was a tall order. 

Actor Grant Gustin, far right, as Sgt. Dan, along with Bear as Ruby. SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt, executive producers of the film, are at left.  (SQuire Rushnell)

But, through more divine alignment, they found Bear — who, just like Ruby had been, was in a shelter and scheduled for euthanasia. 

Bear became the star of the movie along with Grant Gustin, who played Trooper Dan.

Anyone can learn more about the Godwinks projects at www.godwinks.com. 

Maureen Mackey of Fox News Digital, as well as Frank Miles, contributed reporting. 

For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island State Police conducted a series of arrests over the weekend, booking multiple individuals on various charges ranging from embezzlement to driving under the influence.

On Saturday, May 18, at 9:25 a.m., Troopers took David Williams, 39, of Cranston, into custody during a traffic stop on Route 95.

Williams faced charges including obstructing an officer, embezzlement, a bench warrant for failing to appear in court, and driving with a suspended license.

After processing at State Police Headquarters, he was handed over to the Cranston Police Department.

Later that day, at 4:30 p.m., Jennifer Irizarry, 39, of Providence, was arrested for possession of over 10 grams of cocaine.

Irizarry’s arrest, also the result of a traffic stop, led to her being processed, arraigned, and transferred to the Adult Correctional Institution Women’s Intake Center.

At 5:36 p.m., Jose Torres, 52, also of Providence, was apprehended for driving under the influence with a blood alcohol content (BAC) significantly above the legal limit.

Torres was released after his arraignment, with a court date pending at the Sixth Division District Court.

The arrests continued into the night when David Chavez, 20, of Warwick, was stopped on Route 6 East at 11:43 p.m. and arrested for driving under the influence with a BAC just over the .15 threshold.

Chavez was held overnight at the Lincoln Woods Barracks.

The following morning, Sunday, May 19, at 2:39 a.m., Socrates Acosta Bonilla, 42, of Providence, faced charges of driving under the influence and refusal to submit to a chemical test after being stopped on Branch Avenue.

Bonilla was released pending a future court appearance.

Minutes later, at 2:48 a.m., Stephanie Lanoue, 37, of Woonsocket, was arrested on Route 146 North for driving under the influence and refusing a chemical test, marking her second offense.

Lanoue was processed and released with a court date set at the Third Division District Court.