Carle Illinois College of Medicine Health Innovation Professor Bruce Fouke is offering a unique perspective on how biomineralization impacts health and disease in the Scientific American September 2021 Issue.
The article “New Tool Shows Geology behind Kidney Stone Crystallization,” highlights Fouke’s discovery that kidney stones form similarly to many other stones in nature: they partially dissolve and re-form many times rather than crystallizing all at once. “That’s when we realized that stones are quite dynamic and have phases where they’re dissolving, so maybe there’s a way to harness that dissolution phase and treat stones,” explains Fouke’s collaborator Amy Krambeck, a urologist at Northwestern Medicine.
The full article in Scientific American can be found here.
Fouke, a geobiologist, focuses on the cross-disciplinary intersection of geology and molecular biology (Geobiology), with emphasis on the emergence and survival of life within the context of dynamic Earth processes. Fouke’s research has direct application to a wide variety of pressing societal interests that range from energy and human medicine to environmental sustainability and space exploration.
Fouke was appointed a Carle Illinois Health Innovation Professor in Fall 2021. Health Innovation Professors deliver on Carle Illinois’ commitment to advance the discovery and translation of breakthrough health innovations and take a holistic approach to improving the medical field and human condition.
“We are so proud of Dr. Fouke and our other Health Innovation Professors who are driven to innovate and are passionate about revolutionizing medicine to improve patient care,” said King Li, Dean of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine.
More information on Carle Illinois Health Innovation Professors can be found here.