A team of researchers at University of Utah Health has shown the Epstein-Barr virus—which causes mononucleosis and is linked to the development of several cancers—uses a novel strategy to survive. The virus takes the reins of its host’s cellular machinery to make copies of itself and to prioritize the production of its own proteins over those of the host cell. The researchers hope to exploit this knowledge to develop a new kind of treatment for infection by the Epstein-Barr virus.
In this unprecedented time, we are reminded of the significance of a research university in a healthy, vibrant society. At the University of Utah, at least 100 research groups are currently studying causes and consequences of COVID-19. Virtually every entity at the U. is involved, including undergraduate students and staff who are assisting in and supporting research projects while working remotely....
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COVID-19 has disrupted nearly every aspect of life as we know it, from education to the economy, work and worship, families and friends. As individuals, families and communities, we share the hope that we will soon have effective treatments for, and ultimately prevention of, this disease so the people who matter most to us can resume their lives and thrive.
In this unprecedented time, we are reminded of the significance of a research university in a healthy, vibrant society. At the University of Utah, at least 100 research groups are currently studying causes and consequences of COVID-19. Virtually every entity at the U. is involved, including undergraduate students and staff who are assisting in and supporting research projects while working remotely....
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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the globe, University of Utah scientists are at the forefront of efforts to learn more about how to lasso the virus that causes it and understand its potential long-term social, economic and psychological effects.
In a stride toward those goals, the Office of the Vice President for Research in partnership with the Immunology, Inflammation and Infectious Disease (3i) Initiative at the University of Utah has awarded $1.3 million in seed grants to 56 cross-campus projects that will examine a host of issues arising out of the pandemic....
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It was 6 a.m. at the dock on a Tuesday in December, and the weather did not look promising. Fog hovered over the water, and the engine of the Research Vessel E.O. Wilson rumbled.
Our ship disappeared into the mist, and by 7:30 the crew, a team of biologists, chemists and microbiologists, reached its destination. The sun lounged on obsidian water, masking a secret world where land and sea swap places, and past, present and future collide....
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An outbreak of a newly recognized coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan is making international headlines. Already hundreds of people have been sickened and more than 56 have died as a result of the illness. Additional coronavirus patients have been found in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the United States.
We have seen outbreaks like this involving newly emerged diseases like SARS, MERS, Zika and Swine flu. Is this one different? We sat down with Andrew Pavia, M.D., the chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases for University of Utah Health who studies emerging infections to learn more....
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Mark Lawrence moved from Utah to San Francisco in 1982 and was living with a friend. Not long after Lawrence arrived, his friend was diagnosed with AIDS. Six months later, he died.
It was the early days of what would grow into an epidemic. “It was a completely different attitude [than in Utah] because everyone knew somebody who was sick or who had died,” Lawrence said....
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University of Utah distinguished professor of chemistry Peter Stang and professor of pediatrics Anne Blaschke were two of 168 academic inventors named as Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors for 2019. Stang opened pathways in organic chemistry reactions and now explores ways to form molecules into self-assembled geometric shapes. Blascke played key roles in developing molecular tests for rapidly diagnosing infectious diseases.
Deininger is a professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Hematology and Hematological Malignancies at the University of Utah (U of U). He leads the Center of Excellence in hematology and hematologic malignancies at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI). This group encompasses physicians, scientists, students, and support personnel working collaboratively to advance research and training in hematology and develop new approaches to treat blood diseases, including blood cancers....
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The International Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Foundation (iCMLf) has awarded the prestigious Rowley Prize to Michael Deininger, MD, PhD. Deininger’s selection as the 2019 awardee was announced in February. Formal presentation of the prize occurred at an international scientific conference in Bordeaux, France, earlier this month.
Deininger is a professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Hematology and Hematological Malignancies at the University of Utah (U of U). He leads the Center of Excellence in hematology and hematologic malignancies at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI). This group encompasses physicians, scientists, students, and support personnel working collaboratively to advance research and training in hematology and develop new approaches to treat blood diseases, including blood cancers....
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In this podcast, Vicente Planelles, PhD, answers our questions about the factors contributing to the public's lack of trust in the medical community, the advice he gives to lay people who buy into "fake news," and the role health care practitioners play in reducing the spread of misinformation....
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he Pew Charitable Trusts announced today the six pairs of researchers who will make up its 2019 class of Innovation Fund investigators.
These investigators—alumni of Pew’s biomedical programs in the United States and Latin America—partner on interdisciplinary research to tackle some of the most complex questions in human biology and disease. Spanning the spectrum from virology to epigenetics and from microbiology to developmental biology, research teams combine multiple disciplines to advance scientific discovery and improve human health....
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Nanell Mann began getting urinary tract infections in 1971, when she got a hysterectomy following the birth of her sixth child. She would take antibiotics and get better. Get sick again. Take antibiotics. Not get better. Take other antibiotics. Repeat, repeat, repeat for more than 40 years—the list of treatments that worked against her infections getting shorter and shorter and shorter over time. Her UTIs became resistant to multiple antibiotics. And she kept getting sick....
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Researchers at University of Utah Health have identified a specific class of bacteria from the gut that prevents mice from becoming obese, suggesting these same microbes may similarly control weight in people. The beneficial bacteria, called Clostridia, are part of the microbiome — collectively trillions of bacteria and other microorganisms that inhabit the intestine....
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Gut microbes produce compounds that prime immune cells to destroy harmful viruses in the brain and nervous system, according to a mouse study published today in eLife.
The findings suggest that having a healthy and diverse microbiota is essential for quickly clearing viruses in the nervous system to prevent paralysis and other risks associated with diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
A condition that causes progressive damage to nerve cells, multiple sclerosis has become more common over the past several decades. Viral infections in the brain or spinal cord are thought to trigger this disease. Some scientists believe that changes in the way we eat, increased sanitation or growing antibiotic use may be causing detrimental changes in the helpful bacteria that live within the human body, potentially increasing the risk of multiple sclerosis and other related diseases. ...
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For decades medical researchers have known that an effective way to combat multiple sclerosis (MS) would be to suppress the human immune system, since the debilitating disease is caused by the immune system 'mistakenly' attacking tissues in the spine and brain. However, this kind of treatment would cripple the body's ability to control ordinary infections, leading to more serious conditions or even death....
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Though already known for their focus on clinical research, the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition has looked to strengthen its research efforts through the development of a translational research program. In 2018, Dr. Ellen Beswick, PhD, was recruited to develop and lead this new research program.
Dr. Beswick’s background is in chronic inflammation and the mucosal immune microenvironment, particularly focused on inflammatory bowel diseases and gastrointestinal cancers. She is an National Institute of Health (NIH) funded investigator recently recruited from the University of New Mexico, where she gained experience in translational approaches, mentorship, and building multidisciplinary science teams. ...
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Celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, crohn’s disease and anaphylactic are all instigated by food allergies. Doctors order restrictive diets to help patients control inflammation and food reactions. While less well known, eosinophilic esophagitis (EOE) is another inflammatory disease triggered by food allergies. One of the most effective treatments, especially for young children, is a restricted diet that reduces the allergy-induced inflammation. In a new study, University of Utah Health explored the long-term psychological impact of food restrictions on normal eating patterns in patients. The results are available in the April issue of the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. ...
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Temporal lobe epilepsy is a seizure disorder that may result from head trauma, childhood injuries, tumors, brain malformations, and infections. Karen Wilcox, PhD, Chair of Pharmacology and Toxicology at University of Utah Health, received a $2.6 million Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to explore the role of infection in an intractable, non-genetic-form of epilepsy.
Repeated brain injuries, even minor ones, can degrade the health of neurons in the brain, which can lead to memory loss, anxiety, agitation and mood swings. Researchers at University of Utah Health and University of Washington found an FDA-approved cancer drug paclitaxel offers protection to mice after experiencing mild traumatic brain injuries, also referred to as mild TBI. The results of the study are available online on February 2nd in the Journal Alzheimer’s Disease....
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2019 isn’t even halfway over and already this is the worst year for measles cases in 25 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says so far 704 people have been infected –most of them were not vaccinated. There have been no deaths reported yet from measles this year, though. So, is it really that serious? Back before the vaccine was widely available, the whole Brady Bunch came down with measles and it didn’t seem so bad. The Brady kids got to skip school and play monopoly all day. I know that’s just a 1960s TV show, but it’s been circulating online as evidence that all this concern about the measles today is overblown. ...
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Autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, arise when the body’s immune cells attack itself. Current treatments eliminate these misfunctioning immune cells, but also destroy normal, protective immune cells, leaving patients susceptible to immune deficiency and opportunistic infections. Researchers at University of Utah Health have developed a new approach that targets the misfunctioning immune cells while leaving normal immune cells in place. The results of their study are available online in the March 4 issue of Nature Biomedical Engineering....
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The human immune system is notorious for overreacting to common infections or going to war with harmless substances like dust or pollen. Its efforts to mount these defenses often exact a toll on the body it was trying to defend. In the February issue of Cell Host & Microbe, researchers from the University of Utah, Department of Human Genetics, have published an investigation into how one component of the immune system might have evolved to limit this collateral damage....
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When you fall and scrape your knee, the injured tissue forms a red bump or lesion. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable autoimmune disease, characterized by lesions in the brain. These lesions, like the scrape on your knee, result from tissue injured as the overactive immune system degrades the myelin sheath surrounding the nerve fibers in the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves....
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With Super Bowl LIII on the horizon, Americans are gearing up to celebrate the modern-day clash of the titans. For many, football has become a taboo topic, as former fans abandon the sport to protest traumatic brain injuries caused by players hurling their bodies against one another again and again and again.
Repeated brain injuries, even minor ones, can degrade the health of neurons in the brain, which can lead to memory loss, anxiety, agitation and mood swings. Researchers at University of Utah Health and University of Washington found an FDA-approved cancer drug paclitaxel offers protection to mice after experiencing mild traumatic brain injuries, also referred to as mild TBI. The results of the study are available online on February 2nd in the Journal Alzheimer’s Disease....
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The Immunology, Inflammation and Infectious Disease Initiative (3i) at the University of Utah Health has awarded seed grants to eight collaborative research projects. The funded projects will explore alternative treatments and diagnoses for many human disorders, including influenzas, cancers and infections. ...
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Jason Shepherd, Ph.D., assistant professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at University of Utah Health, is one of 17 recipients of the inaugural Ben Barres Early Career Acceleration Award from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative. The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, and his wife Pricilla Chan to provide new solutions to human disease. A major goal of the initiative is to bring new people with innovative ideas that solve intractable problems, in this case neurodegeneration....
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Leung received $806,000 from the Gates Foundation to develop and test a smartphone app to help clinicians determine the cause of diarrhea in young children. According to Leung, clinicians working in resource-limited settings frequently do not have the ability to order labs to identify whether a virus or bacterium is responsible for a bout of diarrhea. Instead, they rely on their gut instinct with some guidance from the WHO International Management of Childhood Illness guidelines on when to prescribe antibiotics....
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Research at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah (U of U) yielded new insights into the environment surrounding different types of lung tumors, and described how these complex cell ecosystems may in turn ultimately affect response to treatment. The results were published today in Immunity and featured on the print cover of the journal.dwide.....
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With the accumulated efforts of the University of Utah’s faculty, students and administrators in departments and colleges from all corners of campus, and with decades of building quality researchers and exemplary programs and institutes, the U achieved its most successful research funding year ever in 2018, passing a $500 million milestone. The final total is actually $515 million, and it’s composed of grants large and small, from thousands of dollars to study the structural health of Utah’s rock arches to millions of dollars to discover non-opioid painkillers....
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Jeremy Snook, a graduate student in the Williams lab, has recently published an article in Science Immunology that explores the impact of TCR signal strength on the development of CD4+ T effector and memory of T cells. This work sheds important light on the mechanisms that promote diverse T cell functions during their response to viral and bacterial infections....
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Dr. Jesica Jacobs, a post doctoral fellow in Dr. Brian Evavold’s lab in the Division of Microbiology and Immunology, has been awarded a Public Policy Fellowship from the American Association of Immunologists. Each year, the AAI selects up to 10 junior scientists from across the nation to participate in this prestigious program. Public Policy Fellows participate in advocacy for scientific funding on Capitol Hill along with members of the AAI Committee on Public Affairs, which includes Pathology Chairman Dr. Peter Jensen. Fellows are given the opportunity to meet with their district’s Congressional representatives and other legislators on the Hill to help shape the future of biomedical research. Dr. Jacobs is the first Fellow to be selected from the University of Utah...
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Paul Sigala, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry at University of Utah Health, was named a 2018 Pew Scholar for his lab’s interdisciplinary approach to developing novel methods for combatting malaria, one of the most common infectious diseases and a public health threat worldwide.....
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The C. Scott and Dorothy E. Watkins Endowed Chair in Honor of Ernst J. Eichwald, M.D. was established in 1999 to promote research and education within the Department of Pathology. The recipient is named for a 3-year term and is nominated by a committee comprised of prior chair holders. The Department of Pathology is pleased to announce the selection of Matt Williams as the 2018 – 2021 recipient. Matt joins a distinguished group of prior recipients including Carl Wittwer, Sherrie Perkins, Janis Weis, Joe Holden, David Stillman, Wade Samowitz, and Dean Tantin....
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Heejoo Kim, MS/DVM, a PhD graduate student in Dr. Dean Tantin’s lab, has won a year-long fellowship from the American Association of Immunologists (AAI). Congratulations Heejoo on being recognized in this competitive process. Heejoo will use the fellowship to further her work on transcriptional control of T cell memory and autoimmunity......
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Abbie Ireland, an undergraduate researcher in the Oliver lab, has been selected as the 2018 Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher for the School of Medicine. She is among 16 other awardees from across the University of Utah campus...
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Paul Sigala, Ph.D., Assistant Professor – Biochemistry, has been selected as a recipient of a Department of Defense Discovery Award under the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program for his grant application entitled “Evaluation of Carotenoid Biosynthesis as an Antimalarial Drug Target.”...
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Three research groups at University of Utah Health are collaborating with Janssen Research & Development, LLC (“Janssen”) to advance the study of colorectal cancer, diabetic kidney disease, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis respectively....
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It is important to know when to sound the alarm and when to avoid calling the police on your housemate rather than an intruder.
Our cells face a similar task—is the invader a virus or just something that looks like a virus? To make matters worse, ancient viruses have left little pieces of themselves all over our genomes. Some of these ancient relics form a molecule called double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) that looks just like dsRNA made by a virus....
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From a bat’s wings to an elephant’s cancer resistance, an interdisciplinary team of scientists at University of Utah Health are using animals’ unique traits to pinpoint regions of the human genome that might affect health. The results of this project are available in the March 6 issue of the journal Cell Reports....
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Gurkan Mollaoglu, a Ph.D. graduate student in the Oliver lab, and Jared Wallace, a Ph.D. graduate student in the O'Connell Lab, has successfully passed a multi-stage, international application process to participate in the 68th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, which is dedicated to physiology and medicine....
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Dr. Karla Pires, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow in the Boudina lab, has been selected for a podium presentation and a travel award grant for her work on autophagy and adipose inflammation entitled “Ablation of adipocytes autophagy induces insulin resistance and reveals new roles for lipid peroxides and Nrf2 signaling in adipose-liver crosstalk” at the NIDDK Autophagy as a Common Pathway in Diseases 2018 meeting. ...
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Every year, more than 300,000 Americans contract Lyme disease, an infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, a bacterium transferred during a tick bite. In a small percentage of patients, infection symptoms, including arthritis, persist despite antibiotic treatment....
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Scientists at University of Utah Health have developed a test that can quickly identify populations that had been recently infected with cholera. The new test can be easily deployed in the field as a first step in deciding on the most effective way to curb the spread of disease....
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The Immunology, Inflammation and Infectious Disease (III) Initiative at the University of Utah has awarded seed grants to eight projects that support the initiative’s aim of exploring the fundamental function of the immune system as it relates to infectious and autoimmune diseases, like diabetes and heart disease....
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The Immunology, Inflammation and Infectious Disease (III) Initiative at the University of Utah was established in 2017 on the premise that a better understanding of the three "I"s will fundamentally change the way we think about disease. ...
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