UTMB's making major news

 A digest of news stories spotlighting the great work taking place at UTMB.  Click on the publication title to read the full story.

The New York Times, Aug. 24, 2014
UTMB’s Thomas Geisbert provides some insight into his personal life: LISTENING: Texas red dirt country music like Whiskey Myers and Jason Boland and the Stragglers. It’s not country and it’s not rock but something in between that has a Western flair and it’s kind of edgy. I found this red dirt radio station out of Fort Worth — 95.9 FM, The Ranch— that I listen to online. WATCHING: I don’t watch a lot of TV but if I do, I’m probably going to watch something like that “Mountain Men” show, or I’ll watch “Duck Dynasty” if I’m really bored. If football is on that’s what I’m going to be watching, whether it is pro or college. When I was a kid, I watched a lot of Westerns. “Dances With Wolves” is probably my favorite movie of all time. Unlike in most Westerns, the Indians aren’t bad.

USA Today, Aug. 20, 2014
The research team from the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston and Canadian drug company Tekmira Pharmaceuticals injected the Marburg virus into four groups of four rhesus monkeys. The first group got the drug 30-45 minutes after infection; the second one day after infection; the third two days later; and the last group three days later. All of the treated animals lived, regardless of when they received the drug. The news also appears in the New York Times, Houston Chronicle, TIME Magazine, National Geographic, Bloomberg, U.S. News & World Report, Nature, International Business Times, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post,  and Voice of America.

Houston Chronicle, Aug. 16, 2014
A UTMB vaccine research center has been named a partner in the World Health Organization's efforts to develop vaccines for the world's deadliest diseases like Ebola, UTMB said Friday. The Sealy Center for Vaccine Development became only the second university in the Western Hemisphere and among eight in the world to be designated as a WHO Collaborating Center for Vaccine Research, Evaluation and Training on Emerging Infectious Diseases. "I think it's very important," said Alan Barrett, center director. "With only eight in the world it puts you in a very select group." The World Health Organization chose UTMB after a two-year vetting. The new designation means UTMB researchers will now be able to work with top international experts on vaccine research and development.

Dallas Morning News, Aug. 17, 2014
In a laboratory on Galveston Island, Tom Geisbert is working overtime. The pressure is on as the biggest Ebola epidemic in history creeps across West Africa, jumping over borders and permeating cells. The virus has killed more than 1,000 people. For Geisbert, three decades of scientific grunt work — hours of pipetting and disinfecting and note-taking and grant-writing — are thrust into the limelight. The public demands a cure.

WebMD, Aug. 14, 2014
Fruit is not off-limits if you have type 2 diabetes. It has too many good things going for it, such as fiber and nutrients, as well as its natural sweetness. Cantaloupe has it all, says UTMB’s Lynn A. Maarouf, nutrition educator at the Stark Diabetes Center. “It supplies enough beta-carotene and vitamin C to meet your daily requirements and is an excellent source of potassium (an antioxidant that can help lower blood pressure).” One serving of strawberries gives you 100 percent of your daily requirement of vitamin C. “Also, these sweet berries contain potassium, which help keep blood pressure down, and fiber, which makes you feel full longer while keeping blood sugar levels in check,” Maarouf says.

Yahoo! News, Aug. 14, 2014
Continuing coverage: Brown fat is found in babies on their upper spine and shoulders. "When we are born, and for the first few months or years of life, humans have significant amounts of brown fat," says Labros Sidossis, a professor of internal medicine at UTMB. Babies are unable to shiver to stay warm, so when the temperature drops, brown fat jumps into action through a process called nonshivering thermogenesis, using "significant amounts of blood sugar and lipids to produce heat," Sidossis explains. As we age, most brown fat is lost and replaced by white fat. But it's still there, albeit in small deposits, around the neck, shoulders and spinal cord.

Scientific American, Aug. 11, 2014
Nearly 81 percent of Americans have detectable levels of BPS in their urine. And once it enters the body it can affect cells in ways that parallel BPA. A 2013 study by Cheryl Watson at UTMB found that even picomolar concentrations (less than one part per trillion) of BPS can disrupt a cell’s normal functioning, which could potentially lead to metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity, asthma, birth defects or even cancer. “[Manufacturers] put ‘BPA-free’ on the label, which is true. The thing they neglected to tell you is that what they’ve substituted for BPA has not been tested for the same kinds of problems that BPA has been shown to cause. That’s a little bit sneaky,” Watson says. The news also appears in Popular Science.

TMC Pulse, Aug. 5, 2014
The Galveston National Laboratory provides research space and instrumentation to safely develop therapies, vaccines and diagnostic tests for naturally occurring emerging diseases. “We have several main thrusts — it’s all about bringing the academic community into the response for both national security, in terms of biodefense, as well as emerging infectious diseases,” explained James LeDuc. “Through that, we strive to really harness the research capabilities of the academic community to really understand how these unique diseases cause illness in humans.”