Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston looked at over 10,000 COVID-19 patients and found that significantly more former smokers ended up in the hospital and died from COVID-19 than those who still smoked or had never smoked at all.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have been awarded an $11.3 Million, multi-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study immunopathogenesis of Ebola, and in particular to determine why cells infected with Ebola develop “immune system paralysis,” which inhibits immune response leads to hyper inflammation and allows the deadly infection to spread. The research will be led by Co-Principal Investigators Alexander Bukreyev, PhD., of UTMB’s Department of Pathology, and Mariano Garcia-Blanco, MD, PhD, Chair of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department.

There is a lot we do not know about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, including how it may interact with human milk. However, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch are trying to figure out if breast milk has any innate ability to stop the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, or if an infected mother can pass antibodies to her breastfeeding child.

Dr. Suresh Bhavnani, a biomedical informatics researcher, was used to dealing with detailed medical data and spreadsheets full of numbers and complex statistics. However, when his mother fractured her hip, the anonymous numbers suddenly became personal.

For some, COVID-19 can come and go leaving no trace and no symptoms. For others, the disease responsible for the worldwide pandemic can lead to a range of painful symptoms, a trip to an intensive care unit, and even death. How to tell who will be spared and who will be hard hit?

A specialized research center at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston that helps older adults has received a $6.3 million renewal of its grant from the National Institute on Aging. The Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center at UTMB has been continually funded since 2000.