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.

A multidisciplinary team from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has uncovered a Zika virus mutation that may be responsible for the explosive viral transmission in 2015/2016 and for the cause of microcephaly (babies with small heads) born to infected pregnant women. The study is currently available in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.

How did Zika virus acquire the ability to infect the brain and reproductive tissue to cause its characteristic disease? The answer may lie in a newly observed ability of the virus to use a host cell’s own defense mechanisms as a disguise. A team from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have published new research that shows the Zika virus evolved to use a host cellular enzyme for its own invasion, potentially explaining the mechanism by which the virus efficiently infects the brain and reproductive tissues, a potential explanation for how the Zika virus causes congenital neurological disorders like microcephaly, found in the newborns of infected mothers.