COVID shots designed to protect against the omicron variant trigger a weaker immune response against the rapidly emerging BQ.1.1 subvariant than the previously dominant strain, according to a new lab study. Scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in a study published online Tuesday in Nature Medicine, found that the booster shots performed well against the BA.5 subvariant they were designed to target. But the boosters did not trigger a robust response when faced with BQ.1.1, the scientists found. Antibodies were about four times lower against BQ.1.1 compared with BA.5. These neutralizing antibodies prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from invading human cells. Many other media organizations reported this news.

The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded the UTMB team with a $3.5 million grant to continue following adolescents for five more years, offering the researchers a rare chance to uncover the short- and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on teenage mental, social and behavioral health. “We’ll be able to do that in a really unique way because we serendipitously had this data from before the pandemic,” said Dr. Jeff Temple. “So we can actually see the effects the pandemic had on these kids.”

The prevalence of sexting and its spread to younger ages reflects how widespread cellphone use is and how easy it is to send explicit images, said Jeff Temple, an expert in adolescent health and social media whose 2011 research popularized the term “sexting.” “The fact that 17-year-olds, 16-year-olds, 15-year-olds are sexting is not a surprise,” he said. “If we had phones back in the 1400s, those same ages would be sexting as well.”

University of Texas Medical Branch students are teaching science, technology, engineering and math to Galveston Independent School District students through a program officials hope will instill confidence in public school participants and inspire careers. Applications to volunteer in the program open up each semester and medical branch students make it known whether they’d like to be a tutor or mentor, Chris Soudah, executive president of the Connect at UTMB, said.

“Scientists everywhere celebrate the Nobels with spirited discussions, banter on the deserving individuals who were overlooked and should have won and of course, admiration for those awarded,” wrote Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their Medical Discovery News column. They also discussed other deserving science awards that get overlooked as well.

“In my medical practice, I often meet with people who live alone and with little or no social support system,” wrote Dr. Victor S. Sierpina in this column. “They are geographically distanced from their families or estranged from their children or other loved ones. They often do not have a community of faith or participate in other social networks.” If you know anyone like that, send them a note, call them or take them some goodies. “Even a small drop of love and caring can be like a candle shining into the darkened corners of people’s lives. Be that light, even if you need to come out of your own corner to do it.”

One variant that's now growing exponentially in the U.S., called BQ.1.1, is "very troublesome," according to Pei-Yong Shi, associate chief research officer and vice president for research innovation at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

Newer omicron COVID-19 subvariants such as BQ.1.1 and XBB.1 have accumulated additional spike mutations that impact the efficacy of available vaccines, according to a pre-print study published Thursday by University of Texas Medical Branch.

Any protection is better than no protection,” said Kenneth Plante, associate director of the World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

A mother’s diet can have health impacts not only on her immediate offspring, but also on the next generation, a mouse study suggests.