One question that has puzzled scientists about multiple sclerosis is why it is most prevalent among people of northern European descent. Now we have some ideas, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their Medical Discovery News column.

UTMB’s Dr. Fernanda Laezza is among a group of seven groundbreaking scientists has been chosen as the first cohort of a top-flight new program for medical innovators. Laezza is seeking to create next-generation pain medications by developing small-molecule drugs.

How do astronauts deal with being in quarantine before blasting off into space? To maintain their sanity, astronauts in quarantine keep to a routine. That “can help quite a bit,” UTMB’s Dr. Natacha Chough tells Inverse. Exercise, staying in touch with friends and family, sharing meals with their fellow astronauts and playing games are all part of pre-flight quarantine, Chough said.

Syphilis, one of the oldest infections known to humans, has returned to the U.S. at epidemic rates that have been climbing since 2001, writes Dr. Jacob D. Moses, a professor of bioethics and health humanities at UTMB, in an opinion piece for STAT.

It is important that we realize that not all natural remedies are created equal and not all of them are side effect free, writes Dr. Samuel Mathis in the Daily News.

Using big data for research has helped us identify the genetic basis of disease, down to minuscule changes in your DNA, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their Medical Discovery News column. “We can use data on drugs and compounds to identify new and effective drugs, and big data can even predict the shapes of molecules that will be effective,” they write.

HealthDay highlighted a study led by UTMB’s Dr. Monique Pappadis that found that low health literacy is associated with worse perceived physical health and greater depressive symptoms among adults with traumatic brain injury.

There are an estimated one to four million cases of cholera worldwide annually and as many as 143,000 people die of the disease each year, write Drs. Richard Rupp and Megan Berman in this week’s Vaccine Smarts column. There is a vaccine approved in the U.S., Vaxchora, but it can be hard to find.

In this week’s column, Dr. Hasan Yasin shares insights from a recent medical conference where the topics of marijuana and psychedelics use in medicine garnered lots of attention.

Integrating radiology and pathology could produce hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue and improve patient care UTMB’s Dr. Eric Walser and Dr. Christopher Zahner explained at a meeting of the Radiology Business Management Association. “We need to put diagnostics first. Right now, we are the backseat drivers. We need to become the front-seat drivers,” Walser said at the meeting.