• Everything You Need to Know About Bird Flu

    Dr. Gregory Gray also spoke to ZME Science for an in-depth explainer on bird flu. Even with vaccines, though, “we may not be able to put out this fire,” Gray said. “It appears, to many of us, that these viruses are going to be endemic, or we say ‘enzootic,’ for a long time.”

  • A new way to treat pain

    The common treatments for pain have not changed in years write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel but good news may be on the horizon. Scientists have found an entirely new class of pain drugs based on the sodium ion channels related to pain transmission, they write.

  • How AI is helping to save lives when it comes to cancer

    UTMB is the first academic healthcare center in Texas to add an artificial intelligence-based tool to routinely check for prostate cancer, reports KHOU. “AI allows the doctors to become much better at their work by recognizing patterns in medical images that they might otherwise miss,” UTMB’s Dr. Harsh Thaker tells the Houston TV station.

  • Study Explores Mentions of Substance Use, Mental Health in Pop Music Since 2013

    The American Psychiatric Association highlighted new research by UTMB’s Alec Manning, Benita Lalani and Dr. Josheph Shotwell that examines trends in the way popular music reflects national trends in substance use and mental health. “As the world changed, so did the music—and the stories it told about how we’re coping,” the authors of the study write.

  • Why dopamine matters and how to naturally boost it

    Dopamine plays a crucial role in our motivation, reward system, learning and even motor control. Understanding its importance and how to naturally influence its levels can significantly impact well-being and productivity, writes Dr. Hasan Yasin.

  • Why placebos don’t belong in vaccine trials

    Once a safe, effective vaccine already exists, giving some participants in a vaccine study a placebo means knowingly withholding protection, write Drs. Richard Rupp and Megan Berman. So, when scientists need to test an updated version of an existing vaccine, instead of giving half the group a placebo, scientists compare the immune response from the new version to what was seen in earlier, already successful trials, Berman and Rupp explain in their Vaccine Smarts column.

  • Something old becomes something new

    Because of the increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, scientists are looking to bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, as a treatment for bacterial infections, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in this week’s Medical Discovery News column.

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