UTMB Police share some of the ways they work to keep facilities safe and secure during recent Community Impact story.
Testing in small animals suggests a novel vaccine design from scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch could outsmart the ongoing evolution of the coronavirus’ spike protein, reports Corinne Purtill at the Los Angeles Times.
“Western medicine confronted a deadly new disease during the Korean conflict, then [known as] Korean haemorrhagic fever, but it took nearly 3 decades of persistent study for the cause to finally be discovered by Dr .Ho Wang Lee,” said James Le Duc, former director of Galveston National Laboratory at University of Texas Medical Branch.
The burnout epidemic has far-reaching implications across productivity, care and costs. The University of Texas Medical Branch estimated the total annual cost of burnout among healthcare managers to be $300 billion.
In the latest Vaccine Smarts column, Drs. Megan Berman and Richard Rupp offered a Q&A on the new COVID-19 bivalent boosters. And the answer is yes, you can get your COVID and flu shots at the same time.
“An extremely important aspect in human development is the moment that a baby looks at its parent,” wrote Dr. Sally Robinson. “Eye contact is associated with strong communication, memory for faces and social connection.”
“Research has shown that having at least three close friends, especially for men, improves longevity,” wrote Dr. Victor S. Sierpina. “It makes sense that with someone else around to help share the joys and burdens of life, we become more resilient.”
Researchers are trying to determine if changing the gut microbiome is a viable treatment option for those with bipolar disorder. In Medical Discovery News, Dr. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel discuss fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) as a treatment. “Yes, that means transplanting poop!”
The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB Health) will honor breast cancer survivors for National Breast Reconstruction Awareness (BRA) Day on Wednesday, October 19th with events at our Galveston, Clear Lake and League City Campuses. Click for the full schedule of events.
As medical students who like to fish, one of our favorite pastimes is trying our own luck in the Galveston waters when we aren’t busy hitting the books or working in the hospital. Fish these waters long enough, chances are you might hear the term “flesh-eating bacteria” tossed around by fellow fishermen.
The Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP) has selected Dr. David Brown for a 2022 Fellowship. Brown, Senior Vice President and Dean of the UTMB School of Health Professions, began working with the organization about four years ago and serves as Chair of the Research, Development, and Innovation Committee.
UTMB pediatrician Dr. Lauren Raimer-Goodman addressed the public health concerns that are surfacing as a result of declining vaccination rates.
An experimental vaccine aims to solve that problem by priming the immune system to recognize both the spike protein and a second — and far more stable — viral protein. “We think of it as a one-time solution for all the COVID variants,” said Haitao Hu, an immunologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch and senior author of a study describing the vaccine in Wednesday’s edition of the journal Science Translational Medicine. The Seattle Times published this article, also. The Galveston County Daily News reported this news as well.
Researchers from the Catholic University of America and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston demonstrated an effective intranasal COVID vaccine tested in mice.
The Galveston County Health District and the University of Texas Medical Branch will begin offering the updated BioNTech and Moderna bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccines. “While we cannot precisely forecast effectiveness in any individual, we expect that the new messenger-RNA bivalent vaccines will offer better protection against these strains than previous options,” the medical branch said.
These are symptoms persisting weeks, months and even years after the initial infection. We are still trying to understand the root cause of the kind of multi-system symptoms and how to reliably diagnose them. Dr. Victor Sierpina wrote about the ongoing research.
Scientists have an exciting new treatment approach to cure advanced-stage ovarian and colorectal cancer. The bad news is that it has only been tested in mice. The good news is that testing it in humans is the next step and clinical trials could begin soon. Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel wrote all about in the latest Medical Discovery News column.
Researchers at The University of Texas Medical Branch suggest an mRNA vaccine approach that can provide broad protection against existing and future COVID-19 variants.
Dr. Pei-Yong Shi, an expert in vaccine development and virology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, commented on shots that Moderna and Pfizer made for both the Beta and Delta variants that went through human trials. “The companies have tried multiple modified sequences before,” he said. “I’m totally in support of this recommendation of bivalent boosters,” Shi adds. “I think we can always say we want more clinical data, but if that’s the case, we’re always playing the catch-up game.”
Elizabeth Lyons of the University of Texas Medical Branch said some people love video games because there's a lot of unpredictability and surprise. Lyons tries to mimic these characteristics in her own fitness game designs. As part of her research, she created a Facebook page to help motivate older women in Galveston, Texas, to go for daily walks. To keep the participants on their toes, she posts fun challenges on the page. “A lot of the things we've been trying to do with challenges is bring back a sense of childlike wonder," she said – kind of like what you get when you're exploring a video game world for the first time.