Featured Spotlights
At its 6th Annual I-Squared (I²) Expo & Awards, Tech Launch Arizona recognized the greatest contributors to the local ecosystem of invention and commercialization from both inside and outside the University of Arizona. Dr. Louise Hecker, a respiratory researcher with the UA Department of Medicine whose BIO5 lab invented the first highly selective Nox4 small molecule inhibitors for the treatment of fibrotic disorders, including those affecting the lungs, was named the 2019 I-Squared Inventor of the Year…
For many, time does not heal all wounds. That may be about to change. In the UA BIO5 Institute lab of Louise Hecker, PhD, researchers have developed the first highly selective Nox4 small molecule inhibitors for the treatment of fibrotic diseases. Her work has been funded by BIO5, the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. The UA has licensed the technology to startup Fibronox to bring the invention to the public…
Summer internships in the UA Health Sciences Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics laboratory of Dr. Yves Lussier at the BIO5 Institute led to realization of a prestigious scientific goal for three local students. The students participated in the KEYS Research Internship program this past summer working with both Drs. Lussier and Haiquan Li and helping to validate findings of a study that analyzed "junk DNA," the area of the DNA that does not code for proteins, and disease comorbidities…
Using an affordable, portable device that attaches to a smartphone, a University of Arizona researcher in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and College of Optical Sciences, Dr. Dongkyun “DK” Kang and his collaborators in Boston and Uganda hope to save lives in rural Africa. With these confocal microscope attachments on a smartphone, they’re able to diagnose skin cancers and cervical cancers…
With an $863,000 grant from the U.S. Army, Dr. Jennifer Barton, University of Arizona BIO5 Institute director and professor of biomedical engineering, biosystems engineering, electrical and computer engineering and optical sciences, continues her research on a disposable falloposcope to detect early-stage ovarian cancer. The device is an endoscope used to image fallopian tubes, where researchers now believe ovarian cancer originates…
Dr. Omavi Bailey, who graduates soon from the University of Arizona Sleep Medicine Fellowship, knows a lot about how a good night’s rest or lack thereof affects health and your mental state—particularly for men of African descent. His perspectives on the subject are as diverse as the life experiences from which he draws them, spanning Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and the United States. Hear him at Family & Community Medicine Grand Rounds, Sept. 13, or the Sleep Medicine Lecture, Sept. 28…
Dr. Louise Hecker leads the University of Arizona Health Sciences multidisciplinary research team that will develop and test pharmaceutical compounds for safety and efficacy in halting and potentially reversing this progressive lung disease of aging that has no cure—with most patients surviving only three years after diagnosis...
Workers in open office seating had less daytime stress and greater daytime activity levels compared to workers in private offices and cubicles, according to new research led by the University of Arizona Institute for Place, Wellbeing and Performance’s Drs. Esther Sternberg and Casey Lindberg. A paper on the topic was published in August in the journal, Occupational and Environmental Medicine...
Revealing all the steps required to activate an enzyme called a protein kinase may identify new ways to target cancer, according to new University of Arizona-led research. First and senior authors, Drs. Senthil K. Ganesan and Wolfgang Peti, a member of the BIO5 Institute and UA Cancer Center, show their work in an article in the May 1 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…
UA researchers Drs. Bhaskar Banerjee, a gastroenterologist, and Rongguang “Ron” Liang, in optical sciences, have invented a dual-view probe for medical endoscopy demonstrated to increase polyp detection rates 58 percent to 98 percent. Their startup, Omniscient, is working to bring the technology to the marketplace to aid patients who may suffer from colon cancer. Other uses are being explored…
Cancer patients' immune systems are receiving a boost from checkpoint inhibitors and other lab-made antibodies that train T cells to attack cancer. This expanded understanding of cancer, genetics and immunobiology could revolutionize treatment. Researchers at the UA Cancer Center and Division of Hematology and Oncology are at the forefront of this new frontier. See what Drs. Julie Bauman, Daruka Mahadevan, Clara Curiel and Hani Babiker have to say about it…
Dr. Stefano Guerra, a respiratory scientist at the UA Health Sciences Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center, will lead an international effort—in partnership with investigative cohorts in Sweden and the UK—to target deficits of the protein CC16 as an indicator of likely persistence of asthma into adulthood. Results could lead to personalized therapies for chronic asthma and COPD patients. Read the Q&A…
UA News takes a look at the upcoming grand opening of Banner – University Medical Center North, nestled between the UA Cancer Center’s Peter and Paula Fasseas Cancer Clinic and Ronald McDonald House at 3838 N. Campbell Ave. See the video and a photo gallery from Dec. 11 public "Preview Event"…
Five years ago, the UA Department of Emergency Medicine and Division of Infectious Diseases sought out a way to make HIV screening a routine part of emergency room culture. Today, with prevention drugs available for at-risk patients and antiretroviral drugs to control infection, that’s more important than ever. After initial concerns by physicians, patients now receive unprecedented access to timely treatment courtesy of the ER and Petersen HIV Clinics at Banner – UMC Tucson and South…
What if you could experience full health until the very end of your life? University of Arizona researchers, led by Dr. Janko Nikolich-Žugich, co-director of the UA Center on Aging and Department of Immunobiology chair, think long-lasting immunity from disease might be possible — if the thymus and the T-cells it produces to fight infection can be brought back to work efficiently…
A trial will look at whether a naturally occurring compound, known as angiotensin 1-7, relieves cognitive deficits after heart bypass. University of Arizona collaborators include Sarver Heart Center director and chief of the Division of Cardiology, Dr. Nancy Sweitzer, physiologist Meredith Hay and psychologist Lee Ryan...
The chief of the UA Division of Cardiology and UA Sarver Heart Center director is the latest DOM faculty member spotlighted by the “Lo Que Pasa” newsletter and UA@Work. She is an expert in heart failure and transplant cardiology who also, we learn, is an avid knitter and—being a Wisconsin native—enjoys the good beer now available with so many craft breweries everywhere…
A large, bouquet-shaped molecule called surfactant protein A, or SP-A, may explain why obese asthma patients have harder-to-treat symptoms than their lean and overweight counterparts, reports a new study led by scientists at the University of Arizona and Duke University. Their results were published in a recent edition of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Among the authors are Drs. Monica Kraft and Julie Ledford…
Headed for an internal medicine internship and dermatology residency training program as a physician after graduation, Anthony Cervantes has had a lot of “enablers” in his life. For him, that’s a good thing. They’ve helped this U.S. Air Force Reserve Pararescue jumper born in Laredo, Texas, become the first in his family to graduate from high school, college and—now—medical school. In one generation, he’s taken his family from poverty to prosperity, all in service to others…