Shining a light on life sciences news, events, and research from our
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Expert Exchange: KU Professor Utilizes Digital Health Technology to Understand, Influence & Improve Teen Behavior
Technology is exiting a sort of adolescent phase. Many technologies have grown in impressive spurts and occasionally lose their way. Data analytics, IoT Devices, wearables,...
Weighing Female Patients at Healthcare Visits is Associated with Negative Mental Health, MU Study Finds
A routine trip to the doctor’s office almost always includes being weighed, a request that can be stressful. However, stepping on the scale isn’t always necessary, and as m...
Children's Mercy Kansas City Opens Youth Clinic to Address Mental Health Care Crisis
The nation’s youth are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis. More than 15 million children need mental health services, but only 30-50 percent receive care. In the ...
Study Details How Program at KU School of Medicine-Wichita Helps Doctors Deliver Mental Health Care to Children Across Kansas
Moving knowledge, not patients.
Putting more brains into a child’s case.
They’re not medical descriptions, but they encapsulate the approach of KSKidsMAP, which bring...
A comprehensive study found that one in two individuals globally will experience a mental health disorder in their lifetime.
Analyzing data from over 150,000 adults acro...
Expert Exchange: UMKC Professor Utilizes Novel Technology for More Effective Immunotherapy
Bigger is not always better. When fighting cancer, Kun Cheng, PhD, Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy at the University of Missouri - Kansas City (UMKC), the aim...
KU Cancer Center Researchers Optimize the Immune System to Beat Cancer
Researchers are teaming up to take chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to the next level
CAR T-cell therapy amplifies the immune system’s ability to recognize...
MU Research Offers Hope in Fight Against Blood Cancers
A groundbreaking process developed by researchers based in the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building offers new hope in the fight against blood cancers, such as lymph...
KU Researcher & Parkville Patient Show the Promise of Gene-Editing Cancer Treatment
Using CRISPR to modify certain immune cells could make cancer-fighting immunotherapy more potent for a broader set of patients. After undergoing a new form of experimental ...
Can Lymph Nodes Boost the Success of Cancer Immunotherapy?
New Data Show Therapies May Activate Lymph Nodes to Produce Tumor-Tackling T Cells
Cancer treatment routinely involves removing lymph nodes near the tumor if they contai...
KU Medical Center Researchers Turn to Exercise to Improve & Maintain Brain Health
Want to maximize your brain health as you age? Exercise may be your best investment.
Researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center are engaged in various resear...
Curing the neurodegenerative effects of aging is one of the next great medical mysteries to solve. This becomes more important as the average lifespan increases. For Asma Z...
Saint Luke's Doctor and Survivor Remind Public of Stroke Warning Signs
Doctors want people to know that a stroke can happen at any age.
Thom Ludtke is a living example. He suffered a stroke at just 52 years old while coaching volleyball pra...
Do You Already Have Alzheimer's? Scientists at KU are Asking Young People
“Do you already have Alzheimer’s?”
This is the question Brian Ackley, associate professor of molecular biosciences at the University of Kansas, poses to the KU stude...
Links Found Between Viruses & Neurodegenerative Diseases
Neurodegenerative diseases can damage different parts of the nervous system, including the brain. This may lead to problems with thinking, memory, and/or movement. Examples...
Major Research Breakthrough: Parkinson's Disease BioMarker Found
In an enormous leap forward in the understanding of Parkinson’s disease (PD), researchers have discovered a new tool that can reveal a key pathology of the disease:...
Expert Exchange: MU Professor Repurposes Drug to Improve Quality of Life for Individuals on the Spectrum
Pharmaceutical medicine is like a string of well-developed islands. Each treatment or drug is created with incredible effort, time, and money and then sits within its shore...
KU-Piloted Peer Intervention 'Stay, Play, and Talk' Aims to Help Children with Autism
When the University of Kansas (KU) investigators studied autism spectrum disorder and communication interventions for non-speaking or minimally verbal young children, they ...
MU Study Finds Therapy Dogs Aren't Always the Answer
Some children with autism spectrum disorder struggle with anxiety or have difficulty communicating in certain social situations. Researchers have studied various interventi...
Children’s Mercy Advancing Healthcare Capacity for Youth with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities
Spending time in the hospital can be challenging for all kids and their families. This can be especially true for youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities, including auti...
KU Disabilities Center Awarded $2.9M to Address Community Needs
Seventeen-year-old Gerald Mitchell’s eyes light up when talking about his favorite PlayStation games.
Mario Kart is his favorite. He slips a quick smile, then looks down...
K-State Researcher Aims to Protect Public & Ag Health from Emerging & Zoonotic Diseases
The post-COVID connection between viruses transmitted between animals and humans has never had a higher purpose. It has been more than a century since the impact of a virus...
Longhorned Tick Discovered in Northern Missouri for First Time, MU Researchers Find
Discovery indicates a looming problem for cattle health in the Midwest.
The Longhorned tick causes the loss of millions of dollars in agricultural revenue to cattle pro...
MRIGlobal Innovator Says Preparation is the Best Medicine
Novel Zoonotic Diseases Warrant Innovative Approaches
Viruses cause human suffering in acute and chronic diseases, with one estimate suggesting that scientists have iden...
One Health Modeling Research at UMKC Seeks New Tools to Combat Antimicrobial-Resistant Organisms
The Midwest Virtual Laboratory of Pathogen Transmission in Healthcare Settings (MVL-PATHS), an interdisciplinary research collaborative, will use a One Health modeling appr...
From Research to Reality: K-State Scientists Advance Disease and Vaccine Research
The research started a long time ago.
Long before you went into your neighborhood pharmacy to get a vaccine — whether an annual flu shot, COVID-19 booster or a shot to ...
USDA Funds $30M to Support SARS-CoV-2 Animal Research
The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is making $30 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding available to address SARS-CoV-2 in animals and advance the n...
MRIGlobal Director Aims to Improve Response to Infectious Diseases
Five years ago, few people understood how to respond to a pandemic. Today, most are painfully aware of the lifecycle of infectious diseases and how the world reacts to them...
Adaptable, at-Home COVID Testing Device Developed at KU Receives Funding Boost
An at-home COVID-19 testing device developed by a University of Kansas (KU) professor is another step closer to hitting the market.
BioFluidica, a company co-founded by...
Research That Ticks: K-State Researchers Take on Tick-Borne Diseases
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tick-borne disease cases increased from 48,610 in 2016 to 59,349 in 2017 alone, but actual cases are estimated ...
New SARS-CoV-2 Panel from MRIGlobal Provides Rapid, Accessible, and Portable Testing
In a breakthrough for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics, MRIGlobal played a crucial role in research on the design, development, testing, and validation of a multiplex panel that dete...
Personalized Medicine and Advantages of Big Data and AI-Based Diagnostics
Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data are transforming healthcare with high-throughput analyses of complex diseases. Machine learning and sophisticated computational me...
Artificial Intelligence Enabled Next Generation of Rapid Diagnostics for Foothold Labs
Biosensing combined with artificial intelligence will provide the foundation for next-generation rapid diagnostic systems. Foothold Labs uses biology as a circuit to create...
The Connection: MRIGlobal Uses Wearable Technology to Defend Soldiers
Every morning, more than 1.4 million Americans wake up and serve their country as active-duty armed forces. That is the population of Dallas or San Diego and is three-quart...
MU Researchers Develop Smart Face Mask Concept for Personal Health Trackers
For years, automotive companies have developed intelligent sensors to monitor a vehicle’s health, including engine oil pressure, tire pressure, and air-fuel mixture. Togeth...
Children’s Mercy Researchers Utilize Consumer Wearables to Promote Physical Activity
Providing opportunities and support to children facing economic and structural health barriers to physical activity is critical for preventing and controlling the high rate...
Hill’s Pet Nutrition Advancing Quantified Health with Wearables
Quantified self… digital health… medical IoT. These are just a few terms that describe the technologies transforming health care from something that occurs at a medical fa...
Kenzen Uses Superior Science and Safety to Protect Workers Using Armband Wearable
Wearables have been a growing and evolving consumer product for years. Smartwatches are ubiquitous and smart rings are starting to be commonplace as well. While typically f...
Expert Exchange: Saint Luke’s Specialist Aims to Reduce Maternal Mortality
Becoming pregnant and giving birth can be one of the happiest moments in a new mother’s life, but for some, there are potentially fatal outcomes. For Karen Florio, DO, MPH,...
Blue KC & BioNexus KC Release RFP, Team Up on Transforming KC Health Outcomes Research Grant
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC) and BioNexus KC have partnered since 2012 to award more than $1 million in grants to projects that improve the health an...
KU School of Medicine Researcher Works to Improve Black Maternal & Infant Health
Growing up in rural Arkansas, Sharla Smith, PhD, MPH loved children and dreamed of becoming an OB-GYN and delivering babies. But after earning a biology degree and having ...
University Health Specialists Advancing High Risk Pregnancy Care
In November of 2020, University Health (UH) opened its newest location in the UMKC Health Sciences District. Providers in the beautifully designed University Health 2 build...
UMKC-Led Team IDs Safer Treatment Option for Premature Infants
Preterm birth, defined as birth between 23 and 36 gestation weeks, is a significant health risk and economic burden on the US health care system, affecting approximately 12...
Prescribing Without Data: Doctors Advocate for Inclusion of Pregnant Women in Clinical Research
Pregnant patients are often excluded from clinical trials for fear of causing harm to them or their babies, but leaders in maternal-fetal medicine say the lack of dat...
Expert Exchange: KU Medical Center Professor Addresses Brain Health Inequities, Seeks Change Through Community
You’ve heard the saying, ‘actions speak louder than words.’ To discover what motivates someone or what is important to them, you can simply watch their feet. For Dr. Ashley...
UH Leads COVID Response in Community, Connects Underserved with Quality Care
As Kansas City’s essential hospital, University Health (UH) is dedicated to providing academic medicine for all. For the past several years, UH’s Community Health Strategie...
Osteopathic medical students at Kansas City University (KCU) now have the opportunity to develop a much deeper understanding of the underlying issues and inequities impacti...
UMKC Professor, Researcher Brings Health Services & Healthy Equity to Underserved Populations
Hundreds of people in Kansas City are receiving potentially life-saving medical screenings and vaccines thanks to the work of Dr. Jannette Berkley-Patton, a University of M...
[caption id="attachment_22933" align="alignleft" width="107"] Karen Dehais[/caption]
By: Karen Dehais, Health Forward Foundation
In 2011 I was diagnosed with breast c...
Expert Exchange: KU Researcher Partners with Spouse to Expedite Vaccine Development
Symbiosis as a concept is often generalized, when the more specific term sought is mutualistic symbiosis, a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship. There is also paras...
$3.68 M NIH Grant Supports K-State Research on Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Vaccine
Roman Ganta, director of the Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Diseases in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University, has received a $3.681 million ...
Advances in the study of virus-host interactions in plants may lead to breakthroughs in human health. Jared May, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biological ...
MRIGlobal Addresses Global Health with Vaccines & More
Tularemia. Influenza. Rift Valley Fever. HIV. Ebola. MERS. With decades of deep experience in predicting, preventing and controlling infectious diseases like these, it wa...
Kansas State University (K-State) has signed four COVID-19-related licensing agreements with companies for vaccine candidates and possible antiviral drugs. All the licens...
A new HIV clinical trial is to be launched this month. George Washington University is partnering with International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and Moderna, along with...
Expert Exchange: KC Rising Director Rallies Community to Amplify Regional Growth
For more than a decade, the regional workforce has had more available jobs than people to fill them. Sheri Gonzales, Vice President of the Civic Council of Greater Kansas C...
The Connection: BioKansas CEO Boosts Biosciences Ecosystem
Being an effective intermediary involves a micro understanding, implemented at a macro level. For Dr. Sonia Hall, President and CEO of BioKansas, the goal is to strategical...
Patient-Focused KCU PsyD Program Prepares Students to Treat Individuals, Community
Clinical psychologists are trained to address the psychological needs of individuals from all backgrounds, ethnicities, races and ages. Students in the PsyD program at Kans...
Skilled KC Takes New Approach Training Future Workforce
Skilled KC intends to provide a student-centered experience to support residents that want to earn a credential that will set them on a successful career trajectory or give...
K-State Olathe Cyber Bootcamp Series Filling Job Vacancies, Offering New Career Field
Kansas State University Olathe is using its professional development programming to help Greater Kansas City and beyond fill job vacancies in highly skilled cyber fields.
...
Bioscience Core Skills Institute Enhances Workforce Development in Kansas City
In the biotechnology industry, there is a disconnect between the credentials available to students and the companies that hire them. Often certificates or degrees in biolog...
Expert Exchange: Children’s Mercy Physician’s Research Improves Pediatric Cancer Treatment
All creatures have a spectacular arrangement of cells. When these cells are at their best, the body functions properly. The opposite is true, however, when these cells decl...
Saint Luke’s Director Says the Answer to the Immune System’s Role in Fighting Cancer is Hidden in Plain Sight
The immune system protects the body by identifying and eliminating potential threats such as infections, toxins, and cancers, however, many cancers have developed ingenious...
The University of Kansas Cancer Center's Next Chapter in Immunotherapy
The concept of harnessing our body’s natural defenses to ward off disease has been around for more than 135 years. Over the last few decades, incremental steps in basic res...
University of Missouri Scientists Killing Cancer by Unleashing the Body’s Own Immune System
The body’s immune system is the first line of defense against infections like bacteria, viruses or cancers. Some cancers, however, have developed the art of molecular decep...
Children’s Mercy Opens New Research Building, Accelerating the Discovery of Cures and Transforming Pediatric Care
Children’s Mercy has opened its new 9-story, 375,000 square-foot, pediatric research facility located on the hospital’s Adele Hall campus in the heart of downtown Kansas Ci...
Genetics Play a Role in Our Immune Response to Cancer Treatment
Checkpoint inhibitors have been a breakthrough treatment for cancer, however, they only benefit about 15% of patients across different types of cancer. Thus, there is an un...
The Future of Pancreatic Cancer Treatment: KU Cancer Center Oncologist Says It’s Personal
A decade ago, the survival rate for pancreatic cancer hovered around five percent. Today, the five-year survival rate is 10 percent.
“We’ve moved into the double-digits,...
KC Stem Cell Startup Delivers Gift of Time to Industry
In baseball, preparing for the first pitch requires much practice and builds on a spectacular amount of behind-the-scenes effort. Being a scientist is not much different - ...
Saint Luke’s Clinical Trial Shows Improvements in Patients with Common Genetic Heart Condition
Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute announced the results of a clinical trial that will impact patient care and improve quality of life for patients suffering fro...
NextGen Offers New Possibilities for MU Researchers Addressing Health Disparities
Loren Bauerband, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Sciences in the University of Missouri School of Health Professions, uses large data sets gathered from ...
Precision Therapeutics Research at Children’s Mercy Generates Knowledge, Hope
The ability to harness genomic technologies to provide a more accurate diagnosis for diseases in children needs to be accompanied by treatments that are also tailored to th...
KU Medical Center Expert Says Cystic Fibrosis Drug Changes the Game of Personalized Medicine
If there’s one thing the COVID-19 epidemic has shown the world, it’s how differently people can be affected by the same disease. For some, the virus is a killer, and fo...
Precision Medicine is Growing Fast. Can Hospitals and Clinicians Keep Pace?
In medical training, Nephi Walton recalled being taught to prepare to give grim news to parents of those born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA): The rare disease has no tr...
Expert Exchange: Cleveland University Researcher Energized by Collaboration Between Chiropractic & Primary Care
Effective treatment in healthcare is often as simple as identifying the issue and making an adjustment. For Dr. Mark Pfefer, Director of Research and Professor at Cleveland...
UMKC Pharmacy Researchers Explore Pain Medication Prescribing Trends in Nursing Homes
A team of researchers at the University of Missouri-Kanas City School of Pharmacy is taking a close look at prescribing trends for opioids used as pain management medicatio...
TMC/UH Pain Management Center Silencing Chronic Headaches with Exclusive Treatment
Since its opening in the Fall of 2015, the Pain Management Center at Truman Medical Centers/University Health (TMC/UH) has made headlines for its role in protecting patient...
MU Study Reveals Most Effective Drugs for Common Type of Neuropathic Pain
More than 20 million people in the U.S. suffer neuropathic pain. At least 25% of those cases are classified as unexplained and considered cryptogenic sensory polyneuropathy...
It's Time to Rethink our Standard Approach to Pain Management in Cancer Care
According to a new study, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Medical Center saw a 123 percent surge in opioid-related overdose visits from March-June 2019 to March-June...
Expert Exchange: KCU Professor Developing Innovative Test for Early Diagnosis of Neurodegenerative Disease
Sometimes researchers are confronted with daunting challenges when studying an incurable disease and subsequently turn their attention to something else that may yield resu...
Scientists at KU Alzheimer's Disease Center Make Progress on Research
Local researchers are doing their part to battle Alzheimer's Disease. Every 65 seconds, someone in the United States is diagnosed with the deadly, incurable disease. Resear...
4-Year-Old Patient Will Lose All Neurological Function; Children's Mercy Finding Answers for Rare Disease
With her beautiful blue eyes, feathery blonde hair and a smile that just won’t quit, Emerson Schrivener looks like a healthy 4-year-old.
But looks can be deceiving. Her ...
As we age, we naturally experience cognitive declines. We might forget where we parked our car or what we had for breakfast yesterday. But we also gain more experience and ...
Q & A: KU Medical Center Professor Says KCMD Will Accelerate Cures
The University of Kansas Medical Center recently spoke with Mazen Dimachkie, M.D., professor of neurology, about the Kansas City Consortium on Musculoskeletal Diseases. A f...
Stroke, delirium, anxiety, confusion, fatigue - the list goes on. If you think Covid-19 is just a respiratory disease, think again.
As each week passes, it is becoming inc...
Expert Exchange: UMKC Humanitarian Changes the World of HIV Research
Making the world a better place requires compassion, the ability to react to unique and challenging situations, and the courage to face what others fear. University of Miss...
‘It Matters’: TMC Nurse Asks to Work 60-Hour Weeks to Help COVID-19 Patients
The middle-aged man lay dying of COVID-19 in the intensive care unit, only moments from his last, shallow breath. The ventilator was removed. His brain had already been hit...
KU, KDHE Partner to Trace COVID-19 in Wastewater Treatment Plants
The University of Kansas School of Engineering and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment are teaming up on an experiment to determine if the COVID-19 virus can be...
Children’s Mercy Conducts Year Round Viral Disease Surveillance and Vaccine Studies in Children to Promote Public Health
Children’s Mercy Kansas City (CM-KC) has been a member of the CDC-sponsored multicenter New Vaccine Surveillance Network (KC-NVSN) since 2009 with Rangaraj Selvarangan (Dir...
Lab in KU Medical Center Incubator Switches to Coronavirus Test to Meet Community Need
Sinochips Diagnostics, a private laboratory operating on the campus of the University of Kansas Medical Center, has tested more than 2,500 people for the coronavirus that c...
‘Flying Blind’: Doctors Race to Understand What COVID-19 Means for People With HIV
Larry Pike has already survived one pandemic. The 76-year-old Seattle retiree has been living with HIV for 22 years. When Covid-19 hit Seattle, he grew worried. “Just like ...
Expert Exchange: MU Veterinary Oncologist Advancing One Health with Novel Bone Cancer Treatment for Dogs
Few people realize that what is good for man’s best friend can also be good for mankind. Dr. Brian Flesner, an Assistant Professor of Oncology at the University of Missouri...
UMKC Researcher Working to Improve Animal and Human Health
A world thrown into the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic is discovering the harsh reality of a shared environment where animal health and human health are intertwined.
...
One Health Research, Education at Heart of K-State Initiatives
Human, animal and environmental research and education is in the DNA of Kansas State University. These fields and their complex interrelationships also are at the core of O...
MU College of Veterinary Medicine Helps Athletic Horse Recover From Irregular Heartbeat
After 16 years, an inseparable bond between a woman and her horse was on the verge of collapse.
Together, Cynthia Russell, a professor at the University of Missouri-Kans...
Can Animals Get Coronavirus? What to Know About Pets and COVID-19
We’re getting used to our daily news feeds filling up with reports of new COVID-19 cases. But one case in particular has come as a bit of a surprise.
A tiger at the Bron...
Expert Exchange: K-State Researcher Seeks to Prevent Swine Epidemic
There is a delicate balance being maintained by the global food production industry. Dr. Megan Niederwerder, Assistant Professor at Kansas State University (K-State) in the...
MU Researcher Awarded Grant to Study Treatment for Arthritis Caused by Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the U.S. It is caused by several strains of bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, which can be transmitted to people throu...
MRIGlobal’s Global Health Team and Partners Monitoring Coronavirus Outbreak
MRIGlobal infectious disease experts have been keeping a close eye on a coronavirus outbreak stemming from the Chinese city of Wuhan. The team has been gathering informatio...
Coronavirus Outbreak Raises Questions: Why are Bat Viruses so Deadly?
It’s no coincidence that some of the worst viral disease outbreaks in recent years — SARS, MERS, Ebola, Marburg and likely the newly arrived 2019-nCoV virus — originated in...
Priorities for Preparation: K-State Training Next Generation to Fight Animal, Plant Pathogens
Sizzling bacon, smoky pulled pork, mouthwatering barbecue ribs and even the holiday ham could disappear from meals if African swine fever virus ever made its way to the U.S...