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Research shows entire brain responds to the gut through neuronal connections

You know that feeling in your gut? We think of it as an innate intuition that sparks deep in the belly and helps guide our actions, if we let it. It's also a metaphor for what scientists call the "gut-brain axis," a biological reality in which the gut and its microbial inhabitants send signals to the brain, and vice versa.

2 Apr 2020

Eight privacy questions governments should ask when developing COVID-19 contact tracing apps

As part of their efforts to slow the outbreak of coronavirus, governments, research institutions and industry are developing contact tracing apps to record interactions between people.

2 Apr 2020

New app provides an overview of COVID-19 spread across the globe

There is nothing quite like a quarantine to make one itch to do something useful. Three PhD students from the Department of Mathematical Sciences have done just that.

2 Apr 2020

Trump touted Abbott’s quick COVID-19 test. HHS document shows only 5,500 are on way for entire U.S.

A coronavirus test made by Abbott Laboratories and introduced with considerable fanfare by President Donald Trump in a Rose Garden news conference this week is giving state and local health officials very little added capacity to perform speedy tests needed to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

2 Apr 2020

Lessons learned from the Italian COVID‐19 outbreak

As Italy grapples with the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, a new study has shed light on the country’s fight against the deadly disease. Italy is one of the hardest-hit countries of the global health crisis, infecting more than 115,000 people and killing nearly 14,000.

2 Apr 2020

Drugs considered for COVID-19 can increase risk for dangerous arrhythmias

As some consider treating coronavirus patients with a combination of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin, cardiologists are advising caution because both medications can increase the risk for dangerous abnormal heart rhythms.

2 Apr 2020

Clean cooking with LPG could avert 28,000 premature deaths, reduce global temperatures

A new study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, has found that clean cooking with liquified petroleum gas could avert 28,000 premature deaths and reduce global temperatures through successful implementation of a new national household energy strategy in Cameroon.

2 Apr 2020

Scientists find important clues to vaccine in SARS-CoV-2 genome

A new research paper published by scientists at the University of Bristol who sequenced the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is causing the worldwide COVID-19 illness, reveals some significant findings that could help researchers working on rolling out vaccines to stop the relentless march of the virus. The study was published online on the preprint site bioRxiv in April 2020.

2 Apr 2020

Study investigates if the body's immune response to infections changes with seasons

Ground breaking new research is underway at the University of Surrey in collaboration with Columbia University to investigate if the body's immune response to infectious diseases and viruses, such as COVID-19, is altered by different seasons.

2 Apr 2020

COVID-19 by the numbers

Numerical data sometimes reveal facts that are otherwise concealed within an onslaught of information from an overwhelming number of sources.

2 Apr 2020

A checklist to guide Emergency Department team's COVID-19 surge response

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges to many health care systems across the globe.

2 Apr 2020

TCF Bank announces $100,000 match incentive program for COVID-19 response

TCF Bank, in its efforts to provide crucial support to Minnesota's frontline health care workers and accelerate innovations directed at tackling the COVID-19 health crisis, has announced a $100,000 match incentive program in collaboration with University of Minnesota Emergency Fund for Covid-19 response.

2 Apr 2020

Public health interventions will drive economic recovery from COVID-19

A major new study titled “Pandemics Depress the Economy, Public Health Interventions Do Not: Evidence from the 1918 Flu,” by MIT economist Emil Verner and others, and published as a working paper in the Social Science Research Network, puts the role of public health measures and financial welfare during public health crises into perspective.

2 Apr 2020

Excess cardiac myosin worsens damage to heart tissue during a heart attack

A prevalent heart protein known as cardiac myosin, which is released into the body when a person suffers a heart attack, can cause blood to thicken or clot--worsening damage to heart tissue, a new study shows.

2 Apr 2020

Can cats and dogs catch or spread COVID-19?

A recent report from Hong Kong that two dogs had tested positive for the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 had pet owners in a tizzy. This was compounded by news that a cat owned by a COVID-19 patient had developed symptoms of the illness in Belgium – such as breathing trouble and diarrhea – a week after the owner tested positive. The cat’s vomit and feces were subsequently found to be positive for the viral genome.

2 Apr 2020

Visualization tool enables doctors to get an overview of critical care bed capacities

Computer scientists in the team led by Professor Daniel Keim, professor of data analysis and visualization at the University of Konstanz, developed a visualization tool called "Coronavis".

2 Apr 2020

MIT launches new technique to mass manufacture disposable face shields

The shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) available to healthcare professionals has become increasingly problematic as Covid-19 cases continue to surge.

2 Apr 2020

COVID-19: What the illness looks like

With increasing information about COVID-19 disease gathered first-hand, a more accurate picture of the clinical features is coming together.

2 Apr 2020

Mediterranean diet best for lowering LDL cholesterol

A new study published in The BMJ in April 2020 suggests that almost any remedial diet can result in a certain amount of weight loss and a better cardiovascular risk profile over the next six months, compared with the usual diet. However, at the 12-month mark, the dieter has mostly gained back the weight, while most cardiovascular risk factors are back at their original levels.

2 Apr 2020

Promising vaccine patch candidate for COVID-19

In a breath of fresh air, scientists from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine reported that they had developed a potential new vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is causing the current COVID-19 pandemic. The vaccine has been tested in mice. When administered through a small patch only the size of a fingertip, the vaccine was found to generate protective neutralizing antibodies against the virus, in adequate quantities.

2 Apr 2020