Research

Foraging for Information: Machine Learning Decodes Genetic Influence Over Behavior

Mice scurry around while foraging for food, but genetics may be the unseen hand controlling these meandering movements. Researchers at University of Utah Health are using machine learning to draw links between genetic controls that shape incremental steps of instinctive and learned behaviors. The results are available online in Cell Reports on August 13. “Patterns […]


U studies safe gun storage practices in military homes

Homes are the front lines of military suicide prevention as nearly two-thirds of suicides occur at home using a firearm—nearly always a personal firearm. Because suicide risk decreases if a firearm is safely stored locked and unloaded researchers, led by Craig Bryan of the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah, surveyed military personnel […]


Genetic Testing Motivates Behavior Changes in At-Risk Melanoma Patients

Skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States, and melanoma is the most severe type of skin cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimates more than 96,000 new cases will be diagnosed this year, and the disease will cause more than 7,000 deaths. Utah has a particularly high melanoma rate. A new […]


Power to the parents

A new policy memo released this week involving University of Utah and other researchers contends that educational systems need new strategies to meaningfully engage families and communities. In the memo, “Recasting Families and Communities as Co-Designers of Education in Tumultuous Times,” the authors describe how justice-based approaches to family engagement enable parents and families, particularly […]


Limitation exposed in promising quantum computing material

Quantum computers promise to perform operations of great importance believed to be impossible for our technology today. Current computers process information via transistors carrying one of two units of information, either a 1 or a 0. Quantum computing is based on the quantum mechanical behavior of the logic unit. Each quantum unit, or “qubit,” can […]


Team approach to cardiac care increases chance of surviving severe complications from heart attack

When multidisciplinary health care teams were engaged in caring for patients suffering from refractory cardiogenic shock, a severe condition that can occur after a heart attack, the likelihood of survival increased significantly, by approximately 50%. The proof of concept study by investigators at University of Utah Health was published online in the July issue of […]


Beat the heat

It’s estimated that as much as two-thirds of energy consumed in the U.S. each year is wasted as heat. Take for example, car engines, laptop computers, cellphones, even refrigerators, that heat up with overuse. Imagine if you could capture the heat they generate and turn it into more energy. University of Utah mechanical engineering associate […]


Men who avoid teen parenthood through partners’ use of abortion gain long-term economic benefits, first of its kind study says

Studies have shown an association between adolescent girls’ access to abortion services to end an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy and subsequent educational attainment, avoidance of bad relationships and socioeconomic status. Now, a first of its kind study by a team of University of Utah researchers shows the girls’ teenage male partners also have higher educational […]


Freeze frame: Researchers solve how cells unfold proteins

A happy cell is a balanced cell, but for every stupendously twisted protein it creates, it must tear the old ones asunder. That means untangling a convoluted pretzel-like mass for recycling. Cdc48 plays a critical role in unraveling the spent proteins. “Cdc48 is like a Swiss army knife of the cell and can interact with […]


Tiny Change Has Big Effects, Reverses Prediabetes in Mice

A small chemical change — shifting the position of two hydrogen atoms — makes the difference between mice that are healthy and mice with insulin resistance and fatty liver, major risk factors for diabetes and heart disease. Making the change prevented the onset of these symptoms in mice fed a high-fat diet and reversed prediabetes […]