University of Utah

University of Utah students are among the more than 22,000 Earth scientists and other researchers who attended and presented at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union Dec. 13-17. The physical meeting was held in New Orleans, Louisiana with sessions available virtually to registered attendees.

Three University of Utah engineering students research ways faculty can improve teaching skills amid the global pandemic

More than 200 University of Utah undergraduate students presented their research projects in the 2020 Undergraduate Research Symposium, held virtually April 20, 2020. Even under the difficult circumstances of a cancelled in-person event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, University of Utah undergraduate researchers and their mentors made it happen-featuring oral, poster and performance presentations via video or audio recording.

University of Utah researchers have authored Utah's first statewide plan to address homelessness. The plan's title reveals its sweeping ambition: "To make homelessness in all of Utah rare, brief and non-recurring." "It's sort of the guide," says Jesus Valero, assistant professor of political science and one of the plan's authors. "The layout of what the issues are. What some of the ideas for addressing those issues are. A timetable of things that need to get done, benchmarks and measurements of progress that need to take place in order to achieve our goals."

In their latest study, University of Utah biologists have discovered that Savannah monitor lizards have lung structures that are a kind of a hybrid system of bird and mammal lungs. The researchers took CT scans of the entire lung labyrinth and used two different supercomputers to simulate airflow patterns at the highest resolution. The software used computational fluid dynamics similar to those used to forecast weather, calculating millions of equations every tenth of a second. The findings show that vertebrate lung evolution is complicated and we have yet to understand the full picture.

Altruism and a lack of access and affordability are three reasons why people with chronic illnesses turn to the "black market" for medicines and supplies, new research shows. Scientists at University of Utah Health and University of Colorado ran surveys to understand why individuals look beyond pharmacies and medical equipment companies to meet essential needs. The reasons listed were many but centered on a single theme: traditional health care is failing them.

University of Utah researchers explore whether rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide is good for plants. Experiments have shown that, yes, increased carbon dioxide does allow plants to photosynthesize more and use less water. But the other side of the coin is that warmer temperatures drive plants to use more water and photosynthesize less. So, which force, CO2 fertilization or heat stress, wins this climate tug of war? In a new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the U found that it depends on whether forests and trees are able to adapt to their new environment. The study, they say, incorporates aspects of a tree's physiology to explore how trees and forests respond to a changing climate.

The human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, wages war in our bodies using a strategy evolved over millions of years that turns our own cellular machines against themselves. Despite massive strides in understanding the disease, there are still important gaps. For years, scientists at the University of Utah wished there was a way to visualize how the virus and its molecules interact with human cells in real-time. So, a research group developed one.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 1 in 3 people experience debilitating anxiety-the kind that prevents someone from going about their normal life. Women are also more at risk to suffer from anxiety. Yet the roots of anxiety and other anxiety-related diseases, such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), are still unclear. In a new study, University of Utah scientists discovered a new lineage of specialized brain cells, called Hoxb8-lineage microglia, and established a link between the lineage and OCD and anxiety in mice.

New research from University of Utah geologists details the natural vibration of the tower, measured with the help of two skilled rock climbers. Understanding how this and other natural rock forms vibrate, they say, helps us keep an eye (or ear) on their structural health and helps us understand how human-made vibrations affect seemingly unmovable rocks. The results are published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

Researchers at University of Utah Health have identified a link between autism and steroid hormone changes detected in the mother's blood. These changes, which suggest increased estrogen activity, can be seen early in the second trimester. The pilot study, published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, opens a new direction in autism research.

U of U Health researchers have identified a specific class of bacteria from the gut that prevents mice from becoming obese, suggesting these same microbes may similarly control weight in people.

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. So far, the study has only explored the building blocks of foraging behavior in lab mice, but the team believes the methodology could be applied to understand the basis of other complex behavior patterns and learn the specific genomic elements that shape behaviors leading to disease in humans, including obesity, addiction, fear, anxiety and psychiatric disorders.

A team of researchers at the University of Utah has developed a prosthetic arm that is helping patients regain their sense of touch. An amputee wearing the prosthetic arm can sense the touch of something soft or hard, understand better how to pick it up, and perform delicate tasks that would otherwise be impossible with a standard prosthetic with metal hooks or claws for hands.

University of Utah graduate student Trevor Tippetts was among a group of scientists from U Health and Merck Reserach Laboratories that led research that determined how a small chemical change makes the difference between mice that are healthy and mice with insulin resistance and fatty liver, major risk facotrs for diabetes and heart disease. Making the change prevented the onset of these symptoms in mice fed a high-fat diet and reversed prediabetes in obese mice. The scientists changed the trajectory of metabolic disease by deactivating an enzyme called dihydroceramide desaturase 1 (DES1). Doing so stopped the enzyme from removing the final hydrogens from a fatty lipid called ceramide, having an effect of lowering the total amount of ceramides in the body.

More than 500 University of Utah undergraduate students, representing every college and more than 70 academic departments and schools, presented their research projects in the 2019 Undergraduate Research Symposium, held April 9, 2019. The symposium highlighted the U's commitment to undergraduate research and featured oral, poster and performance presentations.

Undergraduate students at the University of Utah and Utah State University showcased their research for Utah lawmakers and the general public on Tuesday, March 5 in the rotunda of the Utah State Capitol. Research on Capitol Hill, now in its 19th year, gives lawmakers and the public a glimpse of the breadth of research programs at the U and reinforces the value of state-funded higher education. https://unews.utah.edu/ROCH19/