Health
- Federal regulators approved the first over-the-counter oral contraceptive. CU «Ƶ’s Amanda Stevenson says the impacts could be sweeping. But she cautions that real threats to contraceptive access in the U.S. still exist.
- In the wake of the devastating Marshall Fire, a team of chemists and engineers from CU «Ƶ undertook a first-of-its-kind study to explore homes that survived the blaze. Their results reveal the potential health hazards that wildfires can leave behind in buildings.
- Maciej Walczak, CU «Ƶ associate professor of chemistry, won a $2 million NIH grant to investigate how certain sugars modify a brain protein associated with neurodegeneration.
- New research shows that cancer cells can adapt in as little as one to two hours to new drugs called CDK2 inhibitors. The good news: Adding a second, widely available drug disables this workaround, squelching tumor growth.
- An ancient, virus-like protein best known for its essential role in placental development may, when over-expressed, fuel ALS—aka Lou Gehrig's disease—and other neurodegenerative diseases, according to new research. The discovery opens the door to a new class of potential treatments.
- A revolutionary technique for editing genomes, called CRISPR-Cas9, has already helped cure sickle cell disease in dozens of people. But it also raises ethical concerns, which a panel of preeminent scientists grappled with at an event on the CU «Ƶ campus.
- A study led by a CU «Ƶ researcher finds that flavored tobacco products reduce the likelihood of cessation later, but researchers say more investigation is needed.
- A new study led by Angela Bryan, a CU «Ƶ professor and cancer survivor, is among the first to assess how cannabis bought over the counter at dispensaries—rather than government-supplied or synthetic varieties—impacts cancer symptoms or chemotherapy side effects.
- The study of 46 million births across nearly three decades is among the first to provide population-level statistical evidence of “obstetric racism,” a term coined recently to describe a concerning pattern of maltreatment of non-white pregnant women, including a disregard for their birthing wishes.
- Imagine carrying a UV device in your backpack and pulling it out to disinfect your bus seat or restaurant table. A new CU «Ƶ study shows that using a technology called Far UV-C kills almost 100% of pathogens within a few seconds, without risk to human bystanders.