Researchers at the UTSA Sleep and Memory Computational Lab are studying how Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep could influence individuals who are regularly exposed to stressful experiences and are at higher risk of developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The study, led by UTSA psychology professor Itamar Lerner, involves collaboration with first responders, such as firefighters and law enforcement personnel. The researchers examined their baseline levels of REM sleep, also known as “dream sleep,” and how that could have lasting effects on them over time. 

“Our ongoing hypothesis is that REM sleep affects your ability to process threatening situations in two different ways, based on the predictiveness of the cues associated to the threat,” Lerner said. “Proving that would not only have clinical implications but also tell us something fundamental about the memory processes that occur in the brain and how sleep affects them.”

This research began as a pilot study two years ago. Since then, Lerner has secured a five-year, $725,000 CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for his research. This funding will allow his team to recruit more than 100 participants overall, with nearly 70 participants already enrolled.

The fact that left-handedness resp. mixed-handedness are strikingly common in patients with certain neurological disorders such as autism spectrum disorders is a frequently reported observation in medical practice. The reason why handedness is associated with these disorders is probably because both are affected by processes in early brain development. Various studies have explored this link for individual disorders and have sometimes been able to show it, and sometimes not. A meta-analysis carried out by an international research team from Bochum, Hamburg, Nijmegen and Athens shows that left and mixed-handedness is particularly common in people who suffer from a disorder that manifests itself early in life and is associated with linguistic symptoms. These include dyslexia, schizophrenia and autism. They published their findings in the journal Psychological Bulletin on May, 2, 2025.

The ambient temperature has a profound impact on the physiology and behaviour of most species. In regions where individuals rely on low temperatures to hibernate effectively, global warming is likely to significantly affect their survival. A team of scientists studied how ambient temperatures shape the energy expenditure of common noctule bats and built a model to predict at which latitudes they could survive hibernation. This model also predicts how the hibernation areas of these bats could change over time. It accurately tracks the northward range shift of this species over the past 50 years and shows a further northeast expansion of up to 14 percent of its current range by 2100 – driven by shorter and warmer winters in Europe.

A recent study shows that marine oxygen levels were crucial to the evolution of Early Paleozoic trilobite body size, suggesting that oxygen may have influenced the evolution of other animals' body size as well.

WashU Medicine researcher Polina Lishko, PhD, a BJC Investigator and professor of cell biology and physiology, has shown in mice that sperm have a temperature-controlled switch that changes their movements and is key to male fertility. The discovery sheds light on why mammals, including humans, have evolved to keep male reproductive organs cooler than their core body temperature.

Researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center have revealed critical insights into how impaired mitochondrial dynamics and quality control mechanisms in skeletal muscle influence insulin sensitivity in patients with Type 2 Diabetes, or T2D. The study, titled "Deubiquitinating Enzymes Regulate Skeletal Muscle Mitochondrial Quality Control and Insulin Sensitivity in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes," was recently published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle.​

The research team, led by Pennington Biomedical Executive Director Dr. John Kirwan, focused on the significance of deubiquitinating enzymes, or DUBs, in regulating mitochondrial dynamics within skeletal muscle. Findings suggest that mitochondrial fragmentation can bypass defects in mitophagy, the process by which cells remove damaged mitochondria, to sustain skeletal muscle quality control in patients with T2D. This adaptation may help maintain mitochondrial function despite impaired mitophagy.​