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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 13-Sep-2025 17:11 ET (13-Sep-2025 21:11 GMT/UTC)

UTA faculty earn top honors for research excellence

University of Texas at Arlington
Grant and Award Announcement

Three University of Texas at Arlington faculty members were recognized for their research and creative contributions as part of the faculty research honors. J. Ping Liu, professor of physics, received the University Award for Distinguished Record of Research or Creative Activity. Kyrah Brown, associate professor of kinesiology, and Ben Jones, associate professor of physics, received the University Award for Outstanding Research or Creative Accomplishment.

Progress in SYNGAP1 therapeutic development and the early history of the SYNGAP Research Fund (SRF) chronicled in SRF’s first published paper

Syngap Research Fund

SynGAP Research Fund (SRF) dba Cure SYNGAP1, a 501(c)(3) organization focused on improving the lives of individuals with SYNGAP1-related disorders (SRD), is proud to announce the publication of its first paper, “Roadmap to Advance Therapeutics for SYNGAP1-related disorders: A Patient Perspective,” in Therapeutic Advances in Rare Disease. This review outlines progress in developing SYNGAP1 therapies and the steps taken by SRF over five years to accelerate treatments.

Journal: Therapeutic Advances in Rare Disease

Young adults drive historic decline in smoking

University of California - San Diego
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cigarette smoking continues to decline across the United States, largely driven by young adults.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: This economic evaluation estimates that expanded Medicare coverage for glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) would increase access and reduce obesity-related comorbidities but impose substantial costs over 10 years. Even with a moderate scenario (5% uptake, 20% adherence, and 30% additional price discount), net spending was still projected to reach $8 billion over a decade, underscoring the need for further price reductions, lower-cost strategies to prevent weight regain, and reductions in spending on low-value care.

Journal: JAMA Health Forum

State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: The findings of these repeated cross-sectional surveys suggest that the difference in cigarette smoking prevalence between historically high vs low prevalence states will shrink by 2035, primarily from much faster declines among young adults in the traditionally highest prevalence states. Slower prevalence declines among older adults are likely to slow the decline in health consequences in these states.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

University of Ottawa-led research team forges compelling new insights into dynamics of the brain’s serotonin system

University of Ottawa
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine-led study published in Nature Neuroscience sheds new light on these big questions, illuminating a general principle of neural processing in a mysterious region of the midbrain that is the very origin of our central serotonin (5-HT) system, a key part of the nervous system involved in a remarkable range of cognitive and behavioral functions.

Journal: Nature Neuroscience

A VAST new view of viruses

Weill Cornell Medicine
Grant and Award Announcement

(New York, April 25, 2025) – A major new effort at Weill Cornell Medicine seeks to catalog the normal human virome, the immense ecosystem of viruses that lives in and on us.