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A new approach using precisely targeted, high-dose radiation to treat invasive kidney cancer proves safe, based on a clinical trial by the UT Southwestern Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center’s kidney cancer program. The study, published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, could offer new hope for patients with a historically dismal condition.

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DALLAS – June 24, 2021 – Mutations in a gene related to HER2, a gene frequently implicated in breast cancers and a variety of other malignancies, can amplify activity that spurs tumor growth, a new study led by UT Southwestern researchers suggests. The findings, published online in Cancer Cell, could explain why many patients with HER2 mutations don’t respond to inhibitors that target this cancer driver and require other treatment.

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DALLAS – June 23, 2021 – UT Southwestern will lead a multicenter investigation into why children and young adults experience decreased physical activity and shortness of breath after experiencing blood clots, thanks to a four-year $2.97 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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DALLAS – June 14, 2021 – Overweight cancer patients receiving immunotherapy treatments live more than twice as long as lighter patients, but only when dosing is weight-based, according to a study by cancer researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

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DALLAS – June 9, 2021 – A phenomenon in which an RNA named NORAD drives a protein named Pumilio to form liquid droplets in cells, much like oil in water, appears to tightly regulate the activity of Pumilio. A new study led by UT Southwestern scientists suggests that such RNA-driven “phase separation,” in turn, protects against genome instability, premature aging, and neurodegenerative diseases, and may represent a previously unrecognized way for RNAs to regulate cellular processes.

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DALLAS – June 4, 2021 – Increasing a protein concentrated in brown fat appears to lower blood sugar, promote insulin sensitivity, and protect against fatty liver disease by remodeling white fat to a healthier state, a new study led by UT Southwestern scientists suggests. The finding, published online in Nature Communications, could eventually lead to new solutions for patients with diabetes and related conditions.

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DALLAS – May 28, 2021 – UT Southwestern Medical Center ranked No. 3 in the nation on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Employers For New Graduates, placing it in the top 1 percent, and highest among academic medical centers.

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DALLAS – May 28, 2021 – A study of gene activity in the brain’s hippocampus, led by UT Southwestern researchers, has identified marked differences between the region’s anterior and posterior portions. The findings, published today in Neuron, could shed light on a variety of brain disorders that involve the hippocampus and may eventually help lead to new, targeted treatments.

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DALLAS – May 21, 2021 – One member of a large protein family that is known to stop the spread of bacterial infections by prompting infected human cells to self-destruct appears to kill the infectious bacteria instead, a new study led by UT Southwestern scientists shows. However, some bacteria have their own mechanism to thwart this attack, nullifying the deadly protein by tagging it for destruction.

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DALLAS – May 20, 2021 – An experimental drug that has shown promise in protecting healthy tissue from collateral damage caused by radiation therapy for cancer also appears to enhance radiation’s capacity to kill tumors, a new study led by UT Southwestern scientists shows. The findings, published online in Science Translational Medicine, could provide a much-needed boost to the radiation treatments used against a variety of tumor types.

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DALLAS – May 20, 2021 – UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have identified the first two cases of the B.1.617.2 (Indian origin) variant of COVID-19 infection in North Texas using next-generation sequencing technologies along with targeted PCR testing.

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DALLAS – May 12, 2021 – Scientists with UT Southwestern’s Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute have identified the molecular mechanism that can cause weight gain for those using a common antipsychotic medication. The findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggest new ways to counteract the weight gain, including a drug recently approved to treat genetic obesity, according to the study, which involved collaborations with scientists at UT Dallas and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

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DALLAS – May 10, 2021 – Scientists at UT Southwestern have discovered a key protein that helps the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease to set up house in the cells of humans and other hosts. The findings, published in Science, could offer insights into how other bacteria are able to survive inside cells, knowledge that could lead to new treatments for a wide variety of infections.

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DALLAS – May 6, 2021 – Using a laser for a rare brain surgery to treat drop seizures, which cause a child with epilepsy to suddenly fall, holds some advantages over a traditional open craniotomy, including shorter hospital stays for patients, a study led by UT Southwestern researchers indicates. The findings, published in the Journal of Neurosurgery, provide the first quantitative data comparing the two types of surgery, called corpus callosotomies.

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DALLAS – April 30, 2021 – UT Southwestern scientists successfully employed a new type of gene therapy to treat mice with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), uniquely utilizing CRISPR-Cas9-based tools to restore a large section of the dystrophin protein that is missing in many DMD patients. The approach, described online today in the journal Science Advances, could lead to a treatment for DMD and inform the treatment of other inherited diseases.

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DALLAS – April 28, 2021 – Depression screening among cancer patients improved by 40 percent to cover more than 90 percent of patients under a quality improvement program launched by a multidisciplinary team at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Southwestern Health Resources.

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DALLAS – April 27, 2021 – Researchers with the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute at UT Southwestern have identified a new protein implicated in cell death that provides a potential therapeutic target that could prevent or delay the progress of neurodegenerative diseases following a stroke.

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DALLAS – April 26, 2021 – The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) today elected two UT Southwestern scientists in the fields of biochemistry and physiology into its membership, one of the highest honors for American scientists.

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DALLAS – April 24, 2021 – UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have identified the first cases of the Brazilian variant of COVID-19 infection in North Texas using next-generation sequencing technologies along with PCR testing.

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DALLAS – April 22, 2021 – Being Black or Hispanic, living in high-poverty neighborhoods, and having Medicaid or no insurance coverage are associated with higher mortality in men and women under 40 with cancer, a review by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers found.

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DALLAS – April 21, 2021 – Food banks should be used more consistently rather than only during emergencies to better address food insecurity and related health issues, a joint study by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center and economists at the University of Dallas shows.

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DALLAS – April 19, 2021 – Treating people with Type 2 diabetes with a new once-a-week injectable insulin therapy proved to be safe and as effective as daily insulin injections, according to the results of two international clinical trials published online today in Diabetes Care. The studies suggest that the once-weekly treatment could provide a convenient alternative to the burden of daily insulin shots for diabetes patients.

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A chemical modification of RNA that can be influenced by diet appears to play a key role in polycystic kidney disease, an inherited disorder that is the fourth leading cause of kidney failure in the U.S., UT Southwestern researchers report in a new study. The findings, published online today in Cell Metabolism, suggest new ways to treat this incurable condition.

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Surprising role for so-called “jumping” genes that are a source of genetic mutations responsible for a number of human diseases.

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DALLAS – March 30, 2021 – UT Southwestern researchers have identified factors that put patients with childhood-onset lupus at elevated risk for poor outcomes, such as end-stage renal disease or death, as they transition from pediatric to adult health care. The findings, published online in Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, emphasize the precarious nature of this period and shine a spotlight on areas prime for intervention to help protect these vulnerable patients.

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DALLAS – March. 29, 2021 – With NASA preparing to send humans to Mars in the 2030s, researchers are studying the physical effects of spending long periods in space. Now a new study by scientists at UT Southwestern shows that the heart of an astronaut who spent nearly a year aboard the International Space Station shrank, even with regular exercise, although it continued to function well.

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DALLAS – March 23, 2021 – Vaccinating health care workers resulted in an immediate and notable reduction of positive COVID-19 cases among employees, reducing the number of required isolations and quarantines by more than 90 percent, according to data at UT Southwestern Medical Center published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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DALLAS – March 23, 2021 – It’s not just your legs and heart that get a workout when you walk briskly; exercise affects your brain as well. A new study by researchers at UT Southwestern shows that when older adults with mild memory loss followed an exercise program for a year, the blood flow to their brains increased. The results were published online today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

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DALLAS – March 17, 2021 – UT Southwestern researchers have identified the structure of a key member of a family of proteins called nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in three different shapes. The work, published online today in Cell, could eventually lead to new pharmaceutical treatments for a large range of diseases or infections including schizophrenia, lung cancer, and even COVID-19.

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UT Southwestern scientists have identified key genes involved in brain waves that are pivotal for encoding memories. The findings, published online this week in Nature Neuroscience, could eventually be used to develop novel therapies for people with memory loss disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

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DALLAS – March 8, 2021 – A study led by UT Southwestern and Children’s Health researchers defines parameters for the number of white blood cells that must be present in children’s urine at different concentrations to suggest a urinary tract infection (UTI). The findings, published recently in Pediatrics, could help speed treatment of this common condition and prevent potentially lifelong complications.

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DALLAS – March 8, 2021 – A new type of CAR T-cell therapy more than triples the expected length of remission for multiple myeloma patients who have relapsed several times, according to an international clinical trial with UT Southwestern as the lead enrolling site.

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Using genetic engineering, researchers at UT Southwestern and Indiana University have reprogrammed scar-forming cells in mouse spinal cords to create new nerve cells, spurring recovery after spinal cord injury. The findings, published online today in Cell Stem Cell, could offer hope for the hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who suffer a spinal cord injury each year.

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A drug approved for diabetes has now been shown to also help patients with diabetes lose on average 10 percent of their body weight, UT Southwestern reports in a landmark international study.

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Blocking cell receptors for glucagon, the counter-hormone to insulin, cured mouse models of diabetes by converting glucagon-producing cells into insulin producers instead, a team led by UT Southwestern reports in a new study. The findings, published online in PNAS, could offer a new way to treat both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in people.

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While the amazing regenerative power of the liver has been known since ancient times, the cells responsible for maintaining and replenishing the liver have remained a mystery. Now, research from the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) has identified the cells responsible for liver maintenance and regeneration while also pinpointing where they reside in the liver.

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DALLAS – Feb. 24, 2021 – Using machine learning tools to analyze hundreds of proteins, UT Southwestern researchers have identified a group of biomarkers in blood that could lead to an earlier diagnosis of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and, in turn, more effective therapies sooner.

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Scientists at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) have identified the specialized environment, known as a niche, in the bone marrow where new bone and immune cells are produced. The study, published in Nature, also shows that movement-induced stimulation is required for the maintenance of this niche, as well as the bone and immune-forming cells that it contains. Together, these findings identify a new way that exercise strengthens bones and immune function.

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Slight differences in clinical features can help physicians distinguish between two rare but similar forms of autoimmune brain inflammation in children, a new study by UT Southwestern scientists suggests. The findings, published online in Pediatric Neurology, could provide patients and their families with a better prognosis and the potential to target treatments specific to each condition in the future.

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DALLAS – Feb. 22, 2021 – Three decades-old antibiotics administered together can block a type of pain triggered by nerve damage in an animal model, UT Southwestern researchers report. The finding, published online today in PNAS, could offer an alternative to opioid-based painkillers, addictive prescription medications that are responsible for an epidemic of abuse in the U.S.

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DALLAS – Feb. 18, 2021 – Inhalation of depleted uranium from exploding munitions did not lead to Gulf War illness (GWI) in veterans deployed in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, a new study co-authored by a leading researcher of the disease at UT Southwestern suggests. The findings, published today in Scientific Reports, help eliminate a long-suspected cause of GWI that has attracted international concern for three decades.

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DALLAS – Feb. 16, 2021 – In recognition of outstanding teaching, the UT System’s Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., Academy of Health Science Education is inducting two UT Southwestern educators as new members during its annual conference in Austin. The event will be held virtually on Feb. 20.

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DALLAS – Feb. 16, 2021 – A study that identifies how a coronavirus protein called Nsp1 blocks the activity of genes that promote viral replication provides hope for new COVID-19 treatments.

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DALLAS – Feb. 11, 2021 – Fusing the neck’s top two vertebrae can prevent repeat strokes in children with bow hunter syndrome, a rare condition that affects a handful of U.S. pediatric patients each year, UT Southwestern researchers suggest in a recent study. The finding, published online in Child’s Nervous System, offers a new way to treat these children and protect them from potentially lifelong neurological consequences.

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DALLAS – Feb. 11, 2021 – A study led by UT Southwestern has identified a mechanism that controls the activity of proteins known as chaperones, which guide proteins to fold into the right shapes. The findings, published online today in Nature Communications, could shed light on hundreds of degenerative and neurodegenerative diseases caused by protein misfolding, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s, potentially leading to new treatments for these devastating conditions.

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DALLAS – Feb. 8, 2021 – World health experts have long suspected that the incidence of COVID-19 has been higher than reported. Now, a machine-learning algorithm developed at UT Southwestern estimates that the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. since the pandemic began is nearly three times that of confirmed cases.

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DALLAS – Feb. 8, 2021 – Pregnant women, who are at increased risk of preterm birth or pregnancy loss if they develop a severe case of COVID-19, need the best possible guidance on whether they should receive a COVID-19 vaccine, according to an article by two UT Southwestern obstetricians published today in JAMA. That guidance can take lessons from what is already known about other vaccines given during pregnancy.

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DALLAS – Feb. 8, 2021 – A new nanoparticle-based drug can boost the body’s innate immune system and make it more effective at fighting off tumors, researchers at UT Southwestern have shown. Their study, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, is the first to successfully target the immune molecule STING with nanoparticles about one millionth the size of a soccer ball that can switch on/off immune activity in response to their physiological environment.

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DALLAS – Feb. 5, 2021 – The COVID-19 pandemic is having a detrimental impact on substance use, mental health, and weight-related health behaviors among people with obesity, according to a new study by researchers at UT Southwestern and the UTHealth School of Public Health.

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DALLAS – Feb. 3, 2021 – Inactivating a gene in young songbirds that’s closely linked with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevents the birds from forming memories necessary to accurately reproduce their fathers’ songs, a new study led by UT Southwestern shows.