Closing Gaps in Health and Care

The Black Lung Clinic connects current and former miners to care and benefits and screens current and former coal miners for black lung disease. Counselors also support miners as they apply for lifelong federal benefits and navigate the labyrinthine application process.

Engineers at the University of Illinois Chicago have developed a new bioprinting platform for creating artificial tissues. The materials made by this technology, which consist of living cells and polymers and can change shape using the cells’ own forces, could allow researchers to engineer implants that more realistically replicate body tissues.

Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have discovered an important cellular mechanism that drives aging: the lack of a protein called platelet factor 4, whose levels decrease with age.

After taking data from satellites that measure smoke plumes and matching that to data on health outcomes, a Gies College of Business-led team learned that on days the smoke plumes roll in, there’s an uptick in visits to the emergency room and deaths.

Many effective modern cancer treatments also bring the side effect of severe gastrointestinal symptoms that can impact patients’ quality of life, or even lead to discontinuation of treatment. A new analysis from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers reveals the nutrition therapies that are most effective at minimizing GI distress.

Inside our cells, ribosomes build proteins until they're signaled to stop, and the proteins are released into cells through a reaction with a water molecule. Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have uncovered the long-sought, detailed chemical mechanism behind this process.

By putting the power of a diagnostic lab in your pocket, the newest idea from the University of Illinois Chicago College of Engineering's Anand Research Group could help fend off the next pandemic before it starts.

Researchers in food science and human nutrition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign say in a new study that eating dessert may be the optimal strategy for losing weight, keeping it off, and keeping cravings at bay. 

Inside the "smart shirt" is gold, elastic fabric that detects the stretching and collapsing of your lungs while breathing. Other sensors monitor heart rate and activity. The shirt allows researchers to see the connections between markers that they sense from cardiac signals while walking.

The life expectancy for Black people is nearly five years shorter than for white people, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago and UI Health, the university’s academic health enterprise, want to better understand the correlations and to intervene with services that can bridge the divide.

An innovative clinical model to provide new moms with primary care during their baby’s first pediatric visits successfully connected more moms with the medical care they needed, according to research from the University of Illinois Chicago.

The UIC College of Dentistry hosted its annual Give Kids a Smile Day as part of a national initiative aimed at ensuring access to quality oral health care for all children. This year’s event welcomed more than 100 children for a day of free oral health screenings, oral health care education and face painting.

A team at the University of Illinois Chicago will utilize a five-year, $4.3M grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to find new ways to support underserved caregivers, especially those who have language or cultural barriers.

Since 1988, UIC's Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center has trained thousands of health care workers to treat people with HIV and AIDS and reduce new diagnoses. Renewed federal funding will help the center continue its critical work beyond its upcoming 40th anniversary.

Some babies in the NICU are exposed to dozens of chest X-rays—necessary, but potentially harmful in the long run. A Carle Illinois College of Medicine team is applying to use NASA-developed anti-radiation coating to create a onesie that shields most of a baby's body from extra radiation.

Through collaboration of medicine and engineering expertise, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is making strides in cancer research. That includes new methods of production of uniform 3-D tumor models for testing research, and improved optical imaging technologies to improve surgical precision in the removal of cancer cells.

The grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) will support the development of technology that aims to reduce or eliminate the risk of missing some cancer cells after surgical removal, require more surgery and treatments.

The Inclusive Care Clinic solves a problem not many dentist offices are thinking about - being a place that anybody can access. The clinic has design and additional features that aren't found in the average dental office, making it an accessible option for patients with disabilities or other special needs.

The coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic evolves more rapidly in the brain than in the lungs, according to new research from University of Illinois Chicago and Northwestern University. New variants created in the brain and other parts of the nervous system could also travel back to the lungs, where they could become transmissible and spread new, dangerous variants of the virus.

A new UI Health clinic and physician training program are designed to create welcoming spaces and lead to better health outcomes for patients with disabilities. At UI Health’s Lifespan Disability Clinic, patients with disabilities can access a wide range of practitioners — from physicians to occupational therapists to physical therapists — under one roof.

University of Illinois Chicago researchers working with a class of drugs called macrolones found they can fight bacteria in two ways: by interfering with protein production or by corrupting DNA structure. 

Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have investigated the relationship between soy isoflavones and children's attentional abilities using an EEG scanner to record electrical activity in the brain. 

Scalp cooling is a relatively new treatment that helps patients undergoing less potent chemotherapy to retain their hair. A Carle Illinois College of Medicine team has innovated this technology to bring both the helmet's size and price down by half. 

A team led by Paul Hergenrother at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has discovered a new antibiotic that exclusively targets gram-negative bacteria and avoids wiping out the ecosystem of other microbes that flourishes in the gut. 

A UIUC study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that when muscles contain more nerve cells, and when those muscle-stimulating nerve cells are active, muscle tissue produces a bevy of brain-boosting compounds. 

A new clinical trial studying whether a compound derived from licorice root will affect prostate cancer in patients is now open at the University of Illinois Chicago. The study will be the first to assess whether the natural product has anti-cancer effects that could benefit patients as they await surgical treatment.

Physicians at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine earned top honors at the Midwest’s largest student-run startup conference for the “MenoPatch” — a skin patch that can personalize hormone replacement therapy for women experiencing menopause.

Stopping an overdose using naloxone requires quick action in tough situations. “With VENT, we’re creating training that mimics hectic moments so people can feel prepared,” said Scott Barrows, University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria clinical assistant professor.

In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have identified a mechanism that causes neurological problems in mice infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. The researchers also found a treatment that helped prevent these changes. 

A team at UIUC's School of Molecular and Cellular Biology has identified a specific protein, PSD-95, that is linked to seizures seen in the early phases of Alzheimer’s disease. PSD-95 is the earliest biomarker yet discovered that's associated with the onset of Alzheimer's.

The University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing trains healthcare experts at all three University of Illinois System universities. The program in Springfield is the newest with students gaining in-depth, hands-on experience at Springfield Memorial Hospital.

The volunteer students are working with doctors at Avicenna’s Women’s Health Clinic to help provide free obstetrics and gynecological care for women who are under-insured or uninsured.

The new ultrasound method works as early as 23 weeks into a pregnancy, according to the research published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology Maternal Fetal Medicine.

Salmonella is notorious for surviving and replicating in immune system cells called macrophages, but Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology researchers have discovered how a system of proteins called TamAB helps Salmonella survive under the harsh conditions inside those cells.

The team of medical students recently won an award from the U.S. Academy of Medicine for their concept called "SoundAsleep" - a wearable brain wave monitor connected to an app and sound system. The device transmits specific sounds during certain sleep periods to extend and deepen quality sleep.

Biomedical engineering professor Alex Leow developed BiAffect, an app and research study that analyzes smartphone keyboard data patterns to learn about a person’s neuropsychological state.

Carle Illinois College of Medicine doctors and surgeons have a new superpower at their disposal - a holographic projection technology that allows doctors and surgeons to "look inside" patients' bodies in real-time.

A new virtual brain bank spanning five Chicago academic medical centers and led by University of Illinois Chicago will create a powerful new resource for clinical care and research on epilepsy, brain tumors and neurological disorders.

Time-restricted eating, also known as intermittent fasting, can help people with Type 2 diabetes lose weight and control their blood sugar levels, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open from University of Illinois Chicago researchers.

The University of Illinois Chicago will be the first site in the state to participate in a national study of a clinical test that screens for a shared cancer signal in a sample of patient blood. The test screens for a signal shared by more than 50 types of cancers, including pancreatic and blood cancers which do not currently have recommended screening tests and often go undetected until later stages.

A new paper in Cell Reports Medicine led by UIC researcher Yulia Komarova finds that a small-molecule inhibitor can reverse damage from age-related macular degeneration and promote regenerative and healing processes.  

The new center will provide community-based oral health care and educate dental students. The space has three dental chairs, two rooms for patient education, and an area in which dental students and students from other UIC health sciences colleges will provide group health education for patients.

Women who participated in a 12-week program called “Food is Medicine: Healing Together” say the cooking classes and nutrition seminars helped turn their health around. 

Researchers at the University of Illinois are working on a critical project to help make voice recognition technology more useful for people with a wide range of speech patterns and disabilities, and they're seeking participants to assist their work.

Their study identifies a specific protein that plays a pivotal role in promoting cell death, which may allow the development of new immunotherapies against solid tumors and other challenging cancers.

Since the first week of May, more than 3,000 migrants have received medical attention from the UIC student-driven group, which has volunteered at nearly a dozen Chicago police stations where migrants are being sheltered.

University of Illinois Chicago researchers have found that when heart cells are put under stress from certain types of chemotherapy drugs, some enzymes move from the cell's mitochondria into its nucleus, where they are able to keep the cells alive.

The University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria researchers are studying how to control a protein called MMP-12 that increases in the brain after a stroke. They are attempting to create antibodies that specifically inhibit or suppress that protein.

Doctors have used nanoparticles in cancer patients to locate tumors during imaging scans more easily. But they tend to collect in the liver, not on the tumor. A new approach developed at UIUC looked to solve this problem.

The volunteers have been making the rounds across Chicago, screening asylum-seeking migrants at temporary housing locations for public health concerns, and also providing immediate and preventative medical care.