As next-generation sequencing advances, emerging techniques could prove key to new areas, such as tackling obesity. New research from UVA’s College of Arts & Sciences has added a significant contribution to the growing evidence that lifestyle choices aren’t solely responsible for obesity: our genes can be responsible too. The regulation of fat storage, the ways that the body converts food into fuel, and the genes that control these functions can also contribute to obesity.
Brett C. Tjaden, a computer scientist from the University of Virginia, conducted research and discovered that out of the approximately 300,000 actors who have ever appeared on television or film, the average degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon are exactly 2.83! Ponder the implausible odds that there are less than three degrees of personal connectivity between one actor and every other actor who has ever participated in the history of the industry. And Kevin Bacon did not even make the top 50 of actors and their connectivity in Tjaden’s study.
Recent studies are emerging that point to red wine as potentially having the ability to reduce cancer risk by preventing the growth of cancerous cells, particularly those associated with breast cancer and esophageal cancer. That’s because a protein in grape skin can actually kill cancer cells, according to researchers at the University of Virginia.
With COVID-19 variants on the rise, doctors at UVA Health are working to create a universal vaccine for the virus. A universal vaccine is built to protect against any variant of COVID without needing to modify or alter what’s in the shot. Doctors are pretty far along in the testing process for such a vaccine.
UVA researchers are working on a universal vaccine that would fight all current and future variants. The vaccine is still in the laboratory stage, meaning it still has to go through mice and then to a clinical trial on humans. However, Dr. Steven Zeichner, a pediatric infectious disease expert leading the work, is optimistic about the team’s discoveries and said there is a sense of urgency.
At UVA’s Darden School of Business, by 90 days after graduation, 97% of the Class of 2021 had received a full-time offer – better than any top-25 school last year and in league with Wharton and Kellogg numbers from 2019 – and 95% had accepted, up from 93% and 91%, respectively.
An ambitious renovation and expansion on the campus of the University of Virginia offers important lessons for structural engineers, surveyors, and general contractors. Originally built in 1938, Alderman Library serves as UVA’s main library. Initially designed in a horseshoe shape, a major addition to the library in 1967 filled the horseshoe. As the school has grown to become a research powerhouse, the library’s needs have evolved as well. The University wanted to transform the library to better utilize space, make it more efficient, and add amenities. The 1967 addition was targeted for demoli...
After holding the line on tuition for the current school year, University of Virginia officials are recommending up to a 4.9% hike in tuition and fees for students in the next school year and again for the year after that.
Xfinity/Comcast, the largest television provider in Virginia and the United States, has agreed to carry the ACC Network, giving the nascent project full national distribution in just its third year.
(Commentary co-written by Margaret Burchinal, research professor in the School of Education and Human Development) The Congressional Budget Office report released earlier this month offers a clear picture of the costs of the Build Back Better Act to America. Yet the report fails to account for the longer-term payoffs of investing in a social and economic package that would dramatically change the landscape for children.
A new vaccine that could provide protection against existing and future strains of the COVID-19 coronavirus, other coronaviruses, and cost about $1 a dose has shown promising results in early animal testing, according to scientists at the UVA Medical Center and Virginia Tech.
Dr. Neal Frederic Kassell and Meredith Jung-En Woo, best of friends for years, were ambivalent about marriage as recently as three months ago. But on Sept. 9, while sitting next to each other on an airplane in relative silence, Dr. Kassell leaned over to say something to Ms. Woo, who was reading a book. Dr. Kassell, who previously served as a co-chair of neurosurgery at the University of Virginia, met Ms. Woo, 63, after she was hired as dean of the University’s College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in May 2008.
(Press release) After a national search, Ellen M. Bassett has been selected as the John Portman Dean’s Chair of Georgia Tech’s College of Design. Bassett is currently a professor of urban and environmental planning and the associate dean for Research in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. She is also director of the school’s Real Estate Design and Development certificate program.
Additionally, a May report from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics found that the birth rate and fertility rate in the U.S. fell to historic lows in 2020. W. Bradford Wilcox, who directs the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, called the CDC report was “pretty sobering.” Wilcox, also a senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, said in an interview with Catholic News Agency that the U.S. might be “on the cusp of” something similar to “a demographic earthquake.”
At the same time, drawing the line at viability has long been the subject of criticism. “The viability framework has always been something of an embarrassment, in large part because viability hinges on medical technology and access to it,” said Julia D. Mahoney, a law professor at the University of Virginia.
The president’s remarks came as Covid infection rates climb again in parts of the midwest and north-east, with health workers and hospital systems saying they are preparing for an influx of Covid patients due to holiday travel. “It is a race against time,” said Kyle Enfield, the associate chief medical officer of critical care at UVA Health.
Dr. William A. Petri, an immunologist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, answers this week’s questions from readers on COVID-19.
University of Virginia law professor Rich Schragger has authored legal reviews and newspaper columns about the legality of moving war memorials. Opinions on whether to move Confederate statues tend to split along partisan lines, he said during a phone call. “It’s interesting that these things got on the ballot in the first place,” Schragger said, adding that city councils or county supervisors can elect on their own to move monuments. “They can do a referendum, but they don’t need to.”
The plaintiffs have a few ways to collect their money. They can place liens on houses or properties and garnish future wages. University of Virginia professor of law Micah Schwartzman says collection efforts all come down to symbolism. “For some of them, it will mean financial ruin and bankruptcy. They may be judgement proof, in the sense that they simply don’t have the financial means to pay out these damage awards. In those kind of cases the damages may be symbolic, but I think here the symbolism matters,” Schwartzman said.
Yet to be seen is whether substantial damages awarded under Virginia law will inhibit far right violence elsewhere in the country. A University of Virginia Jewish history professor, James Loeffler, who is covering the case, quoted lead defense attorney Roberta Kaplan as saying outside the court that she plans to retry based on the two federal claims.