Aswin Punathambekar, UVA professor of media studies and author of “From Bombay to Bollywood: The Making of a Global Media Industry,” says that the UK has always been ahead of the US when it comes to casting actors of Indian origin. "Even in a popular TV show like ‘The Great British Bake Off,’ there have been Indian contestants and even winners. And actors like Archie Panjabi and Sanjeev Bhaskar – they play mainstream roles and not just Indian characters," he notes.
“Cholesterol has been very well studied as an important factor in a large number of viral infections,” says Peter Kasson, a UVA scientist who studies the physical mechanisms of viral disease. “The interesting thing is that cholesterol’s role in viral entry varies a lot between viruses.” It’s not clear exactly how cholesterol aids SARS-CoV-2, but understanding that process could offer clues about the biology of infection, says Kasson, who was not involved in the research.
The National Academy of Inventors has named two UVA School of Medicine researchers as fellows, citing the duo’s pioneering work in treating disease and improving research through innovation. Robin A. Felder and Boris Kovatchev, who often partner with the UVA Licensing and Ventures Group, are among 175 inventors invited to join the academy. Kovatchev is also a professor with the UVA School of Engineering.
For the first time, stars snacking on their stellar neighbors outside the Milky Way have had their orbits fully mapped. Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, astronomers have identified two pairs of stars beyond the galaxy that are consuming their companions. Jasmin Washington is a co-author of the new study and a graduate student at the University of Arizona; she was an undergraduate at UVA during the project. Washington and her fellow author, Hannah Lewis, a UVA graduate student, presented the results Jan. 12 at the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
UVA researchers at have discovered something that may explain racial disparities in colorectal cancer. UVA Health scientists found that one side of the colon ages biologically faster than the other in both African-Americans and people of European descent. However, the right side ages significantly faster in African-Americans, making them more prone to developing colorectal cancer, even at a younger age.
Adversary or competitor? Do the two depictions represent a significant difference in attitude? If so, will that difference be manifested in U.S. policy toward China under a Biden presidency? This was the issue addressed in an online panel debate, "Time for a reset? U.S.-China relations during the Biden administration" co-organized by the Miller Center at the University of Virginia and the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai on Jan. 11.
UVA Health has launched a 12-week program called I-Heal that is designed to help patients recovering after a stroke. Participants in the program get an iPad and other technology to help them check their vitals, like blood pressure.
“No matter how you slice and dice the data, whether you’re looking at the cabinet or at White House staff, you’re going to see the same commitment to diversity,” said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, senior fellow at UVA’s Miller Center.
(Photo essay) The deconstruction of Sponsor’s Hall began late last week to make way for the new Frank M. Sands Sr. UVA Inn at Darden and Conference Center at the Darden School of Business. Construction is scheduled to be complete in 2023 and will include a landscape-transforming arboretum and botanical gardens.
According to the Supreme Court of Illinois, Justice James D. Heiple, the author of the controversial 1999 “Baby Richard” adoption case ruling, passed away on Monday at OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria from complications following a brain hemorrhage. He was 87. IN 1988, he received a Master of Lawss degree from the UVA School of Law.
The founders of a Charlottesville-based apparel company had quite the surprise Wednesday afternoon when they noticed former President George W. Bush was sporting their mask design at the inauguration. The company, RHOBACK, started as a lifestyle activewear brand about four years ago. Two of its three founders are graduates of UVA’s Darden School of Business.
Kenny is a Labradoodle working as a therapy dog at the University of Virginia. This charming Labradoodle can be found at the University of Virginia’s School of Nursing, helping to brighten the day of students, staff and visitors at the hospital.
When politics and ideology get mixed into a pitch, it becomes difficult for companies. Those advertisers will stay as mainstream as possible in the message and the media they buy and avoid extreme opinion news outlets in the hope that doing so makes their pitch more salient in consumers’ minds than other issues. “For example, an element of the Coke brand has been ‘unity,’” said Kim Whitler, associate professor at UVA’s Darden School of Business. “It would fit their brand if they were able to create a message about how Americans have always found ways to overcome their differences — and w...
Walt Heinecke, a UVA professor and community activist, has been leading the charge to improve the commission. He said the council didn’t go far enough in moving forward the ordinance amendments.
A UVA English professor and fourth-generation sewist (a neologism for people who sew) with 25 years of experience, Lisa Woolfork founded “Stitch Please” in September 2019. Her vision for the show manifested in the aftermath of Charlottesville’s deadly Unite the Right rally in August 2017, during which Woolfork channeled “trauma and tragedy into a pathway towards hope and healing for Black women” and created the sewing group Black Women Stitch.
Dr. William Petri is a UVA professor of infectious disease. “All that needed to be done was to make the RNA molecule, which you can make right in the lab. It doesn’t involve a live virus, doesn’t involve DNA. There is no way this vaccine would ever affect the DNA in your human genome.”
Trump’s changes to Ohio’s electorate likely will be enduring, in part because some of them already were in motion before his run for president, said Kyle Kondik, managing editor for Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the UVA Center for Politics.
UVA’s Miller Center notes that William Henry Harrison’s speech was prophetic, warning the country of the deepening political division in America. The speech even mentioning the term “civil war,” which would erupt only two decades later. In that reference, he warned that if one group of people attempted to wrestle control of the government from the rest, the natural order would bring about civil war and the destruction of the Union.
The scaled-down Inauguration Day events represent a loss of what some scholars call “a civil religion” that binds people together, says Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at UVA’s Miller Center. “When we don’t have the serious parts of our [civil religion], the celebratory parts of that, it’s like losing one’s religion and ceremonies all at the same time,” she says.
UVA Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato is calling the inauguration of Joe Biden a ‘return to normalcy.’ However, Sabato says a great deal of what Donald Trump did will have to be reversed to truly reset the path.