Tag: health
Enhancing Protection for Nebraska Livestock
When farmers or ranchers discover scores of sick animals – as happened when porcine epidemic diarrhea virus decimated swine herds a few years ago – they need answers fast. Nebraska’s Veterinary Diagnostic Center stands on the front line of disease outbreaks in the state’s animal populations, from livestock and poultry to pets and wildlife. Early […]
Targeting E.coli‘s Threat to Food Safety
The U.S. beef industry – and the public – are benefiting from a major Nebraska-led effort to improve food safety. The multi-institutional research and outreach project, launched in 2012, is reducing the public’s risk from Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, or STEC, in the nation’s beef supply. The broad-ranging project has produced detection, intervention and food […]
Soft Robot Could Improve Colonoscopies
For most people, the thought of a colonoscopy evokes dread. It’s invasive. It’s uncomfortable. And it’s pricey, costing several thousand dollars. Nebraska researchers aim to change that. They hope that replacing the traditional colonoscope with a more patient-friendly robotic device encourages more people to have the procedure, considered the Cadillac of colorectal cancer screenings. The […]
Unraveling Biomolecular Communication
As with any successful team effort, the human body’s cells must communicate effectively to function properly. Miscommunication within or between cells leads to complex diseases such as cancer, diabetes and chronic liver disease. The university created the Nebraska Center for Integrated Biomolecular Communication, or NCIBC, to better understand how cells communicate and the role miscommunication […]
Pioneering Work in Global AIDS Fight
When Charles Wood learned Zambian children commonly suffer from Kaposi’s sarcoma, a rare skin cancer associated primarily with AIDS in adults, he decided to learn why and do something. Twenty years later, the Nebraska virologist has made important discoveries about how children contract the Kaposi’s virus and has developed public health intervention strategies to prevent […]
Academic, Industry Partners Exploring Prebiotic’s Potential
The Nebraska Food for Health Center is collaborating with a pharmaceutical company to explore how manipulating microorganisms in the digestive tract could thwart metabolic-related diseases. Nebraska microbiologist Amanda Ramer-Tait leads the center’s partnership with Ritter Pharmaceuticals. The company, which develops novel therapeutic products that modulate the human gut microbiome to treat gastrointestinal diseases, is supplying […]
Food for Health Center Focuses on Gut Microbes
When you reach for that box of cereal in the morning, you’re feeding not just yourself, but the 100 trillion microbes living in your gut. This complex gut microbiome – the collection of microorganisms residing in the digestive system – significantly influences your health, from supporting the immune system to contributing to diseases, such as […]