News & Publications

Doctors at a London hospital are being sued "because they failed to tell [a woman] about her father’s fatal hereditary disease before she had her own child," according to the Guardian. "The woman discovered – after giving birth – that her father carried the gene for Huntington’s disease, a… Read more

According to a report from National Public Radio, "In Sweden, a country rich with technological advancement, thousands have had microchips inserted into their hands. The chips are designed to speed up users' daily routines and make their lives more convenient — accessing their homes,… Read more

A new study published in the journal Cell demonstrates that the American diet has nearly immediate effects on the human microbiome. The lead author of the article is Dan Knights of the University of Minnesota; as he tells the Washington Post, "We found that moving to a new… Read more

Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released an alarming report forecasting the effects of global warming above 1.5°C when compared to pre-industrial levels. The IPCC whitepaper predicted massive forest fires, widespread drought and increasingly… Read more

Minnesota inventor Earl E. Bakken, best known as the founder of global medical device company Medtronic, has died at his home in Hawaii. Bakken was born in Columbia Heights and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BA in electrical engineering in 1948. An inveterate tinkerer from an… Read more

In an article appearing in the Oct. 12 issue of Science, Consortium Chair Susan M. Wolf and Barbara J. Evans of the University of Houston Law Center sound the alarm about a recent report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The Academies' report on "Returning… Read more

A new public service announcement (PSA) from Masonic Cancer Center, a Consortium member, offers a fun and accessible take on a health behavior that can help fight cancer: eating your vegetables. The 2-minute video clarifies the research basis for the claim and explains the basics of choosing which… Read more

A recent Star Tribune profile of Frances Shen, JD, describes his work in neurolaw, a field he has pioneered. Prof. Shen, an affiliate member of the Consortium, focuses on the intersection of brain science, law and policy. In his research, he uses advances in scanning and other… Read more

Sepsis is a very serious illness — of the million Americans who get the disease each year, up to 30 percent will die. A large, National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded government trial of sepsis treatments, called Clovers, is currently under attack. According to the New… Read more

The Institute on the Environment (IoneE) has announced the creation of a hub that will provide the Institute's programming to students, staff, and faculty on the campus of the University of Minnesota Duluth. The new group will be led by IonE Fellow and UMD Swenson College of Science… Read more