News & Publications

Emerging developments in scientific inquiry were the focus of a recent conversation between Consortium Chair Susan M. Wolf, science journalist Maggie Koerth-Baker, and Minnesota Public Radio host Kerri Miller. In a wide-ranging discussion, topics included the federal… Read more

Last Friday's Board of Regents meeting featured a report from Vice President for Research Brian Herman highlighting that University researchers successfully competed for a record $788 million in externally sponsored research awards in FY16, increased business and industry funding, and… Read more

A new study led by a researcher at Consortium member the Masonic Cancer Center (MCC) provides important new information about the connection between human papillomavirus (HPV) antibodies and five-year survival rates for some types of cancer. The paper, "Immune Response to HPV16 E6 and E7… Read more

We are pleased to announce a funding opportunity for graduate and professional students on all University of Minnesota campuses. Each year, the Consortium provides funding for intramural projects related to the societal implications of problems in health, environment, and the life… Read more

In the early 1980s, during the initial throes of the AIDS epidemic, a flight attendant named Gaetan Dugas came to be identified as "Patient Zero" because he was represented in popular culture as the person who brought HIV to North America. A recent study published in Nature used genomic… Read more

"Would you trust an algorithm to help you with a medical diagnosis?" This question is posed by Christina Farr of Fast Company in her discussion of a collaboration between University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and General Electric with the goal of finding out what Big Data… Read more

A recent article in MIT Technology Review examines why men have so few contraceptive choices. Despite a spate of news items with headlines like "Men can’t handle side effects from hormonal birth control that women deal with every day," a World Health Organization-sponsored study… Read more

Last night, Andy Slavitt, Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), addressed the annual Biopharma Congress in Washington, DC. His talk was titled "The Need to Partner on Drug Innovation, Access and Cost." In it, Slavitt addressed what he called "pervasive" cost… Read more

According to an in-depth article in the New York Times, while "the controversy over genetically modified crops has long focused on largely unsubstantiated fears that they are unsafe to eat. . . the debate has missed a more basic problem — genetic modification in the United States and… Read more

Prof. Kola Okuyemi, MD, MPH, has been awarded a $1.5M grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to educate researchers about reducing cancer-related health disparities among underserved populations. Prof. Okuyemi, Director of the Program in Health Disparities Research, says these… Read more